Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto

Almond, Steve

4.04

1,148 ratings by Goodreads

9781494508340: Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto

ISBN 10: 1494508346 ISBN 13: 9781494508340

Publisher: Tantor Audio, 2015

In Against Football, Steve Almond details why, after forty years as a fan, he can no longer watch the game he still loves. Using a synthesis of memoir, reportage, and cultural critique, Almond asks a series of provocative questions:
Does our addiction to football foster a tolerance for violence, greed, racism, and homophobia?
What does it mean that our society has transmuted the intuitive physical joys of childhood-run, leap, throw, tackle-into a billion-dollar industry?
How did a sport that causes brain damage become such an important emblem for our institutions of higher learning?
There has never been a book that exposes the dark underside of America's favorite game with such searing candor.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Steve Almond is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of numerous books, including Candy Freak and My Life in Heavy Metal. He also writes for the New York Times and the Boston Globe. Steve lives outside Boston with his wife and three children.

From School Library Journal:

A longtime devoted football fan, Almond spends much of the first quarter of this book solidifying his football bona fides before beginning his onslaught of reasons that he feels he can no longer watch his favorite game. These arguments are familiar—concussions and sub-concussive hits; the game's twisted monetary incentives; its cult of violence; racism; and its vexed relationship with the American capitalism and patriotism. But the sheer weight of the evidence is impressive and hard to ignore. Even when Almond's arguments seem strained, he is able to put the burden of proof squarely on readers to disprove him with more than a simple dismissal. Particularly strong is his complete demolition of the argument that the mere popularity and fixity of the game somehow puts it above criticism. Many football fans will react with derision, and many non-fans will consider his points self-evident: both are wrong. These are arguments that deserve to be considered deeply and grappled with, and teens—who have not yet devoted their lives or opinions to or against the sport—are in a perfect position to take Almond's manifesto seriously.—Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.