The King of Sports
Football's Impact on America
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4.2 • 9 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Gridiron football is the king of sports – it's the biggest game in the strongest and richest country in the world. In The King of Sports, Easterbrook tells the full story of how football became so deeply ingrained in American culture. Both good and bad, he examines its impact on American society.
The King of Sports explores these and many other topics:
* The real harm done by concussions (it's not to NFL players).
* The real way in which college football players are exploited (it's not by not being paid).
* The way football helps American colleges (it's not bowl revenue) and American cities (it's not Super Bowl wins).
* What happens to players who are used up and thrown away (it's not pretty).
* The hidden scandal of the NFL (it's worse than you think).
Using his year-long exclusive insider access to the Virginia Tech football program, where Frank Beamer has compiled the most victories of any active NFL or major-college head coach while also graduating players, Easterbrook shows how one big university "does football right." Then he reports on what's wrong with football at the youth, high school, college and professional levels. Easterbrook holds up examples of coaches and programs who put the athletes first and still win; he presents solutions to these issues and many more, showing a clear path forward for the sport as a whole.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Easterbrook, the "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" columnist for ESPN.com, recognizes that football's benefits "must be weighed against many negatives." Colleges spend entirely too much on football, costs included in everyone else's tuition. Meanwhile, these players are so focused on the gridiron that they are unprepared for the working world, which is why Easterbrook recommends six-year scholarships. On the professional side, Easterbrook is appalled by the lax standards for helmets and the rampant greed of rich NFL team owners, who happily fund their arenas with taxpayer money. Easterbrook excels at exposing and describing the shaky behavior that gets lost in the games' hoopla. It's a shame that these observations come wrapped in a smug, academic arrogance he compares football to Ellison's Invisible Man for no real reason; two lengthy, distracting chapters on Virginia Tech's football team serve as a tribute to head coach Frank Beamer, whom Easterbrook canonizes while some of his claims (e.g., football is a big contributor to child obesity) overlook other societal factors. There's much to like, but Easterbrook's tone and alarmist proclamations make it hard to embrace his agenda. Photos not seen by PW.
