The Mariupol, Ukraine Dolphins play (American) football seven miles from the front lines — a weekly chance for “three hours of American way of life.”
football
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
“Modern Life Is Not Violent Enough,” Said Nobody — But They Thought It
This excerpt from Chuck Klosterman’s book “But What If We’re Wrong?” is nominally about football, and violence, but is also a prescient analysis of U.S. politics.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Will Violence Save Football?
In an excerpt from his book, But What If We’re Wrong?, Chuck Klosterman wonders if the sport that defines America will survive not in spite of its brutality but because of it.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Concussion Chronology: One High School Football Player’s Secret Struggle with CTE
At GQ, Reid Forgrave profiles Zac Easter, a former “smashmouth” high school football player who took his own life in the aftermath of suffering five diagnosed concussions during his football career.
Posted inEditor's Pick, Nonfiction, Quotes
I Was a Super Bowl Concession Worker
At Slate, Gabriel Thompson describes what it’s like to be a food-service worker at Levi’s Stadium at Super Bowl 50 — and explores the low-wage, part-time workforce of Silicon Valley.
Posted inNonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
I Was a Super Bowl Concession Worker
At Slate, Gabriel Thompson describes what it’s like to be a food-service worker at Levi’s Stadium at Super Bowl 50 — and explores the low-wage, part-time workforce of Silicon Valley.
Posted inCollege
Life After Football: Our College Pick
Disappointment feels so much bigger when you’re young because you haven’t lived long enough to know that there’s always something else on the other side.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Football as a Barometer of Italian Society
“Football is a very simple barometer of a society,” says Paddy Agnew, an Irish Times correspondent and former RAI television commentator who has covered Italian soccer since the 1980s. “And if the red light is flashing in society, the red light is flashing in football. That’s what it is here, they’ve run out of petrol. […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How the NFL Is Like a Blockbuster Movie Franchise
The industry term for or a blockbuster movie franchise is a “tentpole”—it’s the asset that holds the whole operation up. At the height of mass culture, in the second half of the 20th century, it was enough to be on television to command an audience in the tens of millions. But as channels multiplied, the difference between […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Dinner at Tom Brady & Gisele Bündchen’s House
Mark Leibovich, in the New York Times, gets a rare look inside the life of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who’s now 37 in a league where few play past the age of 40. The result is some obsessive habits about caring for his body and the food he eats: Every morning in the […]