Football

“Football is so ingrained in American society that it’s hard to visualize an America without it,” contends journalist Klosterman (The Nineties) in this eye-opening and entertaining cultural history of the sport. He traces the origin of modern football back to the 1958 NFL Championship game between the Colts and Giants, noting that the game’s importance came not from what happened on the field but from the record-setting 45 million people who watched at home. Football, Klosterman writes, is a sport made for television, as the experience of watching on a screen, where the camera follows the ball, far exceeds attending in person. He asserts that the attraction to the sport lies in its similarities to “ancient war” and the chance it offers male athletes to prove their strength and ability. Despite the sport’s apparent omnipresence, Klosterman makes a convincing case that football will go the way of horse racing and eventually decline in popularity, citing dwindling youth participation amid increased awareness of the dangers of repeated head trauma and the NFL’s financial model, which continuously drives up prices for fans and advertisers. Approaching the subject with rigor and drawing on his lifelong fascination with the game, Klosterman sheds light on football’s “outsized and underrated” role in shaping contemporary culture. The result is a transcendent appraisal of America’s favorite sport. (Jan.)