Easterbrook, Gregg

"Gregg Easterbrook is one of the country's best-known football commentators, having analyzed football on-air for ESPN and the NFL Network. MSNBC calls his ESPN blog 'the best and most compelling football column anywhere.' The King of Sports takes an expansive look at our biggest sport. Easterbrook 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 reason football helps American colleges to be great institutions (it's not bowl revenue); the way football has aided the revival of American cities (it's not Super Bowl trophies); the hidden scandal of the NFL (you'll have to read the book). 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 college head coach, Easterbrook shows how VT does things right. Then he reports on all the things wrong with football and moves to examples of how the sport can be reformed to keep it just as popular and exciting, but not as notorious."--.

Tells the story of how football became so deeply ingrained in American culture, and examines both the good and the bad impact on American society.