A review by greebytime
Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto by Steve Almond
2.0
Being Against “Against Football”
I just finished Steve Almond’s “Against Football” and have spent the last few days trying to consolidate my thoughts about it. The premise of the book appears to be similar to the wonderful Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemna -- in that book, Pollan tried to find a way to eat everything but still make mindful decisions that were both healthy, humane and environmentally aware. He didn’t want to write a polemic about how awful meat is, because he likes meat.
Similarly, Almond’s book seems to be about a football fan coming to grips with the many negative things with football – primarily, though not exclusively, NFL football.
This appealed to me because I’m in a similar situation. I love professional football. While reading this book, I’ve also been leafing through an NFL Draft magazine, going onto reddit to see news about my favorite team, the 49ers, and so on. I’m an obsessive, and yet because of that obsession it’s impossible to ignore the true problems the league has.
So, I was a perfect audience for the book, and yet I’m incredibly disappointed in it. Why? It’s probably easier to break this down into sections.
What the book gets right
The chapters about the physical trauma the sport brings – and how it’s inherent to the sport, and how little the NFL does to protect its players – is sharp and fully accurate. The violence in the sport is, admittedly, part of its charm. I say this knowing that it’s barbaric, but the huge hits in football are amazing, and part of why fans like it. Some of my absolute favorite players – Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, Frank Gore – are offensive players who look for contact, who play with VIOLENCE. That’s just me being honest. And I know that so many of these guys are going to have problems later in life, and that the NFL isn’t doing what it should to help them.
That’s another thing the book gets right – in the epilogue, when he finally stops complaining and offers suggestions, he states that the team should absolutely use technology to help identify players on the field who have received a concussive hit, etc. That said, most of the good material here is attributed to League of Denial which was both converted into a great Frontline episode and is its own book, so I’d have to recommend either or both of them instead.
He also states that the NFL should be stripped of its tax-exempt status, to which I heartily agree (in fact, I can’t think of a good argument to maintain this preposterous status.)
The book didn’t really get into the huge domestic abuse issues that have erupted recently – it was published before the Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy issues came to light – but those are also atrocities and embarrassments to the league.
What the book gets wrong
Almond weakens his arguments by bringing so many things into it – at one point, he talks about Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinal DB who quit the NFL to join the military and fight against terrorists after 9/11. That things went horribly wrong for Tillman in Iraq is well-trodden ground, but somehow Almond seems to point the failures of the war, the way the government tried to cover it up, etc., on the NFL. (Seriously.) That’s preposterous, obviously. He also talks about how sports stadiums are publicly funded by taxpayers being held hostage – so true, but not remotely confined to the NFL. This is also a failure of politics, not the NFL – if these guys can get others to pay for it, they can and should.
The suggestions in the back are also so silly and high-minded – unsurprisingly, one by Gregg Easterbrook is elitist, potentially racist and wildly impossible to make work. Another, by Almond himself, is that President Obama should make a public statement against football – even after pointing out that Obama said he wouldn’t let his son play football (for which he was eviscerated in the media). This would lead to … something. It’s not clear…and it’s so tone deaf as to be preposterous.
Overall
It may speak positively or negatively about me, but I didn’t learn one thing new about football – and I’m still a fan. For those casual fans, there is probably something to learn here and for that and the fact that more people talking about CTE is a good thing, is why I’m giving this two stars instead of one. But for me, the goal of the book failed for me. I’m not against football any more than I was before I read it.
Go 49ers!
I just finished Steve Almond’s “Against Football” and have spent the last few days trying to consolidate my thoughts about it. The premise of the book appears to be similar to the wonderful Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemna -- in that book, Pollan tried to find a way to eat everything but still make mindful decisions that were both healthy, humane and environmentally aware. He didn’t want to write a polemic about how awful meat is, because he likes meat.
Similarly, Almond’s book seems to be about a football fan coming to grips with the many negative things with football – primarily, though not exclusively, NFL football.
This appealed to me because I’m in a similar situation. I love professional football. While reading this book, I’ve also been leafing through an NFL Draft magazine, going onto reddit to see news about my favorite team, the 49ers, and so on. I’m an obsessive, and yet because of that obsession it’s impossible to ignore the true problems the league has.
So, I was a perfect audience for the book, and yet I’m incredibly disappointed in it. Why? It’s probably easier to break this down into sections.
What the book gets right
The chapters about the physical trauma the sport brings – and how it’s inherent to the sport, and how little the NFL does to protect its players – is sharp and fully accurate. The violence in the sport is, admittedly, part of its charm. I say this knowing that it’s barbaric, but the huge hits in football are amazing, and part of why fans like it. Some of my absolute favorite players – Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, Frank Gore – are offensive players who look for contact, who play with VIOLENCE. That’s just me being honest. And I know that so many of these guys are going to have problems later in life, and that the NFL isn’t doing what it should to help them.
That’s another thing the book gets right – in the epilogue, when he finally stops complaining and offers suggestions, he states that the team should absolutely use technology to help identify players on the field who have received a concussive hit, etc. That said, most of the good material here is attributed to League of Denial which was both converted into a great Frontline episode and is its own book, so I’d have to recommend either or both of them instead.
He also states that the NFL should be stripped of its tax-exempt status, to which I heartily agree (in fact, I can’t think of a good argument to maintain this preposterous status.)
The book didn’t really get into the huge domestic abuse issues that have erupted recently – it was published before the Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy issues came to light – but those are also atrocities and embarrassments to the league.
What the book gets wrong
Almond weakens his arguments by bringing so many things into it – at one point, he talks about Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinal DB who quit the NFL to join the military and fight against terrorists after 9/11. That things went horribly wrong for Tillman in Iraq is well-trodden ground, but somehow Almond seems to point the failures of the war, the way the government tried to cover it up, etc., on the NFL. (Seriously.) That’s preposterous, obviously. He also talks about how sports stadiums are publicly funded by taxpayers being held hostage – so true, but not remotely confined to the NFL. This is also a failure of politics, not the NFL – if these guys can get others to pay for it, they can and should.
The suggestions in the back are also so silly and high-minded – unsurprisingly, one by Gregg Easterbrook is elitist, potentially racist and wildly impossible to make work. Another, by Almond himself, is that President Obama should make a public statement against football – even after pointing out that Obama said he wouldn’t let his son play football (for which he was eviscerated in the media). This would lead to … something. It’s not clear…and it’s so tone deaf as to be preposterous.
Overall
It may speak positively or negatively about me, but I didn’t learn one thing new about football – and I’m still a fan. For those casual fans, there is probably something to learn here and for that and the fact that more people talking about CTE is a good thing, is why I’m giving this two stars instead of one. But for me, the goal of the book failed for me. I’m not against football any more than I was before I read it.
Go 49ers!