Fathers Of Football

Download Fathers Of Football full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Fathers Of Football ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Fathers of Football

Author : Keith Baker
Publisher : eBook Partnership
ISBN 13 : 1785310267
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (853 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Fathers of Football by : Keith Baker

Download or read book Fathers of Football written by Keith Baker and published by eBook Partnership. This book was released on 2015-12-02 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The long-overlooked story of a number of adventurous Britons who left their homeland before World War I to inspire and shape the growth of modern soccer in continental Europe and South America. Drawn from widely different backgrounds, their motivations and contributions were diverse-helping to form legendary clubs now supported by millions across the globe; bringing revolutionary changes to the way soccer was taught and played; and laying the foundations on which the game would continue to flourish. Full of entertaining accounts and anecdotes from the birth of the global game, Fathers of Football places the lives of these innovators soundly in historical and social context. They all left a deep and lasting impression on soccer in the countries they worked in; yet for too long Britain turned its back on their lessons and achievements. Even today they remain largely unknown-prophets more honored abroad than at home.

Football With Dad

Author : Frank Berrios
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 0385379250
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (853 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Football With Dad by : Frank Berrios

Download or read book Football With Dad written by Frank Berrios and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This informational LGB is also a touching tribute to the lessons we learn from our fathers! Every Sunday, a boy and his dad watch the big football game on TV, and then go outside to play it. In this simple introduction to the game, the emphasis is on playing safely and having fun.

The Last Season

Author : Stuart Stevens
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0804172501
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (41 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Last Season by : Stuart Stevens

Download or read book The Last Season written by Stuart Stevens and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fathers, sons, and sports are enduring themes of American literature. Here, in this fresh and moving account, a son returns to his native South to spend a special autumn with his ninety-five-year-old dad, sharing the unique joys, disappointments, and life lessons of Saturdays with their beloved Ole Miss Rebels. Now, driving to and from the games, and cheering from the stands, they take stock of their lives as father and son, and as individuals, reminding themselves of their unique, complicated, precious bond. Poignant and full of heart, but also irreverent and often hilarious, The Last Season is a powerful story of parents and children and of the importance of taking a backward glance together while you still can.

The New Dad's Playbook

Author : Benjamin Watson
Publisher : Baker Books
ISBN 13 : 1493404962
Total Pages : 175 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (934 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The New Dad's Playbook by : Benjamin Watson

Download or read book The New Dad's Playbook written by Benjamin Watson and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it comes to the unknown territory of having a baby, moms-to-be have nearly unending resources to plan and execute a healthy pregnancy and navigate those first months and years as a parent with confidence. New dads? Not so much. They want to get in the game too, but, says Super Bowl champion Benjamin Watson, "I could find clearer direction for putting together a baby swing than for taking care of a newborn child." The New Dad's Playbook is every man's game plan to being the best partner and the best father, from pre-season (preparing for fatherhood) to Super Bowl (birth) to post-season (after baby is home). It helps men understand what their wives are going through physically and emotionally during and after pregnancy, allowing them to support their most important teammate. It tells men what to expect when their baby is home--and what to do when the unexpected happens. This tell-it-like-it-is book will take men from just winging it to winning it.

Before the Ever After

Author : Jacqueline Woodson
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0399545441
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (995 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Before the Ever After by : Jacqueline Woodson

Download or read book Before the Ever After written by Jacqueline Woodson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-09-06 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER OF THE CORETTA SCOTT KING AUTHOR AWARD National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson's stirring novel-in-verse explores how a family moves forward when their glory days have passed, and the cost of professional sports on Black bodies. Now in paperback. For as long as ZJ can remember, his dad has been everyone's hero. As a charming, talented pro football star, he's as beloved to the neighborhood kids he plays with as he is to his millions of adoring sports fans. But lately life at ZJ's house is anything but charming. His dad is having trouble remembering things and seems to be angry all the time. ZJ's mom explains it's because of all the head injuries his dad sustained during his career. ZJ can understand that--but it doesn't make the sting any less real when his own father forgets his name. As ZJ contemplates his new reality, he has to figure out how to hold on tight to family traditions and recollections of the glory days, all the while wondering what their past amounts to if his father can't remember it. And most importantly, can those happy feelings ever be reclaimed when they are all so busy aching for the past?

Bury Me in My Jersey

Author : Tom McAllister
Publisher : Villard
ISBN 13 : 0345522001
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (455 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Bury Me in My Jersey by : Tom McAllister

Download or read book Bury Me in My Jersey written by Tom McAllister and published by Villard. This book was released on 2010-05-18 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born and raised in Eagles country, Tom McAllister learns from his father and brother the rules of being a football fan. Spending Sundays in the infamous 700 level of Veterans Stadium, or sitting in front of the TV with his father in a nearby recliner, Tom sees both the ugly and beautiful sides of Philadelphia football. Like all true Philadelphians, he connects with the players. From icons Chuck Bednarik and Steve Van Buren to modern-day greats Randall Cunningham, Donovan McNabb, and Brian Dawkins and controversial stars such as Terrell Owens, the Eagles players become a part of McAllister’s life. Watching them every Sunday, he tries to develop his own identity as a fan. Torn between his father’s calm and levelheaded fandom and the rowdy, profane, and violent crowds of Philadelphia legend, Tom struggles to achieve balance. As a rabid Eagles fan, Tom McAllister experiences plenty of defeats and disappointments, but his biggest challenge is coping with the premature loss of his father to cancer. In Bury Me in My Jersey, McAllister explores the connection between his dedication to the Eagles and the death of his father. He details the intense bonds—between fathers and sons, among friends, and even between a city and its football team—and chronicles the joys and sorrows, victories and failures, of a lifetime of sports obsession. Any fan can relate: Tom drinks to excess, spends countless hours every week posting to an online Eagles message board, and spies on players in the fruit aisle of the supermarket. Without the example of his father to guide him, Tom often finds himself stumbling off track. But it is his girlfriend and eventual wife, LauraBeth, who keeps him grounded as he matures into adulthood. A touching, funny, beautifully crafted memoir, Bury Me in My Jersey is not only a marvelous tribute to a father, a way of life, and a team and its devoted followers but also a love letter to the city of Philadelphia.

Dad, How Do I?

Author : Rob Kenney
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0063075032
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (63 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Dad, How Do I? by : Rob Kenney

Download or read book Dad, How Do I? written by Rob Kenney and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Like the YouTube channel, this is a touching yet informative guide for those seeking fatherly advice, or even a few good dad jokes.” — Library Journal

First Team Dad

Author : J. Drew Pittman
Publisher : Baker Books
ISBN 13 : 1441266763
Total Pages : 231 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (412 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis First Team Dad by : J. Drew Pittman

Download or read book First Team Dad written by J. Drew Pittman and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do You Have a Game Plan? Premier agent Drew Pittman loves sports. Maybe even more than you do. But an experience early in his management career convinced him that a life of significance is about faith, family, and football--and always in that order. So how do you make significance your game plan? Competitive sports are filled with lessons about motivation, perseverance, hard work, and collaboration--and these lessons are powerfully transferable to everyday life. Yet few men apply them to the most important arena they'll ever play in: their home. In First Team Dad, Drew Pittman shares the principles that can change the game in your family, straight from a sports insider who has field-tested each and every one with his home team. With heart-pounding stories of unforgettable plays and one-in-a-million players, First Team Dad is your ticket to create a legacy of significance in your family. "It's my hope that by reading First Team Dad you will be motivated to do a better job of leading your family and that you will reach out to other men you know to help them catch this vision."--Tony Dungy, former NFL head coach and bestselling author "Knowing Drew, I've been encouraged and challenged by his example and wisdom--read this book so you can get to know this man as well."--John Schneider, executive vice president and general manager, Seattle Seahawks "To the football fan's delight, Drew shares behind-the-scenes stories about his experiences with famous players and coaches in order to demonstrate practical points about having a strong family. I believe every man who reads this book will walk away inspired and will have a game plan for his own family."--Robert Morris, founding senior pastor, Gateway Church, Dallas Texas; bestselling author, The Blessed Life

Sidelines and Bloodlines

Author : Ryan McGee
Publisher : Triumph Books
ISBN 13 : 1641254939
Total Pages : 227 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (412 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sidelines and Bloodlines by : Ryan McGee

Download or read book Sidelines and Bloodlines written by Ryan McGee and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Ryan McGee has been one of my closest friends for nearly half our lives, and my admiration for his storytelling ability is infinite. Sidelines and Bloodlines is his deft storytelling at its best. Fathers and sons and sports—and the impenetrable bonds forged and memories created when they intersect." —Marty Smith, New York Times bestselling author and ESPN reporter Football is a game of lines—on and off the gridiron In Sidelines and Bloodlines, Ryan McGee—co-host of the popular Marty & McGee show on ESPN Radio and SEC Network—teams up with his father and brother to share lessons learned between the white lines, featuring a cast of characters that runs from no-name small college athletes and coaches to one-name legends such as Holtz, Paterno, Tebow, and Bo. The McGees provide a rare and often hilarious glimpse inside the lives of college officials, detailing how a love for the game convinces accomplished professionals from all walks of life to voluntarily endure ceaseless insults and highly public criticism. The book contains memorable stories of brawling high school referees and making awkward small talk with George Lucas and Darth Vader at the Rose Bowl to the heart-tugging story of young sons in the stands on a Saturday as a stream profanity-laden insults directed at their father drowns out the marching band. Sidelines and Bloodlines delivers laughs, tears, and a deeper understanding of a life in stripes.

Faith of our Fathers

Author : Alan Edge
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1780574126
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (85 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Faith of our Fathers by : Alan Edge

Download or read book Faith of our Fathers written by Alan Edge and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-01-06 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alan Edge is a lifelong Liverpool supporter who grew up in an environment where team loyalties were embedded in working-class culture. He was shocked to discover that his young son not only had not intention of following in his father's footsteps as a Liverpool fan, but preferred a Newcastle shirt because it was more fashionable! Faith of our Fathers is more than a personal story; it is a universal tale written with a strong sense of pathos and a rare capacity to bring to life the concerns of fans who feel the game they grew up with is being eroded by commercial exploitation.

Football Scouting Methods

Author : Steve Belichick
Publisher : Martino Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9781578987061
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (87 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Football Scouting Methods by : Steve Belichick

Download or read book Football Scouting Methods written by Steve Belichick and published by Martino Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Considered the bible of scouting techniques" according to the Los Angeles Times, Football Scouting Methods explains the basic scouting strategies and insights of author Steve Belichick. He was widely viewed as the ablest football scout of his time and coached at the U.S. Naval Academy for 33 years; his son is New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, a three-time Super Bowl winner. When Steve Belichick died in November 2005, the New York Times headline cited him as "Coach Who Wrote the Book on Scouting," and quoted Houston Texans General Manager Charley Casserly calling Football Scouting Methods "the best book on scouting he had ever read." Joe Bellino, Navy's Heisman Trophy winner in 1960, told the Times that Steve Belichick "was a genius. On Monday nights, he would give us his scouting reports, and even though we were playing powerhouses, I always felt we were prepared because he found a way for us to win." In recent years Football Scouting Methods has been one of the top ten most sought out-of-print books; used copies have been quite scarce. This reissue edition makes the original 1962 text available once again in exact facsimile. The book covers how to scout opponents, recognize defenses, analyze offenses, discover "tip-offs" that reveal the opponent's plays, compose a useful report, self-scout, and conduct postgame analysis. "Steve Belichick taught many younger men how to scout and how to watch film and how to prepare their teams for the next week's game," David Halberstam noted in the Washington Post, and his best student was his own son Bill Belichick, "one of whose greatest skills as a coach to this day remains his ability to analyze other teams, figuring out both their strengths and their vulnerabilities, and shrewdly deciding how to take away from them that which they most want to do." When CBS asked Bill Belichick to name his favorite book, he replied "Well, I've got to go with my dad's. Football Scouting Methods. I'd have to go with that."

Season of Life

Author : Jeffrey Marx
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416584811
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (165 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Season of Life by : Jeffrey Marx

Download or read book Season of Life written by Jeffrey Marx and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling inspirational book in which the author reunites with a childhood football hero, now a minister and coach, and witnesses a revelatory demonstration of the true meaning of manhood—Season of Life is a book that “should be required reading for every high school student in America and every parent as well” (Carl Lewis, Olympic champion). Joe Ehrmann, a former NFL football star and volunteer coach for the Gilman high school football team, teaches his players the keys to successful defense: penetrate, pursue, punish, love. Love? A former captain of the Baltimore Colts and now an ordained minister, Ehrmann is serious about the game of football but even more serious about the purpose of life. Season of Life is his inspirational story as told by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jeffrey Marx, who was a ballboy for the Colts when he first met Ehrmann. Ehrmann now devotes his life to teaching young men a whole new meaning of masculinity. He teaches the boys at Gilman the precepts of his Building Men for Others program: Being a man means emphasizing relationships and having a cause bigger than yourself. It means accepting responsibility and leading courageously. It means that empathy, integrity, and living a life of service to others are more important than points on a scoreboard. Decades after he first met Ehrmann, Jeffrey Marx renewed their friendship and watched his childhood hero putting his principles into action. While chronicling a season with the Gilman Greyhounds, Marx witnessed the most extraordinary sports program he’d ever seen, where players say “I love you” to each other and coaches profess their love for their players. Off the field Marx sat with Ehrmann and absorbed life lessons that led him to reexamine his own unresolved relationship with his father. Season of Life is a book about what it means to be a man of substance and impact. It is a moving story that will resonate with athletes, coaches, parents—anyone struggling to make the right choices in life.

The Suburban Footballer

Author : Tom Siegert
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781922337764
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (377 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Suburban Footballer by : Tom Siegert

Download or read book The Suburban Footballer written by Tom Siegert and published by . This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tom Siegert is The Suburban FootballerTom was a below average junior player and his career has been in free fall ever since. It is the final round of the season and once again he finds himself in the familiar position of warming the interchange bench. It's freezing cold, rain is tumbling down and his head is thumping with his worst hangover since last week. As he sits, wishing he was anywhere but playing a game of footy, he wonders why he does it to himself. Should this be his final season or should he go around one last time?

Benchwarmer

Author : Josh Wilker
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 161039402X
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Benchwarmer by : Josh Wilker

Download or read book Benchwarmer written by Josh Wilker and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A moving, funny, inventive parenting memoir, written in a surprising form: an encyclopedia of failure in sports What can a new father learn about parenthood from reading sports almanacs? For most dads, the answer to this question is: nothing. But to Josh Wilker, whose life and writing have been defined by sports fandom, all of the joy, helplessness, and absurdity of parenthood are present between the lines. After all, what better way to think about losing control than Eugenio Velez's forty-five consecutive at-bats without a hit? How better to understand ridiculous joy than the NFL career of Walter Achiu, whose nickname was "Sneeze"? In the stories of sports figures large and small, Wilker finds the pathos in success and the humor in losing. As the terrified father of a one-day-old, Wilker recalls the 1986 World Series, when the moment was too big for the Red Sox. When he finds himself stealing away for an hour of alone time, Wilker thinks of boxer Roberto Duran, so beaten by Sugar Ray Leonard that he finally gave up. And yet, even as the frustrations and anxieties build, Wilker remembers Mets pitcher Anthony Young, who broke the baseball record for most consecutive losses -- and never stopped showing up. Finding the richness of life in obscure wrestling maneuvers and pop-ups lost in the sun, Benchwarmer is a book of unique humanity and surprising wisdom.

Out of the Pocket

Author : Kirk Herbstreit
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1982171030
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (821 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Out of the Pocket by : Kirk Herbstreit

Download or read book Out of the Pocket written by Kirk Herbstreit and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-08-17 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This powerfully intimate, plain-spoken memoir about fathers and sons, fortitude, and football from the face and voice of college football—Kirk Herbstreit—is not just “a window into the game, but also a peek into what makes him special: his heart” (David Shaw, head coach, Stanford University). Kirk Herbstreit is a reflection of the sport he loves, a reflection of his football-crazed home state of Ohio, where he was a high school star and Ohio State captain, and a reflection of another Ohio State football captain thirty-two years earlier: his dad Jim, who battled Alzheimer’s disease until his death in 2016. In Out of the Pocket, Herbstreit does what his father did for him: takes you inside the locker rooms, to the practice fields, to the meeting rooms, to the stadiums. Herbstreit describes how a combination of hard work, perseverance, and a little luck landed him on the set of ESPN’s iconic College GameDay show, surrounded by tens of thousands of fans who treat their Saturdays like a football Mardi Gras. He takes you into the television production meetings, on to the GameDay set, and into the broadcast booth. You’ll live his life during a football season, see the things he sees, experience every chaotic twist and turn as the year unfolds. Not to mention the relationships he’s established and the insights he’s learned from the likes of coaches and players such as Nick Saban, Tim Tebow, Dabo Swinney, and Peyton Manning, as well as his colleagues, including Chris Fowler, Rece Davis, and his “second dad,” the beloved Coach Lee Corso. Yes, Kirk Herbstreit is the undeniable face and voice of college football—but he’s also a survivor. He’s the quiet kid who withstood the collapse of his parents’ marriage. The boy who endured too many overbearing stepdads and stepmoms. The painfully shy student who always chose the last desk in the last row of the classroom. The young man who persevered through a frustrating Ohio State playing career. The new college graduate who turned down a lucrative sales job after college to pursue a “no way you’ll make it” dream career in broadcasting. Inspiring and powerful, Out of the Pocket “proves the importance of perseverance and family” (Peyton Manning).

Dear Jay, Love Dad

Author : Jay Wilkinson
Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN 13 : 0806184043
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (61 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Dear Jay, Love Dad by : Jay Wilkinson

Download or read book Dear Jay, Love Dad written by Jay Wilkinson and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: College football fans need no introduction to Bud Wilkinson, but few of them know the great University of Oklahoma football coach as a devoted father. In Dear Jay, Love Bud, Jay Wilkinson, Bud’s younger son, shares forty-seven letters his father wrote to him while he was in college and graduate school. Spanning the early to mid-1960s, these letters reveal Bud’s deep love for his son, as well as the philosophy and values that led to his remarkable success in sports and in life. Beginning with the first letter Bud wrote when Jay left home, this collection shows a father guiding his son toward his own path while stressing the importance of service to others. The embodiment of the scholar-athlete, Bud mixes encouragement with intellectual discussions. When Jay reads American philosopher William James for a class at Duke University, his father, a serious student of literature, reads the book, too, and uses its insights to help Jay deal with the challenges of his freshman year. Bud writes about his own challenges, as well, including his debate over whether to accept the Kennedy administration’s invitation to head the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. Jay’s comments about each of these letters provide context and further insight. By the time Jay becomes a graduate student at the Episcopal Theological School, the correspondence turns toward religion and politics, as Bud reflects on the philosophical issues of the day and on his unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 1964. His belief that the greatest leaders are not always the most popular made him an unlikely politician even then, but a wonderful role model and interlocutor for his son. Bud’s thoughts on ethics in business and politics are as inspiring today as when he wrote them a half-century ago.

Why Football Matters

Author : Mark Edmundson
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143127640
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Why Football Matters by : Mark Edmundson

Download or read book Why Football Matters written by Mark Edmundson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed essayist Mark Edmundson reflects on his own rite of passage as a high school football player to get to larger truths about the ways America's Game shapes its men Football teaches young men self-discipline and teamwork. But football celebrates violence. Football is a showcase for athletic beauty and physical excellence. But football damages young bodies and minds, sometimes permanently. Football inspires confidence and direction. But football instills cockiness, a false sense of superiority. The athlete is a noble figure with a proud lineage. The jock is America at its worst. When Mark Edmundson’s son began to play organized football, and proved to be very good at it, Edmundson had to come to terms with just what he thought about the game. Doing so took him back to his own childhood, when as a shy, soft boy growing up in a blue-collar Boston suburb in the sixties, he went out for the high school football team. Why Football Matters is the story of what happened to Edmundson when he tried to make himself into a football player. What does it mean to be a football player? At first Edmundson was hapless on the field. He was an inept player and a bad teammate. But over time, he got over his fears and he got tougher. He learned to be a better player and came to feel a part of the team, during games but also on all sorts of escapades, not all of them savory. By playing football, Edmundson became what he and his father hoped he’d be, a tougher, stronger young man, better prepared for life. But is football-instilled toughness always a good thing? Do the character, courage, and loyalty football instills have a dark side? Football, Edmundson found, can be full of bounties. But it can also lead you into brutality and thoughtlessness. So how do you get what’s best from the game and leave the worst behind? Why Football Matters is moving, funny, vivid, and filled with the authentic anxiety and exhilaration of youth. Edmundson doesn’t regret playing football for a minute, and cherishes the experience. His triumph is to be able to see it in full, as something to celebrate, but also something to handle with care. For anyone who has ever played on a football team, is the parent of a player, or simply is reflective about its outsized influence on America, Why Football Matters is both a mirror and a lamp.