Why Football Matters: My Education in the Game

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 Americas 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 Edmundsons 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 hed 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 whats 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 doesnt 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.