The King of Sports: Why Football Must Be Reformed

Front Cover
Macmillan, Sep 24, 2013 - Sports & Recreation - 370 pages

Gridiron football is the king of sports – it's the biggest game in the strongest and richest country in the world. In The King of Sports, Easterbrook tells the full story of how football became so deeply ingrained in American culture. Both good and bad, he examines its impact on American society.

The King of Sports 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 way football helps American colleges (it's not bowl revenue) and American cities (it's not Super Bowl wins).
* What happens to players who are used up and thrown away (it's not pretty).
* The hidden scandal of the NFL (it's worse than you think).
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 major-college head coach while also graduating players, Easterbrook shows how one big university "does football right." Then he reports on what's wrong with football at the youth, high school, college and professional levels. Easterbrook holds up examples of coaches and programs who put the athletes first and still win; he presents solutions to these issues and many more, showing a clear path forward for the sport as a whole.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Title Page
1978
If the Call Is Gun Weak Trey Dallas
2004
How the NFL Pretends to Be the Nonprofit Football League
Too Bad You Werent Invited to the Fiesta Frolic
Are College Football Players Exploited?
Your Knee Can Be Fixed But Your Brain Is Expendable
How 307 Pounds Became Undersized
The 5Star InvitationOnly Elite Showcase
Used Up and Thrown Away
With Liberty and Football for
Inside a Football Game
The Future of Football
Acknowledgments
Also by Gregg Easterbrook
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The King of Sports: Football's Impact on America
Gregg Easterbrook
Limited preview - 2013
The King of Sports: Why Football Must Be Reformed
Gregg Easterbrook
No preview available - 2014

Common terms and phrases

academic African-American Alabama American announced athletic department athletic directors attend average basketball Beamer big-college boosters bowl games boys broadcast college coaches college football college sports concussion conferences defensive donations ESPN Fiesta Bowl Florida football coaches football games football players football programs football team football’s former Frank Beamer funds graduation rates head coach helmet high school football high school players Hokies injury locker room McCants men’s basketball Miami Michael Vick Michigan Mike million annually National Football League NCAA never NFL draft NFL game NFL Network NFL players NFL teams Nick Saban offensive Ohio Orleans Saints painkillers parents Penn percent play playoffs pounds practice Pro Bowl quarterback receive recruiting revenue Saban says season sideline stadium star Steelers subsidies Sugar Bowl Super Bowl tackle taxes taxpayers television Texas Today touchdown University Vick victory Virginia Tech Whitaker year-round York young youth football

About the author (2013)

GREGG EASTERBROOK is the author of a dozen books, including The Leading Indicators, The Progress Paradox, The Here and Now and Sonic Boom. He is a contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly and The Washington Monthly, and a columnist for ESPN.com. He has been a distinguished fellow of the Fulbright Foundation, a visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution, and a political columnist for Reuters.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe King of Sports: Why Football Must Be Reformed
AuthorGregg Easterbrook
Editionunabridged
PublisherMacmillan, 2013
ISBN1250011728, 9781250011725
Length370 pages
Subjects › 

Sports & Recreation / Cultural & Social Aspects
Sports & Recreation / Football
  
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