Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto Paperback – August 18, 2015 by Steve Almond (Melville House)

Reading this book can serve as something of a litmus test. I've seen no critic — I use the term loosely — actually engage his arguments. Mostly they are flinging ad hominem non sequiturs.

Those who react strongly against it — including the many who have flamed, insulted and aggressively mocked Almond in public forums — come off looking like reflections of the flawed culture he identifies. Critics react with unthinking passion, unleashing mouthsful of pejoratives, often questioning Almond's manhood or sexuality in bemusingly "male" term. For example, suggesting he possesses female genitalia reveals an essential misogyny; suggesting he must have a "big vagina" — seriously, it's a thing among his critics — is just stupid, a transparent and reflexive attempt to overlay deeply ingrained male insecurities and obsession with size.

Make no mistake: Almond is a true fan of football, especially of — as we say in Broncos country — "the hated Raiders." But he's also a thoughtful man who sees the stark contradictions and dubious ethics of supporting our modern civic religion cum blood sport. He focuses a good deal of his manifesto — for it is that, rather than a deeper research project — on the problem of brain injuries, but he identifies other, very real issues: misogyny, hyper-machoism, militarism-jingoism, rich owners fleecing and blackmailing taxpayers, tribalism over what is really little more than (in his words), "brightly colored laundry," the obvious disconnect between a highly professionalized (though its players are unpaid!) professional football farm system being connected to institutions of higher learning, the incredible amount of time invested in passive observation, and more.

As a life-long fan — my father took me to my first college game at age 6 and I still hold those season tickets and, try as I might, I've never successfully been able to avert my gaze from the game — I find Almond's manifesto persuasive and damning. Even before I read it I had resolved to, shall we say, reduce my "using" of football this season: I'm not going to every home game for my college team and will limit watching football on TV. I have always loved watching the game, but I intend to learn how else I might spend that time.

This is four stars rather than five because I think Almond would have better served his purpose by investing more effort and turning it from manifesto into a more substantive, documented piece of research.