Football. Chuck Klosterman.

Football.  Chuck Klosterman.

Football has maintained a dominance over America and its culture for three quarters of a century. The game has changed considerably over time and continues to do so now particularly at the collegiate level.    All of the transactions may get one to ponder how long football can maintain its seemingly unbreakable hold as the most popular sport in the United States.    

One author has done just that, Chuck Klosterman, and we can find out what he thinks and predicts in his latest book, Football.   Yes, this is the title.   It is blunt, concise and bland all at the same time.   However, content inside very likely belies the understated book heading.    Klosterman, an accomplished magazine writer and book author of more than 10 publications, expresses his vast knowledge of the sport and how his life was shaped and influenced at an early age by all that the game has to offer.  

He starts by informing the reader that this book was really written for people who have NOT yet been born.    It may not be clear to the engaged how to decipher that directive in the early stages of the book.   However, his assertions are crystallized in later chapters.   As the explanation about football’s future was unfolded in the latter chapters, one could not help thinking that the two hundred pages in between could have been shortened.    Klosterman predicts how by the middle of the 21^st century football will likely not exist in the way we know it now and over the past several generations.   His reasoning and arguments are thought out and practical, if not very likely.       Nevertheless, one could argue that the chapters connected to Texas football, the greatest players of all time, as well as video games and gambling do NOT have much to do with the main purpose of the book, which is to tell us that football is doomed, at least at some point at the not-so-distant future.   

The book has plenty of humor, a Klosterman staple.   There are many examples worth including such as how “six-man football is exactly like traditional football, except that it is completely different in every possible way.”    Or part of what made Tom Brady great was his own willingness, seemingly so, to lead an “objectively dismal life.”   Even the names of the chapters can elicit a chuckle such as the Semantics of GOAT Herding AND Drinking Hot Coffee Through a Straw.  Jokes aside, though, Klosterman is serious about the inevitable fate of football and presents plenty of support to make the average reader consider buying into his claims.  By the way, his choice for the greatest player of all time is not the conventional choice and could be considered quite provocative, especially in the way he explains his rationale. 

The book includes myriad suppositions pertaining the game’s popularity.   However, one noteworthy piece of data included early in the book paints an interesting paradox. Via a Wall Street Journal study, the findings assert that the average NFL game has about 11 minutes of physical activity or action throughout a game that is contested for sixty minutes with media programming extending it to three or more hours due to time outs, half-time breaks and excessive commercial runs.  The guy who authored a book about the 1990’s levies that a television program should not be popular considering this much inactivity.     However, he also explains that breaks in between plays gives the audience adequate time to process what transpired and focus on the next series of events, thus making America’s game a worthy spectator sport, despite so many other factors working against it.  

One area of interest was reading the lengthy content in the chapter my own prison.   The section of the book had much to do with his connection to the Dallas Cowboys.   Although growing up in the upper middle west, Klosterman became a reluctant Cowboy fan in his youth.    That steered the topics in this chapter to a 1990 book by the name of Friday Night Lights, a book that I read and enjoyed more than 30 years ago.   Upon reading a few paragraphs about his take on this H.G. Bissinger classic of a HS football town in eastern Texas, it elicited memories of the star players and their plans for the next level.   When reading commenced in the next paragraph, to my surprise and astonishment, Klosterman elaborated on the very topic.   This was a visceral connection for me and about the point where the book became more intriguing and engaging.     

This book of two hundred and seventy-four pages was not necessarily written for football fans and the author even noted that he anticipates people that did not care about or know about the sport to possibly engage in this manuscript anyway.    This football odyssey was NOT an easy read but not a hard one either.  Klosterman has a precise, incisive command of the language and possesses a writing style resembling a finely honed verbal toolkit.   Early on in the first chapters he tells the reader he is not building character, or toughness and masculinity, and that this is not about community nor even a love letter to the sport.   No, this book is dedicated to pertaining what the title implies---only it does not all of the time and nor does it evoke a hopeful, affirming ending.   The author expects blowback for his printed outlook on the future of America’s game, but we can suggest that people, living today, read and likely enjoy it but do so at one’s own risk.  

Discussion questions to ponder and pose:

Why did the author select this generic title?

Why did the author declare that this book was written for people not yet born?   Why should people read this book today?

Who is the GOAT football player and how does it compare to your personal selection?

Why is Dallas America’s football team?

Why does Klosterman hate the 1979 movie North Dallas Forty?

What are the reasons why football should exist and what are the reasons why football should NOT exist?

How is football like and unlike the act of war? 

·       You might like to read this book if you are a football fan.

·       You might like to read this book if you enjoy reading books with humor about society. 

·       You might like to read this book if you covet football topics written from a societal perspective.  

·       You might like to read this book if you appreciate humor and sports.

·       You might like to read this book if you seek stories about American culture and its connection to sports. 

·       You might like to read this book if you relish topics such as Television broadcasting of sports.

Read more about the author on X:   https://x.com/CKlosterman