num_pages: 400
description: In the early twentieth century down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh the Jones &amp; Laughlin Steel Company built one of the largest mills in the world and a town to go with it. Aliquippa was a beacon and a melting pot pulling in thousands of families from Europe and the Jim Crow south. The J&amp;L mill though dirty and dangerous offered a chance at a better life. It produced the steel that built American cities and won World War II and even became something of a workers paradise. But then in the 1980s the steel industry cratered. The mill closed. Crime rose and crack hit big.But another industry grew in Aliquippa. The town didnt just make steel; it made elite football players from Mike Ditka to Ty Law to Darrelle Revis. Pro football was born in Western Pennsylvania and few places churned out talent like Aliquippa. Despite its troublesmaybe even because of themAliquippa became legendary for producing football greatness. A masterpiece of narrative journalism Playing Through the Whistle tells the remarkable story of Aliquippa and through it the larger history of American industry sports and life. Like football it will make you marvel wince cry and cheer.
language: None
title: Playing Through the Whistle: Steel, Football, and an American Town
publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press