How Football Explains America
Paolantonio, a television football correspondent, opens with an intriguing question: Why does conventional wisdom say that it was television that made football so popular, when other countries that have television are not the slightest bit interested in the game? What if the truth was exactly the opposite—football helped make television? The book relates the evolution of the sport to the evolution of the country: just as America declared its independence from England, so American footballers redesigned the game and made it independent from the British import, rugby. And just as immigrants to the U.S. helped build the country, so various ethnic groups helped build football. The parallels between football and combat are obvious, but Paolantonio doesn’t hammer at them, preferring instead to talk about the way the sport captured the interest of its fans to a degree that few recreational pursuits ever equaled. The hyperbole of its title aside, this volume has surprisingly insightful things to say about football as a sociocultural phenomenon. Expect some interest beyond football fans. --David Pitt