How Football Explains America [Hardcover]

Sal Paolantonio (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

Using some of the most prominent voices in pro sports and cultural and media criticism, How Football Explains America is a fascinating, first-of-its-kind journey through the making of America's most complex, intriguing, and popular game. ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio’s explores just how crucial football is to understanding the American psyche. Interspersed with memorable images from the climax of Super Bowl XLII, Paolantonio tackles varying American themes from Manifest Destiny to “fourth and one” as he goes deep in order to answer the age-old question Why does America love football so much? An unabashedly celebratory explanation of America’s love affair with the game and the men who make it possible, this work sheds light on topics such as how the pioneers and cowboys helped create a game that resembled their march across the continent, why rugby and soccer don't excite the American male like football does. how rule changes are continually made to enhance the dramatic action and create a better narrative, the eternal appeal of the heroic quarterback position, the military lineage from General Douglas MacArthur to the New York Jets’ head coach Eric Mangini, and how the burgeoning medium of television identified and exploited the NFL’s great characters. It is a must read for anyone interested in more fully understanding not only the game but also the nation in which it thrives.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

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

From the Publisher

"So it turns out that Sal Paolantonio doesn't just talk about football on television, he really thinks about it! His book is a breezy, conceptual tour through the history of America and of football, showing they are, in fact, one and the same. From war to jazz, from racism to integration, from immigrant waves of Scotch Irish to Tonga Islanders, from dioramas in the display windows of newspapers to Monday Night Football, from Jim Thorpe to Eli Manning, the story of the game mirrors the story of our country. Who knew? All those lazy Sunday afternoons on the couch were really anthropological research. I'm giving this book to my wife!"
--Mark Bowden, author of The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL and Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

"Sal Paolantonio's How Football Explains America is brimming with excellent reporting, intellectual breadth, personal insight, and a deep affection for our real national pastime. This is fascinating stuff."
--Mark Kriegel, author of Namath: A Biography, and national columnist, FOXSports.com

"I have been a student of football my whole life, and this book gave me a completely original perspective on the game we call our national pastime. Sal Paolantonio has captured the essence of why we love football."
--Ron Jaworski, analyst, ESPN's Monday Night Football

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600780466
• ISBN-13: 978-1600780462
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #197,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just for Football Fans September 8, 2008

By Donald Sico

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This might very well be the most literate sports book I have ever read. If you like football, you will love it. If you like history, you will be fascinated. If you like politics, there is something there for you as well. How Football Explains America is the ONLY sports book I have ever brought into the house that my wife has enjoyed!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Answering the most important questions about America's biggest game... September 13, 2008

By John McDonald

Format:Hardcover

It's easy to answer any number of questions about America's (real) national pasttime: What is it about the game that so captivates people every Sunday? Why do 100 million people watch the Super Bowl each year? How did the game get so...big? But Sal Paolantonio ups the ante by searching for -- and finding -- the answer to the most meaningful and revealing question of all: Why America is the only place in history football could be. "How Football Explains America" is at once a history of our game and a reflection on our country. It's a book born out a love for the sport that millions and millions of Americans have shared. But at its heart it's a patriotic work -- a glimpse at how football has become a perfect expression of the best the United States of America has to offer.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much rah-rah October 23, 2011

By Booker T.

Format:Hardcover

I knew I was in for a bumpy ride when I flipped this book open at the library and learned that the US accepted the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII on the deck of the USS Yorktown. Really? I would think a book that equates NFL greatness with American greatness would get the fact that the surrender was actually signed on the USS Missouri. Any writer worth his Victor Davis Hanson quotes who asks the reader to discard lefty "political correctness" and embrace conservative rah-rah about American exceptionalism (ie, Manifest Destiny is all good) needs to get the history right. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe video of "The Catch" (or whatever your favorite football moment is) really does dwarf the famous images of surrender on a US battleship in Tokyo Bay. If only MacArthur had known about NFL Films :-)

Not the best football book, either, by far. I know Paolantonio intends to gloss over college football in order to genuflect at the altar of the NFL, but his sweeping history of the game seems to miss "Pop" Warner entirely. Maybe Warner's innovative game of passing and misdirection plays, which brought obscure Carlisle Indian School to national prominence, didn't mesh with his Manifest Destiny schtick. Don't get me wrong, though - college football is a deeply corrupt industry and deserves another book.

Still, the football-is-America thesis has some merits. He should have gone into the history of drugs in the NFL and how this most authoritarian sport is just like our hypocritical drug war in real life. That would've been good. Like when Johnny U. went to the Chargers, where the fabled white ethnic toughness was out, and drugs ruled the locker room. Somewhat amazingly, the NFL ***still*** doesn't have drug problem like those rotten baseball players do </sarcasm> - sportswriters seem to be under solemn oath to protect The Product.