Overview

Nineteen boys circle around like it's a schoolyard showdown. The air is thick with ""Fight Club"" energy-raw, visceral, violent. They're raucously cheering as one by one, their brothers step forward. I'm hollering commands. They're lifting, driving, flipping the one-man sled. I'm barking: ""Next!"" One of my slimmer defensive backs steps forward-he lifts, drives, but cannot flip the sled. Disappointment clouds his face. I know that look-he needs this. So I holler ""No, do it again!"" I stand right next to him, whisper into the earhole of his helmet: ""You're going to do this."" He takes position. I run alongside him, hollering ""Attack! Attack! Attack!"" He struggles, strains, then plants the sled into the grass! I'm fully, completely, caught up in the primality of the moment, slapping his back plate yelling: ""That's it! That's it! That's it!"" As the boys run for water, the professor in me cuts through the adrenaline, wondering: What is it about this game-of clashes and hits-that becomes a place of nourishment? Football Is... explores what the game does to us, for us, and through us. It's a poetic, fiercely honest collection of 40 personal essays and 10 game-day speeches drawn from a lifetime of playing, coaching, and returning to the game after decades in academia. Written by a former Division III captain and current high school coach, this book isn't about X's and O's or chasing championships-it's about the inner transformation football demands. From small-town Ohio to the turf at Freeman High School in Virginia, these pages uncover the sacred space between plays where character is forged, mentorship is born, and boys become men. Perfect for: Former players who still dream of putting their pads back on Coaches who see mentorship as their calling Fathers raising boys in a world that questions traditional masculinity Anyone who has stood under Friday night lights seeking something transcendent If you've ever felt the August ache, carried the weight of your team's expectations, or wondered why a game can shape a life-this book is for you. Because football is brutal and beautiful. Muddy and mythic. Above all, love.

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