Talking with Steve Almond about his latest book, Against Football, ahead of Tuesday’s appearance at the Kansas City Public Library

“I happen to believe that football, in its exalted moments, is not just a sport but a lovely and intricate form of art,” cultural essayist (and lifelong Raiders fan) Steve Almond writes at the outset of his latest work, Against Football: A Reluctant Fan’s Manifesto.

But true to the title, Almond’s book is a moral exploration of the grim realities of football’s role in America today: “What does it mean that the most popular and unifying form of entertainment in America circa 2014 features giant muscled men, mostly African-American, engaged in a sport that causes many of them to suffer brain damage? What does it mean that our society has transmuted the intuitive physical joys of childhood — run, leap, throw, tackle — into a corporatized form of simulated combat? That a collision sport has become the leading signifier of our institutions of higher learning, and the undisputed champ of our colossal Athletic Industrial Complex?”

Over a breezy 170 pages, Almond lays out a clear-eyed, rather convincing argument for why he can no longer justify supporting a sport he has loved and followed for 40 years. It’s a depressing, even uncomfortable, premise. But Almond is a lively writer, and mixed in with the cold, ugly facts about football (some of which you already know, some of which you maybe forgot, others you were possibly never aware of) are highly enjoyable bits of memoir and cultural criticism — by turns humorous, heartfelt and outraged. 

Almond is at the Plaza Branch (4801 Main) of the Kansas City Public Library tonight (Tuesday) to discuss his book with local sports anchor Frank Boal. We had a little Q&A with Almond yesterday. 

I saw that you were on sports talk radio here last week. What kind of responses have you been getting as you go around promoting this book? Any arguments from the book met with more (or less) anger and resentment than you expected?

Steve Almond: Well, one guy tweeted that he wished ISIS would cut my head off, which struck me as pretty extreme. But maybe that’s just online culture. People seem to feel free to attack one another in much more extreme ways. The main thing I’ve realized is that a lot of fans feel the same misgivings I do. My website forum (againstfootball.org) is full of these testimonials. The most poignant letter I got came from a dad who told me that he and his 13-year-old son have stopped watching — though they still love the game. That’s pretty amazing.

The truth is, I haven’t gotten the volume of hate mail I was expecting, because people who really love the game aren’t going to pick up a book that makes them feel guilty.

What cities have been especially supportive or incensed?

SA: I did an event in Seattle on the same night they had a Monday Night Football game. I thought to myself: Well, we’ll do this as an anti-football event, where all the folks who DON’T love the Seahawks can come out and have a discussion. But the organizers were terrified that NO ONE WOULD SHOW UP. So they had this weird evening where first they showed the game on a BIG-SCREEN TV, then they had a panel about the book. That struck me as pretty amazing. Seattle! Land of coffee and liberal enlightenment! Even people whose values completely clash with football seem to be huge Seahawks fans. That’s so American to me. Nothing builds community like winning, I guess.

Did you have a template or a model in writing this book? It strikes me as the type of book we maybe don’t see as much these days — a little shorter, kind of a nonfiction novella or something, and also an argument, a manifesto.

SA: Actually, I wanted to call it a lamentation, because that’s how I think of it. It’s a book about walking away from something you deeply love. And very little of the research is original. I’m really just trying to synthesize a whole bunch of moral concerns that are already out there. There’s plenty of data. What I was after was meaning. What does it mean that we’re in the thrall of his beautiful, savage game? That it’s essentially our national religion?

Did you watch much, or any, of this NFL season? Or college football/BCS?

SA: I worked very hard not to watch ANY football. And it was hard work, both because I love the game, but also because it’s on EVERYWHERE. The gym. The airport. My friends’ houses. The whole point was to not be an effing hypocrite. If I’m going to say consumption equals sponsorship, then I have to go cold turkey. It was (and is) tough.

Do you feel like, for you, keeping up with football will become a “know your enemy” type of thing now, so you can continue to make arguments against the sport? Or are you done with the whole thing once you finish promoting the book?

SA: Great question. I don’t know. In some sick way, writing the book was my way of making sure I could somehow be involved with the game, even as an anti-fan. And I’ve certainly justified watching some documentaries about the game, and reading articles, as “research.” But my hope is that after the paperback comes out, I’ll be able to devote my brief time on Earth to more emotionally direct and productive activities. It’s a strong jones, man. I’m trying.

Is the book doing well? Better than your other books?

SA: I don’t know how the book is doing. For a while, it seemed like it was selling a lot. But then people got bored of the NFL in crisis meme and sales died down. My hope wasn’t so much to sell a million books as to get a larger conversation started about football as a moral undertaking. That’s an incredibly disruptive agenda in a culture that worships football so much, that treats it as so normal. My hope is that some MSNBC host will have the guts to invite me on and let me set out the book’s arguments for longer than, say, 30 seconds.

Do you think there are any true villains in all this, and if so who are they?

SA: Villains. Gosh. I think in the end people are pretty much doing what they do. Rich owners are making money. The NCAA and NFL and the media are working the circus to their best advantage. That’s just capitalism, really. The point of the book was really that it’s us fans who have to take responsibility for our own consumption of the game. We built the whole shebang. It’s easy to cast blame on others, and harder to own it ourselves. But that’s the only way change happens — one conscience at a time.

As a serious Raiders fan, who do you consider the biggest rival of the Raiders? I’ve always suspected the Raiders give way less of a shit about the Chiefs than the Chiefs do the Raiders.

SA: It sort of shifts around, doesn’t it? Based on who’s good? I can remember the Chiefs knocking us out of the playoffs some years ago, and us doing the same thing to you guys. But even as I say that, it seems to me the whole “rivalry” thing is such a construct. After all, what are we rooting for exactly? For a set of players? Marcus Allen was a Raider, then a Chief, etc. etc. It’s just laundry. For our cities? C’mon. In the end, we’re rooting for some sense of ourselves. The whole tribal aspect of it feels pretty contrived. In many ways, football is just a way for dudes to be able to make conversation with other dudes and pretend that means they’re a brotherhood.

Can you think of a precedent for the downfall of football? You kind of mentioned boxing in the book. What do you think it would look like? Does it start in high schools, with parents no longer allowing their kids to play?

SA: That might help, though more likely that will lead to an acceleration of what Malcolm Gladwell calls “the ghettoization of football.” Basically, football players will increasingly come from economically vulnerable communities. The future of football depends on a lot of factors. Lawsuits. Medical research. Dumb luck. (Will Brett Favre speak publicly about his damaged brain? Will a prominent player be seriously injured on live TV?) In the end, all we can say for sure is that it’s up to individual fans. We built the Football Industrial Complex. It’s only going to grow less important if we turn away, or demand reform. Period.

What will you be doing 12 days from now, when everybody in the country is pounding Miller Lites and eating nachos and watching the Super Bowl?

SA: I’ll probably have the French Sailor’s outfit on, whistling the Soviet national anthem while my 1-year-old poops on my head. Winning!

More info on tonight’s library event can be found here. Almond’s book is available here.