Football, Culture and Power

David J. Leonard is a Professor at Washington State University, USA and author of After Artest: The NBA and the Assault on Blackness.Kimberly B. George is a Ph.D. student in Ethnic Studies at UC San Diego, USA. She is also a writing consultant and an entrepreneur of alternative forms of critical social theory based education.Wade Davis is a former NFL player, educator, writer and public speaker on gender, race, and LGBT rights. He is an NFL diversity consultant, a former surrogate for President Obama, and the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Northeastern University, USA.

'This collection represents a topical and worthwhile contribution to the growing body of scholarship that probes American football’s cultural power and politics. Its coverage of such a broad range of topics—from able-ism to Black Lives Matter to social media to domestic violence—usefully demonstrate football’s enduring and multifaceted role as a framework through which to consider popular culture’s problems and potential.' - Travis Vogan, Assistant Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa, USA'David J. Leonard, Kimberly B. George, and Wade Davis have put together a timely and potent compendium of essays on football and the social, historical, political, and economic forces that shape the playing field. The authors skilfully address the intersection of football and issues of race, gender, sexuality, commodification, violence, and popular culture. With essays that examine theories of embodied practice, politics, and power, Football, Culture and Power is a must read for sports studies and cultural studies scholars.' - Samantha Sheppard, Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, Cornell University, USA

• 1. Football, its Narratives, and Their Challenges 2. Look Away: On the Racial, Sexual, and Cultural Politics of the NFL 3. Ballers without Blackness: The NFL's Suppression of Black Culture 4. Derelictum Ex Nihilo: Origins and Beginnings in The Blind Side 5. God-Fans of the Gridiron: Madden, Fantasy, Football, and Simulation 6. 4th & G(l)o(b)al: Origins, Evolution & Implications of a Globalized NFL 7. Fabled Futures: Migration and Mobility for Samoans in American Football 8. Everybody’s All-Americans: High School Football and the U.S. Military 9. Gender, Violence, and Brain Injury In and Out of the NFL: What Counts As Harm? 10. A societal mirror and a force for change: the NFL and its response to domestic violence 11. In Dialogue: On Sports, Sports Activism, Sexual Freedom and Other Types of Liberation 12. Michael Sam and the Sport of Queer Failure 13. ‘U Mad Bro?’ NFL Player Use of Social Media in Contentious Conversation 14. The NFL, Activism, and #BlackLivesMatter 15. A Feminist Football Fan: On the Psychic Life of Spectatorship