For decades, Steve Almond spent his Septembers much like any other football fan. He began his love/hate relationship with the Raiders, cheered them on in the excitement of a new season, and felt the heartbreak as the weeks unfolded and the losses kept coming, or thrilled as the team started stacking wins. These days Almond feels a different kind of heartbreak – that of losing his beloved sport to the intrusion of his conscience. He had felt pangs of it before, watching the violence of the game and reading the stories about high school, college, and pro athletes suffering permanent physical and psychological damage from their chosen sport. The breaking point happened when he came face-to-face with the type of dementia players experience in their latter years. His mother had been hit by a truck, and years later, developed a dementia that threatened her life, though thankfully it turned out to be temporary.
In his new book, “Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto,” Almond details this experience and explores the dark side of a game embroiled in controversy over concussions and the twin firestorms of the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson abuse cases. It’s a highly personal account in which Almond analyses himself almost as much as he does the game of football, and decides he can no longer watch the game in good conscience. He’ll read from and discuss the book Thursday at Brookline Booksmith.
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Lifelong fan Steve Almond examines his conscience about the game of football.