Football. Far more than a game, America’s favorite spectator sport is an intrinsic part of the nation’s popular culture—a proving ground for high school athletes, a springboard for stars, a multimillion-dollar business, and a vast entertainment enterprise. Football: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture provides a detailed look at America’s pastime through the lens of pop culture, a fascinating A-to-Z inventory of how certain aspects of the game affect and reflect broader society.

 

From African Americans in football to the meaning of Zero in the sport, this volume profiles players and personalities, teams and events, games and football concepts, and sociological and technological changes in the sport. The goal is not to name every Hall of Famer or to retell the game’s entire history, but to give a clear and detailed account of where, in football history, the importance of people and events extends beyond the playing field. Its wide-ranging entries examine such names as Joe Montana and Byron “Whizzer” White and phenomena from concussions, mascots, team names, and literature to U.S. presidents and football’s presence in television commercials. The encyclopedia covers all levels of play—professional, collegiate, high school, and youth—offering a from-the-ground-up, gridiron look at the game of football within the matrix of American culture.

Edward J. Rielly is a professor of English at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine. He is the author of several books, including Baseball: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, available in a Bison Books edition.

"Armchair quarterbacks as well as pop-culture junkies will enjoy diving into this informative and wide-ranging A-Z rundown on the players, teams, epic match-ups, concepts, equipment, expressions and other assorted gridiron odds 'n' ends that have made football an intrinsic part of American life."—Neil Pond, American Profile