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Football has never been more popular

Matthew J. Parlow and Anne-Louise Mittal (Marquette): Are the Green Bay Packers Socialists? Lisa Uperesa (Hawaii): Fabled Futures: Migration and Mobility for Samoans in American Football. Defenders of the Washington Redskins name sound exactly like defenders of the Confederate flag did. John McWhorter on why “Redskins” is a bad word. How does the NFL’s Roger Goodell stay in power? By acting like a dictator. Peter Whoriskey on how one in six NFL players file for bankruptcy. Is the “Madden Curse” real, or just amazing bad luck? From the latest issue of Bookforum, Matt Hinton reviews Billion-Dollar Ball: A Journey Through the Big-Money Culture of College Football by Gilbert M. Gaul; and Tribal: College Football and the Secret Heart of America by Diane Roberts. Stuck-up twerps against doofus hicks: Ben Mathis-Lilley on how in-state college football rivalries became a form of class warfare. Diane Roberts on college football’s big problem with race.

From TNR, Jamil Smith on the necessity of football: America’s game is a fun-house mirror for our national character. Jason M. Breslow on how 87 deceased NFL players tested positive for brain disease. Adam Chandler on Frank Gifford and the NFL’s concussion crisis. Brain damage study shows student-athletes may risk same injuries as NFL players. Why does anybody play football anymore? Football has never been more popular — and it has never felt less like a game. Sean Gregory on why we need hit counts in football: We count pitches in baseball to save arms — it’s time to track hits in football to save lives. Ban “guarantee” games in college football, or else. Alone among our sports spectacles, American football kills our children.