No Game for Boys to Play - (Studies in Social Medicine) by Kathleen Bachynski (Paperback)

About the Book

"In 2016, the NFL admitted a link between degenerative brain disease and injuries resulting from tackle football. This admission sparked a new safety debate in professional football. However, the concerns about players' health do not start at the professional level, but at the beginning and intermediate levels of play. In this book, Kathleen Bachynksi tells the story of youth tackle football and the debates over player safety in the United States. In the postwar United States, high school football was celebrated as a "moral" sport for young boys, one that promised the creation of the honorable male citizen. However, Bachynski shows that throughout the twentieth century, coaches, sports equipment manufacturers, and even doctors were more concerned with "saving the game" than young boys' safety. By connecting the study of sport, health, childhood, and masculinity, Bachynski shows the social and physical vulnerability of young football players and how commonly held ideas of masculinity shape sport"--

Book Synopsis

From the untimely deaths of young athletes to chronic disease among retired players, roiling debates over tackle football have profound implications for more than one million American boys--some as young as five years old--who play the sport every year. In this book, Kathleen Bachynski offers the first history of youth tackle football and debates over its safety. In the postwar United States, high school football was celebrated as a "moral" sport for young boys, one that promised and celebrated the creation of the honorable male citizen. Even so, Bachynski shows that throughout the twentieth century, coaches, sports equipment manufacturers, and even doctors were more concerned with "saving the game" than young boys' safety--even though injuries ranged from concussions and broken bones to paralysis and death.

By exploring sport, masculinity, and citizenship, Bachynski uncovers the cultural priorities other than child health that made a collision sport the most popular high school game for American boys. These deep-rooted beliefs continue to shape the safety debate and the possible future of youth tackle football.

Review Quotes

"A comprehensive study of the postwar rise of youth football."--New York Review of Books

"A thoroughly written account of the facets of football concerns, benefits, politics, and the game's rise to the forefront of the sports industry. . . . [The book is a] necessary cross between public health and sport history that highlights the continued concern for football athletes."--Journal of Sport History

"A thought-provoking monograph that should hold out interest to anyone concerned about the health of children and the educational value of adult-directed youth sport programs."--Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth

"Excellent . . . Bachynski explores the long history of debates about the dangers of football and sheds light on current crises around the sport, concussions, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. . . . [and] does a wonderful job of examining youth football as a self-reinforcing institution primarily created, re-created, and supported by adults."--Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences

"Groundbreaking, badly needed history. With so much ink spilled on college and professional football, there are surprisingly few publications on the history of youth football, and this is by far the best."--Journal of American History

"Important and timely . . . [Bachynski] traces the evolution of social, cultural, and medical attitudes toward football, and how notions of masculinity, national identity, and boyhood historically have shaped debates on player safety. . . . The result is an accessible study . . . with great appeal for those with an interest in public health, sociology of sport, or men's studies. Highly recommended."--CHOICE