The Football Novel

David Davis writes:

The football novel didn’t hit its stride until the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the sport began to overtake baseball as our national obsession. Not coincidentally, the quartet of works that still dominate the pantheon — Dan Jenkins’ "Semi-Tough," Peter Gent’s "North Dallas Forty," Frederick Exley’s "A Fan’s Notes" and Don DeLillo’s "End Zone" — reflects the anti-Establishment chaos of Vietnam War-era America. In these funny and passionate novels, football serves as backdrop to stories of friendship, loss and obsession.

Today, the influence of contemporary football — at the high school, collegiate and professional levels — exceeds every other sport in America. The South shuts down on Saturdays for college games. Super Bowl Sunday serves as a secular holiday; even the commercials for the big game are hotly debated. After Hurricane Katrina, more than $150 million was spent to repair the Louisiana Superdome, in part so that the New Orleans Saints could play again.