Why Football Matters

"Someone looking to understand America might do well to study the nation's embrace of football. N.F.L. games regularly outperform anything else on television, and, in 2025, some hundred and twenty-seven million viewers tuned in to the Super Bowl - more than ever before. As this year's championship approaches, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz are joined by their fellow New Yorker writer Louisa Thomas to unpack the sport's allure, which has persisted despite increasingly dire evidence of the danger it poses to players' health."

"Together, they discuss football's origins as a "war game," how fictional depictions have contributed to its mythos, and the state of play today. "A very compelling reason for football's popularity is that it's not only a simulation of war," Thomas says. "It's a simulation of community." Read, watch, and listen with the critics: "Friday Night Lights" (2006-11); "The West Wing" (1999-2006); "Football," by Chuck Klosterman; "The End of the NFL's Concussion Crisis," by Reeves Wiedeman (New York magazine)."

American football commands enormous cultural significance, with N.F.L. games regularly outdrawing other television programming and the 2025 Super Bowl drawing roughly 127 million viewers. The sport's appeal persists even as evidence accumulates about grave risks to player health, including concussion-related harms. Football originated as a "war game," and fictional portrayals have reinforced its mythic status. The game functions as both a simulation of organized combat and a simulation of communal belonging, which helps explain its deep resonance. Cultural touchstones referenced include Friday Night Lights, The West Wing, Chuck Klosterman’s Football, and reporting on the concussion crisis by Reeves Wiedeman.

Read at The New Yorker