This book features an examination of the rise and evolution of the football narrative (1870 to present) in order to analyze and define the process by which American men have sought to fashion masculine identity over the last century. The athletic hero functions as a representative of a larger number of templates or centers (the religious man, the business tycoon, the family man, the rebel, etc), many of which have been used by various men to make meaning of their lives. By using the literature as a lens through which to examine the center of the athletic hero, the author concludes that the...