Hey, it's Ampera's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Football season is over. Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks. But that just means one thing. Football season is set to ramp up again in just a few months. Because in America, football is an ever-present concern, whether we're talking professional college, high school,

pee-wee, pop-warner, whatever. So today we're going to look at two books exploring the sport.

In a bit, we'll talk about how the explosion in gambling has influenced the economy of football,

but first, a book simply titled Football. It's by cultural critic Chuck Closterman,

who argues that football

is one of the closest things we have left to a monoculture. How did it get there? And how long can it

claim that top spot? He talks about all that with NPR's Juana Summers after the break.

It's the day after Thanksgiving. In 1984, college football is on TV. The defending national champions, the University of Miami Hurricanes, lead the Boston College Eagles by four points late in an absolute shootout of a game.

There's only six seconds left, but I hear Brent Musburger's voice in the other room.

Three wide receivers out to the right.

So I walk in and I ask my dad what's happening and he's like, oh, Boston College, you

know they played hard, but this is over.

Boston College has the ball, but only has time for one last desperation play.

Quarterback Doug Flutty tells all his receivers to just run and heaves a Hail Mary pass

into the end zone.

Caught by Boston College. I don't believe it. It's a touchdown.

And then my dad, in a very kind of strange way, you know, with his odd demeanor, was like,

well, there you go. It's like, I gave up and he didn't. That's why he's who he is,

and I'm who I am. Yes, this was a weirdly dark moment for a

young Chuck Klosterman. And yet, it was one of the moments that he recounted to me as formative

for his ongoing obsession with the sport of American football. I do believe, despite a lot of

evidence to the contrary, that on balance, football is good for the United States, but not necessarily because it was good for me.

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