Hello there, I'm Chuck Todd and this is the Chuck Todd cast, so Americans may be more politically

divided than ever.

Disagreting not only politically, but also on what should be taught in schools, to what

constitutes free speech, to book bands.

But one place where Americans, regardless of political affiliation, don't seem to diverge,

however, is football, especially professional football, and of course still the Super Bowl.

Football continues to be America's favorite pastime.

It is, there's not one of anymore.

It is.

It makes up an overwhelming majority of the most watched US TV broadcast in the year 2022.

Surpassing politics, surpassing award shows, traditional entertainment, everything.

So how has football weathered the polarization storm?

My guest today is Sam Friedman.

He's a journalism professor at Columbia University's author of the book Breaking the Line, the

season in black college football that transformed the sport and changed the course of civil rights.

He also recently wrote a piece for the Atlantic that would you review a new memoir from former

New York Giants coach Tom Cofflin.

So Sam, I know you're not a sports journalist, you're a journalist who occasionally writes

about sports.

That's probably right.

I am the most away life-long football fan, so I'm the right guy for this occasion.

I appreciate it.

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