It’s been a tough year to love football. I suppose it’s always difficult to grapple with the emotion of loving something as undeniably barbaric as America’s most popular sport, but justifying my love for football has been more challenging in these times than it ever has been. 

There were more ‘why are we even doing this?’ moments during this season than there ever has been in years past. As summer turned to fall, it was still so obvious this football season shouldn’t take place, yet on opening day, there I was glued to the TV, fresh plate of wings in front of me, reveling in the naive hope that this year might finally be our year for my beloved Minnesota Vikings (not even a pandemic can change that sad tradition). 

My favorite football moment of this difficult season came in August. As the NCAA’s Power Five conferences did the dance of canceling and un-canceling their seasons, a mid-major university made a statement that caught my eye. The McNeese Review, the literary magazine from the MFA program at McNeese State University, opened to submissions for a special football-themed issue for their fantastic online lit mag, Boudin. 

This made me happy for multiple reasons. I’ve used space here at the Under Review and on our social media channels to rant about the state of sports writing today. I think there is more good literary sports writing happening today than ever before, but the trend of the last few years suggests the industry’s shot-callers have no interest in publishing it. ESPN killed Grantland. Sports Illustrated sold its soul. G/O Media acquired Deadspin and ran everyone who helped build it out of town. And most gut-punching to this reader, the demon child of the year that was 2020 also marked the end of The Best American Sports Writing series. Needless to say, seeing another journal embracing sport as a method for meaningful storytelling gave me more to cheer about this year than any football team did. 

The other reason I got all excited when I heard news of this special issue was because I’ve had a football writing project swimming around my noggin for some time now. It’s a project I’d been neglecting, The McNeese Review dedicating time and space to bring more football writing into the world forced me to sit down and give this project the tender loving care it deserves.

My obsession with this subject started with a play from a Vikings game years ago. A play I just could not stop thinking about. I wasn’t thinking about the “Minneapolis Miracle” (I still love you, Stefon Diggs and I don’t care what anyone else in Minnesota says!!!). I wasn’t thinking about “Wide Left” or any other moment of Viking tragedy. I was thinking about the time Vikings defensive end Kenechi Udeze sacked quarterback Joey Harrington on the final play of the first game of the 2007 season. 

I won’t get into the details of the piece here. It’s titled ‘Consider the Pass Rusher’ and I hope you’ll take a few minutes to check it out along with the rest of this great issue. But part of the reason this play—a fairly insignificant play in regards to the result of the game—kept coming back to me was not because it held significance, but because it held so much story. 

Sport is an incredible container for story and a sport like football, a sport made up of dozens and dozens of plays, chess moves, matchups, and games within the game, contains an infinite number of stories every single game two teams step onto the gridiron. The Vikings were winning 24-3 with one second left on the clock when Kenechi Udeze sacked Joey Harrington in Week One of the 2007 season. A play you could argue meant nothing. A play I wrote 1400 words on and could have written a lot more had I not been rescued by smart and talented editors. 

Football is a game that has as many layers as it does flaws. The logic of football has more holes in it than a Vikings gameplan, but its layers and stories are always there. Always ready to be discovered, engaged with, and ready to be told. 

During this season, this season held within this godforsaken fuck of a year, I never allowed myself to forgive football for its flaws or exploitation, but engaging with football’s stories this year has only reaffirmed my belief that the battle against hot takes and click bait is well worth fighting. 

It’s been a tough year to love football, but I can’t wait to read all the stories this year in football will bring into the world.