海角大神

With the National Football League heading into the wild card games next weekend, and the college football championship scheduled for Monday, powerhouse teams dominate viewers鈥� imaginations. But the heart and soul of football doesn鈥檛 always play out in college or pro settings. And it doesn鈥檛 have to exclude women. Two recent books show how the game can unite a ravaged community and become a vehicle for equality.聽

A town burned, a team united

On Nov. 8, 2018, Paradise High School football coach Rick Prinz was texting his players about delaying practice; minutes later, the Northern California town鈥檚 residents were running for their lives. The Camp fire decimated Paradise, killing more than 80 people, and destroying 12,000 homes. The conflagration also wrecked the Paradise Bobcats鈥� shot at the playoffs. With the town in ashes (except, remarkably, for the high school鈥檚 football field), there was little hope of playing the 2019 season, either. Still, as Bill Plaschke, sports columnist for The Los Angeles Times, writes in 鈥淧aradise Found: A High School Football Team鈥檚 Rise from the Ashes,鈥� the Bobcats鈥� pulled off a remarkable comeback, bringing their town along with them.

When football games resumed 10 months after the fire, the Friday night lights had never meant so much to the community. It gave the people of Paradise a meeting place, a common cause, and a much-needed sense of normalcy, Plaschke writes. Playing football was also beneficial for the young men, a way of expressing their grief and taking back some control over their lives, even if they were also painfully aware of how much the people of Paradise were counting on them. The players were able to rise to the occasion, notching an undefeated 10-game season, stopped only by a heartbreaking loss in the championship.聽聽

Plaschke鈥檚 focus on the human side of this football story is a winning choice. Though there isn鈥檛 as much on-the-field action as one would expect, and the formula for each chapter can get a bit repetitive, there is emotional power behind the words of 鈥淧aradise Found.鈥� It鈥檚 a gut-wrenching and inspiring tale of the healing power of sports.

Women of the gridiron

Sports can also empower female athletes and subvert popular expectations around what women can do. For example, the notion that women aren鈥檛 tough enough to play football. In 鈥淗ail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women鈥檚 Football League,鈥� sportswriters Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D鈥橝rcangelo delve into the history of the largely forgotten women鈥檚 football league.

The story of women in football started long before the NWFL鈥檚 official founding in September 1974. It dates back to the invention of the sport in the late 19th century, when women took up football with gusto equal to that of men. But by the time the league came about, sexist ideas about women were deeply entrenched in American society. Women playing football were ridiculed and told it was too rough a sport for their delicate bodies, and besides, their game would never be as entertaining to watch as the men鈥檚.

But the women of the league proved the naysayers wrong. They were ferocious athletes, as competitive and hard-hitting as their male counterparts. They played the game because they loved it, because it helped them celebrate the power of their bodies and accept themselves and their teammates for who they were. The players in the NWFL didn鈥檛 aim to become poster children for the women鈥檚 liberation movement or to make a political statement, but that didn鈥檛 change the fact that they were carving out a space for women in a male-dominated field.

Sadly, the women鈥檚 efforts were undermined by the league鈥檚 lack of organization, popular support, and crucially, money. Convincing sponsors that women鈥檚 sports were worth backing was a nearly unsurmountable obstacle. Not many of the approximately 19 teams lasted into the 1980s.

Though the league鈥檚 lifespan was short, the impressive women of the NWFL took on a so-called man鈥檚 sport and excelled, and in 鈥淗ail Mary,鈥� readers come to know the players and the teams they called family. The authors strike a good balance between on-the-field and off-the-field action, making the reading as riveting as it is informative. 鈥淗ail Mary鈥� is a necessary and comprehensive history of a league far ahead of its time.