This is a heartbreaking book. The story of a young man who lost his battle with CTE, which he contracted from playing high school football. A scary reality that many could find themselves in. ( )

It was difficult to relate to the "good ol' boy" mentality of what it takes to be a real man - guns, football, "sucking it up" when injured, etc. But as I got through the book, I appreciated the author's skill at presenting the story of Zac Easter's short and tragic life without judgment. America loves football, because of the violence or in spite of the violence. The revelation of CTE injuries presented a difficult reckoning for the NFL and beyond. Forgrave presents both sides of the controversy very well. In the end, I was glad to have read it. ( )

This was excellent, tragic, eye-opening, and gut-wrenching. The work explores the role of football in American culture and the future of football in light of CTE and other concussion based trauma and damage. These two themes center around the life of Zac Easter. An Iowa football player. The story follows Zac’s youth and high school career and exposes the dangers of football and the dedication Americans have to it.

After finishing this book, the reader is left to question why football persists in popularity despite the risks, how it is ingrained in the American psyche, and what it is about the sport that galvanized communities. Most of all the book is the tragic story of Zac and how he represents the contradictions of football in the U.S ( )

Devastating. This is a heart-wrenching story of Zac Easter and his struggles stemming from CTE. This horrible disease is only diagnosed after death, which makes reading his diary entries and text messages to his girlfriend when he was going through so much anguish, that much more devastating. This true story makes you think more deeply of football and how dangerous this sport can be, but how revered it continues to be. ( )

This book was delivered to my office, so it was a while before I was able to confirm that I had received it from LibraryThing. It is one of a number of books in the genre of stories of people adversely affected by CTE from football-related concussions. In this case, the player who had the problem was unusually young, having started playing football at an early age. The fact that the family could still have a love of football even after his death was particularly interesting; one hopes his living family members will escape the worst consequences of their football-playing history.