There's an invisible army of woman and men who really don't get why we give so much of ourselves to football. And they need to SPEAK UP.

The single biggest reason I got my stories taken in various literary magazines - and I want to stress this - is because I refused to give up. Period.

The truth is, every sport has been turned into a huge, nihilistic business.

Football is Lotto for kids from economically vulnerable neighborhoods.

Authors should be as involved with the marketing of their books as they want to be. No more, no less. I happen to recognized, quite early on, that no one was going to buy my book if I didn't do everything I could to let them know that the book existed.

Football is the kind of game where you have to really segregate kids from the general population and kind of colonize their minds. It's more intense and demands more than other sports. And this is why the folks who are involved (as players, coaches, boosters, fans) are so much more devoted to it. It's really a cult, when you think about it.

I happen to love football so much and hate myself for loving it.