Photographs by Wayne Lawrence
Interviews by Edgar Cardenas
Introduction by Matt Futterman
The human brain is hard-wired to manage conflicting thoughts and emotions. We know drinking alcohol can cause liver damage and burning fossil fuels is bad for the environment, but many of us still drink alcohol and still buy gas-guzzling vehicles.
Most people have generally accepted that playing football, in addition to teaching life lessons about teamwork and dedication, can lead to long-term brain damage, like any activity that involves a lot of collisions with other human beings or crashes with the ground.
And yet football remains the most popular support in America, a behemoth that we spend billions of dollars on each year.