Name: Love, Zac
ISBN: 9781643752020

Reid Forgrave

Zac Easter could be your neighbour, your classmate, your son.

Small-Town Football and the Life and Death of an American Boy

Love, Zac

“A monumental achievement of deep reporting and expert storytelling.” —Michael Sokolove, author of The Last Temptation of Rick Pitino “I just can’t live with this pain anymore,” were among the final words in the diary of Zac Easter, a young man from small-town Iowa. In December 2015, Zac decided to take his own life rather than continue his losing battle against the traumatic brain injuries he had sustained as a no-holds-barred high school football player. In this deeply reported and powerfully moving true story, award-winning sportswriter Reid Forgrave speaks to Zac’s family, friends, and coaches; he explores Zac’s tightly knit, football-obsessed Midwestern community; he interviews cutting-edge brain scientists, psychologists, and sports historians; and he takes a deep dive into the triumphs and sins of the sports entertainment industry. Forgrave shows us how football mirrors America, from the fighting spirit it has helped inscribe in our national character to the problematic side effects of traditional notions of manhood that it affirms. But, above all, this is a story of how one young man’s obsession with football led him and many of those entrusted with his care to ignore the warning signs of CTE until it was too late. What do Zac’s life and death mean for a society addicted to a sport that can be thrilling and character forming but also dangerous and sometimes tragic for those who play it? Eye-opening, important, and ultimately inspiring, Love, Zac challenges us to think carefully about the ideals and values we as a nation want to instill in future generations.

Megan Snodgrass

I had already read the Sports Illustrated article about Zac Easter's suicide and CTE written by the same author.. and it is basically the last few chapters of this book. For me, the book took too much of a deep dive into the history of Football in America, and hunting and such in Iowa. While both are important to the story, a shorter history of both would have sufficed. Would have liked a bit more about the research of CTE and what exactly it does to the brain. Heartbreaking story though, and I think it might be a good book for those diehard football fans to read because while it does admonish the sport, it also goes into a deep dive about the conundrum of loving the sport even after knowing what it can do.

Love, Zac Small-Town Football and the Life and Death of an American Boy

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