Should we let our sons play football? The New Rochelle High School team in suburban New York is like many across the a source of civic pride, a manhood workshop for a revered coach and an emotional proving ground for boys of widely different backgrounds. In the fall of 2014, New Rochelle's season unfolded alongside NFL head injury revelations and domestic abuse cases.
KOSTYA KENNEDY is the Editor in Chief of Premium Publishing at Dotdash Meredith. A former Senior Writer and Editor at Sports Illustrated, he is the author of the forthcoming book The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America as well as True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson, the New York Times bestsellers 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports, and Pete Rose: An American Dilemma. All three books won the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year. He has taught at Columbia and New York University, and he lives in Westchester County, New York.