Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape

by Jessica Luther

"Jessica Luther studied history and the classics before marshaling her writing talent toward of-the-moment topics like sexual assault and college sports culture. Now she's an investigative journalist, working from her adopted hometown, Austin, Tex., in what is perhaps the nation's most college-obsessed state. Ms. Luther's new book, Unsportsmanlike Conduct , examines the 'programmatic manner' in which sexual assaults are swept under the rug by institutions both on campus and in the media."
-- New York Times "Not to reckon with Luther's book would be an abdication not only of one's moral faculty but also of one's fandom...Luther does't just want to save future victims; she wants to save college football."
-- New York Times Book Review "A significant and riveting look at how one of the greatest cultural tragedies of the millennial generation--the silencing of sexual violence against women on campus--is nurtured by a system of cover-ups and corporatized crises management."
-- Playboy.com "In Unsportsmanlike Conduct , [Luther] draws on years of research and reporting to outline what she calls the 'playbook'--all the standard, predictable ways that football programs, universities, the NCAA, and sports media typically respond when athletes are accused of rape or assault. It's an infuriating, exhaustively researched catalogue of problems, from denial and toothless language to ignoring or discrediting the victim."
-- Elle.com "The most important sports book of the year."
-- Booklist , Starred Review "Jessica Luther is a Texas-based investigative reporter who broke the story of Sam Ukwuachu, a football player at Baylor University who was then on trial for sexual assault. Since then she's kept track of the dozens of sexual-assault claims made against college football players every year. Here, she looks at the relationship between football and sexual assault, the people and systems that perpetuate it, and how we can change the narrative going forward."
-- New York Magazine "Investigative journalist Luther catalogues the abuses created and enabled by college football programs and suggests workable reforms."
-- Boston Globe , One of the Best Sports Books of 2016 The latest from Akashic's Edge of Sports imprint. Football teams create playbooks, in which they draw up the plays they will use on the field. Playbooks are how teams work and why they win. This book is about a different kind of the one coaches, teams, universities, police, communities, the media, and fans seem to follow whenever a college football player is accused of sexual assault. It's a deep dive into how different institutions--the NCAA, athletic departments, universities, the media--run the same plays over and over again when these stories break. If everyone runs his play well, scrutiny dies down quickly, no institution ever has to change how it operates, and the evaporation of these cases into nothingness looks natural. In short, this playbook is why nothing ever changes. Unsportsmanlike Conduct unpacks this societal playbook piece by piece, and not only advocates that we destroy the old plays, but also suggests we replace them with ones that will force us to finally do something about this issue. Political sportswriter and Edge of Sports imprint curator Dave Zirin (the Nation) has never shied away from criticizing that which die-hard sports fans hold dear. The Edge of Sports titles will address issues across many different sports--football, basketball, swimming, tennis, etc.--and at both the professional and nonprofessional/collegiate levels. Furthermore, Zirin brings to the table select stories of athletes' journeys and what they are facing and how they evolve both in their sport as well as against the greater backdrop of one's life's odyssey.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports, Feminism, Politics, Football, Sociology, History

248 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2016

Reviews

[Alison Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so very important, and I'm really glad it was Jessica Luther who wrote it. Her research is thorough and meticulous, she carefully applies an intersectional lens, and she speaks from the point of view of both a sports fan and a compassionate social justice activist who never wants us to forget to center the victims in sexual assault cases. She shows wisdom and empathy on all points, and offers some very smart and very feasible changes that colleges, sports organizations, and the media can and should adopt in order to try to lessen and hopefully eradicate sexual violence in this arena.

[mad mags · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fan's Take on the Intersection of Rape Culture, Racism, and Capitalism in College Football

(Full disclosure: I received an electronic ARC for review through Edelweiss. Trigger warning for discussions of rape and violence against women, obviously.)

So I am not what you'd call a sports fan. Occasionally I enjoy playing baseball, basketball, or tennis for funsies or fitness, but that's about the extent of it. I ran out of fucks to give as a spectator when my youngest brother aged out of Little League.

Jessica Luther, on the other hand, "was born with garnet and gold blood." Her parents graduated from Florida State University; she spent her autumns rooting for the Seminoles religiously; and, when it came time to go off to college, she only applied to one school. Once at FSU, she had her ass planted firmly in the bleachers for every home game, rain or shine, humidity and frost be damned:

I learned early on how to be a fan. There are rules and rituals the fans of a sports team follow and do, a kind of collective performance before and during games that show the love for our school and team. The playbook for fans consists of memorizing chants, wearing the right colors, painting our faces, and always singing along whenever you hear the school’s fight song. The most important play, though, is the one where you give your team your love and devotion, and you trust in the players and coaches even when they play badly and even if you have to ignore what they do when they are off the field and out of uniform. This, the fan playbook prescribes, is what good fans do. I used to be a really good FSU fan.

That is, until the 2012 rape allegations against Jameis Winston forced her to confront some of the more problematic aspects of the sport she so loves.

Let me stop right here and say that it's not that you have to be a fan of something in order to earn the right to critique its more problematic aspects; far from it. But the particularities of fan identity vis–à–vis sports - Luther cites studies which show that many fans' self-esteem is linked to their team's performance - certainly encourage suspicion and hostility towards outsiders, as do structural barriers against women in sports, not to mention larger cultural narratives surrounding rape and violence against women. To the football fans in the audience, Luther wants you to know that she's one of you, and her interrogation of that which you hold most dear comes from a place of love: both for victims/survivors, and for the sport itself. The wake up call is coming from inside the house, okay.

Luther's been writing about the intersection of sports, violence against women, race, and money for several years; Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape is the culmination of her work (at least thus far). Luther compiled a list of more than 115 cases of college football sexual assault allegations, from 1974 to 2016. The number's a little fuzzy, since many cases involve multiple rapists, including athletes from more than one college or sports team (so, for example, basketball players slip into the text here and there). If it seems small, just remember that a majority of sexual assaults go unreported. According to RAIIN, only 20% of female students report their assaults, compared to 32% of non-students. Additionally, most of the cases are from the past ten years; older cases just never made it onto the Internet and thus her radar.

And this also doesn't account for those allegations that, for whatever reason, never receive media coverage. The book's conclusion opens with one such case: allegations against a Baylor player, Samuel Ukwuachu, which somehow remained hush-hush until just twelve days before his trial. Luther received a tip from a source and immediately set out for Waco, just a day before the Waco Tribune finally broke the story.

Using these cases as a jumping-off point, Luther argues that sexual assault in college football follows the same script, or playbook. If you pay even the tiniest amount of attention to sexual assault cases, no doubt you'll recognize many of the plays: minimizing sexual assault; blaming the victim; police and judges (and coaches, athletic directors, and other authority figures) shielding the perpetrator; biased media coverage that centers the perpetrator and repeats sexist, rape apologist tropes, to name a few. But some plays are specific to college athletics, or at least more commonly found in this arena, such as transferring a student to another school (with an unblemished record, natch), where he's free to prey on a whole new pool of unsuspecting students.

And then there's the particular miasma of college football that sets the stage for violence against women to begin with. College athletes are worshiped like Gods, both on and off the field. Because of their earning potential, they're shielded from the consequences of their behavior, even when it's criminal. Instead of calculus and chemistry, they're schooled in entitlement. We all know this - but Luther digs a little deeper.

Because they are unjustly labeled "amateurs," college athletes are prohibited from earning a salary, accepting gifts, even profiting off their own name and image. Instead of money, colleges dangle women in front prospective players. Potential recruits are often shown around campus by female hosts, who are pressured to entice them with sex - or at least the potential of sex. In one mind-boggling (and law-defying) case, three women from the University of Colorado reported that football players and recruits had raped them at a party; DA Mary Keenan refused to press charges, because the players had "third-party consent." In other words,

“They had been built up by the players to believe that the situation they were going into was specifically to provide them with sex. Their mind-set coming into it was that it was consensual because they had been told it had been set up for that very purpose, and that’s what was going to happen.”

Needless to say, there is no such thing as "third-party consent." You cannot give consent (to anyone and anything, apparently!) on another person's behalf.

Also shocking is the prevalence of gang rape:

In all, just over 40 percent of the cases I’ve studied are gang rape allegations involving multiple players. If you add in cases where teammates are witnesses or later accomplices in harassing the woman who reported the violence, it creeps up close to 50 percent. This is incredibly high compared to what is known about gang rapes in the overall population.

More than anything, these numbers are emblematic of the toxic masculinity so often found in locker rooms. In gang rape, violence against women is transformed from an unthinkable violation to a male bonding experience.

In addition to misogyny, Luther also explores the racism that undergirds the whole system. Returning to the "amateur" status of college athletes, it's important to note that the people making money off the backs and bodies of these predominantly black players - the coaches, athletic directors, and university presidents; the NCAA; and even the media - are nearly all white men. They have a vested interest in attracting good players and keeping them on the field - and to do this, they objectify women and hang victims out to dry. Not because they care about their players, or believe in their innocence, but to keep the cash monies coming in.

Overall, these folks follow the same script that we all start learning before we're even old enough to talk (e.g., a boy who pulls a girl's ponytail or shoves her down on the playground is just showing how much he likes her), just with a little context-specific "bonus" material. Much of the reasoning behind protecting athletes who rape is equally applicable to Hollywood actors (Bill Cosby, Johnny Depp, Woody Allen) or other celebrities (R. Kelly, Julian Assange, Roman Polanski; I could go on for days) and "too important and/or talented to be held to account" men. I would've liked Luther to link her discussion to rape culture more generally - for example, explain exactly how objectifying women as compensation in lieu of money leads to assault - especially for the not-feminist football fans who might be reading; nevertheless, she does an excellent job, using a mere 224 pages to their fullest.

I could go on and on (seriously, I took nearly 60 pages of notes on my Kindle!), but suffice to say that Unsportsmanlike Conduct is a smart and insightful look at rape culture as it manifests in college football. The book is meticulously researched and documented (the end notes take up 16% of the book; they're not listed in the TOC, but fall under the Conclusion), and argued with passion and nuance.

I also appreciate that Luther offers a list of solutions - alternate plays - in the second half of the book. It's easy to feel like the scourge of violence against women is too entrenched in our society, too firmly upheld by cultural institutions, too massive and far-reaching to tackle. Depression and apathy are reasonable responses. But Luther ends on a hopeful note, offering some suggestions for positive change. Picking up this book - and maybe sending a copy to your school's president or athletic director - is one place to start.

Many thanks to Akashic Books for providing me with a review copy - and for creating a platform to discuss these important (but often unpopular) topics.

Read with: Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture–and What We Can Do about It by Kate Harding (2015)

 


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Editor’s Foreword

Introduction: The Playbook

PART I: THE PLAYBOOK AS IT IS
Chapter 1: The Field
Chapter 2: What the Playbook Doesn’t Show
Chapter 3: Nothing to See Here
Chapter 4: The Shrug
Chapter 5: Moving On

PART II: HOW IT COULD BE
Play #1: Consent Is Cool; Get Some
Play #2: Understand Trauma
Play #3: Go Federal
Play #4: Intervene, Maybe
Play #5: Follow the Players
Play #6: Be Specific
Play #7: Teach Coaches to Teach Boys to Be Men
Play #8: Clean It Up
Play #9: Fire People
Play #10: Do Anything
Play #11: Do Better
Play #12: Calm Down
Play #13: Hire Women

Conclusion: Change Is Possible

Endnotes

About Jessica Luther

Copyright & Credits

About Edge of Sports

About Akashic Books

http://www.easyvegan.info/2016/09/14/...

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This is a very important topic. Pervasive is the word I would use. This book explores the topic of rape culture, especially in collegiate football, from multiple angles, both specific cases and in general. I believe it is handled both with care and respect, but also in a very practical, common sense manner. My favorite part of the book is part 2, How It Could Be... recommendations on where to start to end rape culture. This book reminded me a lot of Between the World and Me, I think because it is so directly honest, and it was such an eye-opening experience for me. This should be required reading and teaching. I only docked it a half point because there was a little repetition. That may have been deliberate for conditioning purposes, but I was already sold.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn't a perfect book, but I think it's an important read for sports fans. It's definitely tough to get through at times, but I think Luther did a good job of balancing everything. My one major complaint was that some sections were a lot more detailed and felt better thought out than others. In some ways it seemed like Luther was trying to write a book that would appeal to too many different audiences, which is tricky with such an emotional subject. I did think Luther did a good job of presenting facts and stories without too much bias and any media that sheds more light on the problem of toxic masculinity and rape culture in sports is important.

Received from Edelweiss in exchange for review.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really important book. I feel so strongly about this that I think those of us who are fans of sports, college football in particular, or who work in sports, have an obligation to read this book.

Luther, who, along with Dan Solomon, broke the Baylor rape scandal, goes into painstaking detail about how college football programs fail to report and discipline players who commit rape of fellow students. The evidence is mind-blowing and the detailed accounts of inaction is infuriating. It also discusses our biases that make us more likely to discount a victim's story because it's against a college athlete.

An important stat I learned in reading the book: only 2-8% of rape reports end up being false. Another research study found that only 3% of rape claims are erroneous. That means 97% of the time - it's true and it happened. Much more needs to be done to combat the existence of sexual assault and the lives that are ruined as a result; Luther does a good job of offering ideas as to what meaningful change might look like.

I gave the book 4 stars because despite its incredible detail, it doesn't flow very well. It is scheduled around a "playbook" style - college football's failed playbook in addressing sexual assault and a suggested "playbook" for combatting the epidemic of sexual assault in NCAA sports. The format becomes trite as the book progresses. Luther is a self-proclaimed dogged researcher - it's clear that she excels in that department. However, she credits her colleague, Dan Solomon, for being the storyteller in their groundbreaking investigative story in Texas Monthly, "Silence at Baylor;" a lack of coherent storyline or flow does diminish the clarity of the book. She also tends to take on a somewhat disdainful tone at times, categorizing whole groups of being at fault (sports journalists, all coaches, etc.). While there is absolute disdain to be had for many involved in the horrible cases she details, it could be argued that her tone seems to distract at times from the objective power that her facts present.

[Agatha Donkar Lund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brutal. Necessary. Brilliant. Read it. And if you read it and it makes you feel bad about yourself, maybe think about why.

[Dimas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessica Luther is a sportswriter. But she doesn’t have the traditional sports writing career trajectory. She actually had a career in academia. Luther was on a PhD track in history before pursuing sports writing full time. She's sort of an outsider. Because of that fact, she is doing some of the most noteworthy work in sports journalism.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct, Luther's first book, is about failure. Particularly, about how the college football ecosystem fails our young women students. Rape culture is a problem in society, but it's especially potent in the locker room where young male students are expected to uphold the expectations of being "manly men."

Luther's work is strong because she doesn’t just hold the students who commit these rapes accountable, but the system that foster and often ignore these crimes, from the university figures who want to protect the players for their own financial reasons to the fans who only care about the success of their respective team to the journalists who cover sports and don’t have the range to deconstruct societal issues.

Luther assembles the book in two parts. She calls them "playbooks." The first being the way it is; the second being the way things could be. I found the playbook stuff a bit gimmicky at first but I warmed up to it as the book went on. I have to admit this device is an effective way to compartmentalizing the massive amount of information she gives out.

I found playbook two to be especially sad. While reading it I realized Luther's plan for making things better is to educate: to set up a system that teaches students, faculty and even journalists about rape culture, consent and misogyny. It actually could be a simple fix. And it just makes me realize how little the people who hold the power actually care to fix it.

I'll acknowledge this book isn't exactly a page-turner -- several gang rapes are described and Luther writes like an academic -- but I couldn't recommend this book enough, especially if your a football fan or if you’re trying to break into sports journalism or if you are just trying to be a decent person.

[Kelly]

An excellent, well-written, and well-researched book about the intersections of rape culture and college football. Luther is a sports fan, and her work focuses not on condemning the sport nor fans, but rather, it raises questions about why and how so many sexual assault cases in college football go the way they do -- that is, the athletes who are accused continue to be able to play the sport while the victims continue to be diminished and harmed.

After looking at how things work (or rather, don't work) now, Luther then proposes possible solutions for this culture and ends the book with what drew her to write the book in the first place. When you care about an issue deeply and the entertainment you love doesn't, how do you rectify the disconnects?

[David Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jessica Luther offers a powerful discussion of the playbook that surrounds media discussions, public discourse, and responses from universities in the face of the politics of rape and college football. Discussing masculinity, the politics of hero-making, the economics of sports, issues of race and racism, and so much more, Jessica Luther offers a timely and complex discussion of rape culture and its connective tissue within modern college football. Reflecting on its specific entanglements within college football, all while pushing the conversation beyond sports, Luther pushes the conversation in important ways. The book is hard to read, given the details, given the pain, given the specters of violence, yet it is a must read, particularly for those who love college sports. It isa must read for sports media, who perpetuates rape culture; a must read for university administrators, athletic or otherwise, who play an important role in the epidemic of sexual violence on college campuses and within sports culture; a must read for fans who play an instrumental role in normalizing the politics of rape. A must read for all of us!

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good and definitely important, but not what I was expecting. This is sort of like a collected series of articles - like a big New York Times series on some societal problem that's been collected into a book. Not bad at all, but I was expecting something more investigative, maybe with interviews, more like the author's amazing story for Texas Monthly that's mentioned in this book. Instead, it's a long survey of the problem and a shorter section of recommendations. There's clearly a ton of research that's been done here, and Luther clearly knows the topic well, but it doesn't seem like a lot of interviews were done with people actually involved in college football. I wish there had been more of that, just to get the perspective on the ground along with the great content in here. I'd still definitely recommend this book - while it wasn't what I thought it would be, it's still crucial information that we all should be aware of.

(Read Harder 2017: #1 Read a book about sports.)

[Tom Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was not easy to read. It's relatively short but took me many weeks to finish. The reason for that is not because it is poorly written - quite the opposite actually. The subject matter that it deals with is difficult. I don't enjoy reading about sexual assault or rape, and I really don't enjoy reading about how our society basically doesn't care about them in any meaningful way. But this book is extremely important. The attitudes and agendas laid bare in its pages are not just contained to college football or to sports generally, but to our culture. Thanks to the author, Jessica Luther, who spends her days reading about and researching these subjects, we now have a synthesized volume describing the problems that many of us are able to ignore . This book was not easy to read, but it is imperative that more people do read it and try to come to terms with its subject matter.

[Kb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm die-hard Packers fan, but the stories of violence against women in both the NFL and college football are making it harder for me to justify giving my money and attention to football and the NCAA. Luckily, Luther is a fan herself and knows the struggle.

This book does a great job at widening the story from just looking at the accused. She looks at the structures - universities, the NCAA, the media and American culture - that allow rape culture to flourish in football programs. She also provides a few concrete solutions to combat these forces.

If you were disappointed in Missoula not dealing with the larger issues dealing with football and rape, this is a good book to read.

[Jess]

I don't know how to rate this so I'm not going to (does one love a book about sexual assault and rape?) But it was a very sobering read, and on top of all of the other feelings I've been having about college football and the pandemic and I have nothing really worthwhile to say, but it's all really messed up. Thank you for your work, Jessica Luther.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luther looks at college rape in terms of football players being charged. She addresses all aspects of the issue - including the issue of race as well as how the media reports on such things. Engrossing, easy read.

[Hillary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading for sports fans.

[Angry.Sad.Motivated · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good - and worth the read. Luther brings interesting insight to the problem as well as some potential solutions. What I most appreciated was that she helps develop a context wherein university administrators and sports fans alike can begin to understand and fight back against rape culture in college football.

A tough read - but definitely valuable. I appreciate her work in this book.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that should be in the hands of every athlete, coach, administrator, journalist, booster, fan, and student, read and taken to heart.

A cascade of examples floods the first half of the book as Luther lays out how teams and universities have a pattern of not combating sexual assault and then have a pattern of responses they go to when it happens. Heartbreaking, but enraging, what she illustrates will help the reader see through the bullshit institutions and those in its service shovel instead of dealing with male entitlement and rape culture.

The last section of the book is an incredibly relevant set of steps institutions could take to actually solve things and make not only their campuses but the world safer for women--and the men on the team who won't have to live up to the archetypes of toxic masculinity.

Essential.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was incredibly difficult to read...and is incredibly important for people to read.

Luther takes her reader painstakingly through the problem of rape culture, not just in sports but in our country as a whole. She's the right guide for this awful tour and shows expertise as both a researcher and a fan. The writing itself is clunky at times--the device of the "playbook" that Luther relies on feels a little forced in particular--but her argument is unassailable and vitally important.

This is a very hard topic to devote free time to exploring further. That is all the more reason to do so.

[Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important and timely book about college football and the cover-up of sexual assaults by football players. This book also includes solutions to the problem as well as valuable information about the trauma done to the victims, and the abysmal lack of justice for the victims, and lack of accountability by colleges and universities.

[Camryn Callaway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite quotes:

Certainly our focus on college sexual stems in part from our cultural tendency to pay far more attention to the experiences of white, middle/upper-class Americans. (p 30)

Universities that do not adequately protect students from sexual assault or ignore reported assaults are, therefore, in danger of losing federal funding. It’s worth noting that as if early 2016, no university has ever lost federal funding for Title IX violations. (p 30)

The Chicago Taskforce on Violence Agains Girls & Young Women’s “Reporting on Rape and Sexual Violence” media toolkit says, “‘Sexual activity,’ ‘sexual assault,’ and ‘molest’ are vague terms that tell us nothing about the actual crime, making it impossible for the public to understand what happened, or to know how to feel about the harm done and whether the reactions of responsible adults, law enforcement officials, etc., have been appropriate.” (p 32)

Football is one of the premier lenses through which we define masculinity in our culture. (p 39)

Coaches often look to legal outcomes to decide how to knowledge that legal outcomes in these cases are complicated and often do not resolve the cases in a manner that withdraws all doubt about the crime. (p 35)

The takeaway cannot be that Florida State is an anomaly, though. It is an example of the ordinary. (p 60)

Alongside the troubled history of race and sexual violence is the country’s long and ongoing history of exploiting the bodies of black people for their labor. We now see these issues playing out with regard to college athletics, especially around football and basketball, sports dominated by black athletes. (p 74)

In December 2015, the Washington Post published the results of “a survey of options on ‘pay for play’ policies” which found that “negative racial views about blacks were the single most important predictor of white opposition to paying college athletes.” The discussion around paying college athletes, then, “is implicitly a discussion about race.” The continued effort to justify away why players are not paid while they destroy their bodies and bring in large sums of money is all tied up in our ideas about black men providing cheap or even free labor. (p 77)

They are teaching these players about exploitation and how to use other people’s bodies for one’s own ends [by not paying college athletes]. (p 80)

These players and their bodies have often been “treated like objects or commodities” for others’ consumption... (p 80)

“Did you ask her if she wanted to have sex with you and did she say yes?” That is. whole other world from “Did she ever say no or fight back?” If I could choose which world to live in, I’d choose the former. If we taught enthusiastic consent as the acceptable indicator of someone’s desire to have sex, then there would be far fewer questions about what happened. (p 161)

This is an important point: you cannot actually say yes if there is not also space to say no. Consent doesn’t exist if anyone is being threatened, coerced, is unconscious, has been drugged, or is unaware (i.e., asleep). (p 161-162)

For, as Leonard [Dr. David J. Leonard, associate professor and chair of the Department of Critical Culture, Gender, and Race Studies at Washington State University] suggests, failure to treat each story with the care it deserves means that journalists “contribute to stereotypes and a flattened understanding of the violence,” and “it erases the victims, it erases the culture of violence, and it erases the daily harm.” (p 210)

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

As powerful as it is necessary, Luther's discussion of sexual assault and college football covers a tangled landscape of surrounding culture and attitudes--from politics, to fandoms, to tradition, to expectations, and on to identity. As difficult as the examinations in this book are, there's also a great deal of love and objectivity here; in fact, I suspect that only someone who Does love football could have written this work in this manner, where it is not only serious and piercing, but respectful and, on some level, even understanding of the reasons we've reached this point in history and culture, without excusing any of it.

And yes, this is far more than a catalog of players and nights gone horribly wrong, and far more than a listing of victims and villains. Systematically, Luther presents evidence of a culture and systems that not only perpetuate behavior that leads to assault and victimization, but then cover up such behavior with what might look like ignorance, but is actually self-sustaining promotion of the status-quo. And, what's more, she presents paths for change, and signs of change that are already struggling to make a difference, while making it terrifyingly clear that even as these changes are happening, much is being done to undermine them.

If I could, I'd ask every college instructor and student to read this. I'd drop off barrels of the book in the locker rooms and even at high schools, and I'd make my students read sections, if not the whole of it, if I still taught in a college town. I'd drop it off in high schools and ask the coaches to read it, and I'd pass it to my friends. And even beyond coaches and athletes, it should be read by fans. There might be an argument to be made that fans need this book as much as anyone, in fact.

In an approachable and careful way, this is an important book, and deals thoughtfully with an issue that should not be ignored, but too often is.

Absolutely, I'd recommend it.

[Alex Witkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Jessica Luther for a while now, following her work on Twitter. She approaches sports writing in a way that more people should: by looking at sports in relation to culture and politics rather than purely as scores and statistics. This was a difficult read because it includes detailed accounts of abhorrent crimes that received minimal press and even less accountability. But it’s important to understand the ways in which our institutions and the ways we interact with these institutions facilitate sexual assault. I was shocked to realize how few of these stories I was aware of. I was repulsed by the quotes from coaches and the sexually explicit programs colleges put into place to recruit players. At the beginning of the text, Luther spends almost an entire chapter simply listing all of the instances of sexual assault in college football she was able to find in her research. As the book continues, she unpacks some of these examples in depth to show how the institutions, the players, the coaches, the media, the police, and the public failed the victims. She illustrates how formulaic and predictable the reaction to each instance is, and at the end she lays out the changes that need to be made if we actually care about fixing this. Luther is uniquely qualified to approach this because she is a sports fan herself. She writes with passion and urgency, delivering both objective accounts of events and critical analysis that is backed by research. Although I do wish her proposed solutions were a little more specific, I am glad that she did more than simply lay out the problem. She also organizes the book very well, drilling down into each element of the issue and using the cases that best illuminate the flaws in the response. This is a valuable read for those who are caught in the moral complication of enjoying sports and realizing the ways they reinforce dangerous social problems.

[Robert Schwab · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an incredibly important topic, and the author takes an interesting approach to presenting the issues and suggested solutions. The book suffers from uneven editing, it seems, that detracts from its readability, and makes the overall experience less satisfying. At several points in the text, the author refers to a name that has not recently appeared, forcing the reader to backtrack in order to understand the context for a particular point. Twice I could not find a previous reference to a name, and was left without context or understanding. There are also more typographical errors than the few that one expects in any publishing endeavor. Nevertheless, the message is important enough, and the author’s suggestions for improvement interesting enough, that I would recommend this book. One area that I wish she had explored more fully was the basis for the deep, visceral fan worship (which she herself admits to retaining, despite her research and writing of this book) of college football that enables and perpetuates the morally bankrupt culture that minimizes criminal activity and does a disservice to the athletes as well as the victims.

[Jonathan Greer · Rating 4 out of 5]

9th book of 2017. Checked out of the Dallas Downtown Public Library after hearing Jessica Luther on the Slate "Hang Up and Listen" Podcast.

I always love books that have footnotes. It's a good sign that the author has done their homework. Luther certainly has, detailing the problems with sexual assault and rape in college football. This book is thoroughly researched, but it is a bit overwhelming because the system has so many challenges. Luther attempts to separate individual problems through the use of a "playbook" to set apart different aspects that need to be remedied to create a safe environment on college campuses. I found the use of the "playbook" to be cheesy, but I did appreciate her efforts of consciously setting part the many levels and example of how the NCAA, colleges, and their football programs are not fixing the evident dilemma of rape and sexual assault.

What makes this book stand out is Luther's focus on reasonable ways to fix the challenges. One could read the first half of the book and be left totally overwhelmed, but Luther sets forth great examples and ideas on how things can and should be fixed.

I had personal interest in the last few pages, as Luther used the example of Baylor's recent sexual assault scandal as a situation where things have "improved". I put improved in quotation marks, because certainly, Baylor has had some major challenges in dealing with the severity of the sexual assault and rape within their athletic program. Of course, so much more has come to light since the printing of Luther's book, but she points to the firing of Coach Briles as a sign that Baylor realizes the responsibility of the head coach in leading the culture of his locker room and program. In my opinion, Baylor has failed to fully "do the right thing" to provide justice to the many victims of sexual assault within this scandal, but they certainly have taken steps that seem revolutionary in comparison to the awful apathy that has usually come with these investigations at other universities.

Luther tackles a very large subject, and though each point could be made a book within itself, her brevity helps give a respectful and thoughtful overview of the problems at hand and an insightful commentary on how things can be remedied.

Read it. Not one you need to own, but certainly a highly recommended read to anyone who is a fan of college football. And certainly one I wish every member of Baylor's Board of Regents and administration would read.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This took me most of a year to read, and I didn't even start it for months after buying it (and meeting the author and getting the book signed). It's fine, though; the author notes in the introduction that she wrote the book in a piecemeal fashion since it's simply too painful to hold the whole thing in her head at once.

But more importantly, this book helped me find a community of women writing about sports, who care about sports, and who are aware of the problems with the sport culture (men's college sports and pro men's sports, primarily) and are actively working to change them, rather than rejecting the whole concept already and pretending like it isn't an awfully huge influence in society and that every single person who likes sports is irredeemably horrible. Recommended, with, of course, the caveat that you may find yourself reading it piecemeal as well, and obviously it's pretty clear what the book is about.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m somewhere between a 3 and 4 here. Things I liked: the unifying metaphor of “the playbook” to organize and unify the book as well as show how the well-practiced plays of sexual violence go, the research, the many solutions/ interventions the book offers. Things that could be stronger: style! There are some moments of snark that feel half-hearted or where the author only thinks she’s making a sick burn. The use of sources was often a brain dump or... summary? without a ton of fresh insight. In some ways the handling of sources felt like a smart student’s research paper on an interesting topic instead of a polished book. I also think this book is best for someone for whom the cases will be new, such as a high school student or undergrad, who doesn’t know these stories. It was also very readable. I do think it’s a good book— but if I hold Missoula as the gold standard on the topic, then this is below Missoula.

[Pamela Montano · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books takes a detailed look at the relationship between sports teams and sexual assault on college campuses. it's not just about the people who commit the crimes or the victims who try to report it, but the administration, the coaches and the communities who try to sweep it under the rug. The cops are paid to look the other way, the athletic departments are paid to win and the university administration is asked to keep the money pouring in to the schools. If everyone runs his play well, scrutiny dies down quickly, no institution ever has to change how it operates, and the evaporation of these cases into nothingness looks natural. In short, this playbook is why nothing ever changes.

[Alisa Gayle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jessica Luther meticulously researched the epidemic of sexualized violence on college and university campuses. She sheds light on the systemic cover-ups in "higher" institutions and also analyzes the inextricable links between racialized athletes and the racist justice system.

Luther has taken time not only to describe the detailed history of events but also to discuss next steps. So although the first part is very tough read (trigger warnings for trauma survivors) she also maps out a course of action.

[Sam Kraft · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It focused in on Jameis Winston, who played football at FSU as a quarterback. A young female came forward saying how Winston rape and sexually assaulted her at a party and they have found clear evidence that he did. YET, obviously they didn't do anything about it/ got a way with it because currently, he PLAYS in the NFL as a quarterback. It is very frustrating reading this and seeing where he is now. The last part of the book talks about ways the NCAA, teams, coaches, and men in general, can stop rape from happening. Definitely recommend.

[J. Marchio · Rating 5 out of 5]

superb insight into the world of college football, details the situation perfectly by examining it from different angles. Even so, it does not sound repitive. I found myself nodding along with everything the author presented. its passionate, knowledgeable, brutally honest and offers great solutions while not being preachy.
i'd recommend the audiobook on Scribd, because i loved the narrator and the feminine rage they brought to the book. one of the best non fiction i have read this year!