The revelation to me in doing the research for this book was how important football was to ideas and ideals about masculinity: the football player as the ideal male. The violence of football, the collisions of football were important to that. You proved that you deserved to be considered a man by being able to take it. You could absorb punishment and not give up and not cry, just keep coming back for more. You could take it. That was the measure of a man.