Not for Long: The Life and Times of the NFL Athlete, By Robert W. Turner II (2018) New York: Oxford University Press, 258 pages. ISBN: 978-0-1998-9290-7

Of the various team sports played across the globe American football poses the greatest physical and (possibly) psychological risks to its participants. A game based on speed, strength and physical domination over others is an occupation with a very high injury rate and short careers. National Football League (NFL) players have an average career of 3.1 years (p. x). Injuries to their bodies and their brain resulting from numerous concussions provide them with a post football life of pain, reliance on medical prescriptions and ‘illegal’ drugs, weight problems, family break-ups, difficulties in finding second career employment, mental disorders, depression and suicide. Despite the high income players may earn, Robert Turner quotes a 2009 report in Sports Illustrated that within two years of retirement, 78 per cent of players are bankrupt or in financial hardship due to joblessness or divorce (p. 2). Robert Turner is a former player with stints in the now defunct United States Football League, the Canadian Football League and the NFL. When he was cut from the NFL, he faced the dilemma of not knowing what he would do next. He sees this problem as being common to all players. Their identities are all linked to being footballers. Once this comes to an end— invariably as the result of an injury or a fitter or less injured younger player who can be employed for less—, players find themselves in a state of limbo and, if they are not careful or smart enough, long term decline into misery. Turner turned to education, obtained a PhD in sociology, which focused on sport and is a sport’s scholar. Much of this book draws on his PhD. A totalizing institution is where “all aspects of life are conducted in the same location and under a single authority and members daily activities are carried out in the immediate company of others” (p. 71). Prisons and the military are examples of totalizing institutions. College and possibly school football (Turner provides limited information on the latter) constitutes a sports’ example of a totalizing institution. At college, all aspects of a so called student’s life are controlled to maximise their ability to perform on the football field. Their hours of work are such that they have little time to attend class or study, they do Mickey Mouse courses, have academic (sic) advisors who ensure that they do not waste time performing academic functions, have limited interaction with other students, and even though their playing generates billions of dollars for their respective colleges, are forbidden by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) from being paid, because they receive scholarships which provide them with a pretended education, with many players leaving college without a degree. At college, players are indoctrinated to sacrifice themselves, their health and education, for the welfare of the team by coaches, many of whom are on multi-million dollar contracts. Turner sees similar processes playing themselves out in the NFL. Drawing on the work of the pioneering African American athlete and sociologist Harry Edwards, he sees labour relations in the NFL in terms of old White men dominating a predominantly Black young workforce (p. 123-124). He situates these issues in terms of a discourse of Black Nationalism. Besides examining different steps along players’ career paths, Turner also has chapters on the historical evolution of the NFL and its engagement with and/or neutralizing the impact of the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act and the trajectory of collective bargaining in the NFL with a brief examination of the 2011 deal negotiated between the NFL and the National Football League Players’ Association (NFLPA). Turner sees the NFLPA having …