“Football’s massive popularity is undeniable, as are the many reasons players and fans are drawn to the game. But what is also undeniable is the game’s brutality and the troubling aspects of football culture at all levels. To whatever extent the reader shares Irv Muchnick’s perspective and conclusions, the evidence and arguments he presents deserve thoughtful attention.” — Bob Costas, Emmy Award–winning sportscaster “Muchnick’s jeremiad digs deeper than ever into the greed and hypocrisy of high school and college football, and the trail of broken bodies left in their wake. His information on the perils of conditioning is essential reading and might save your kid’s life.” — Robert Lipsyte, author of The Contender and SportsWorldFootball’s concussion crisis is well known, with our Hall of Fame heroes behaving erratically and dying young. But did you know that kid players across the continent die every year before a single ball is snapped — just from extreme conditioning drills directed by all-powerful coaches? And then, when the unimaginable happens, the football world simply buries the evidence, pays off victims’ families, and moves on …Without Helmets or Shoulder Pads presents the shocking stories of young men struck down by exertional heatstroke and other, often unacknowledged, causes. Taking the conversation about football and public health to a new level with investigations of the sport’s underreported worst tragedies and cover-ups it makes the case that no matter how much we enjoy America’s most popular sport at elite levels it belongs out of our public schools and off our public fields.Sales and Market BulletsACCOMPLISHED AUTHOR: Irvin Muchnick is the author of three books and has written for major publications such as Sports Illustrated, People, the Washington Monthly, and the Sunday magazines of the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. DISTINGUISHED MEDIA PERSONALITY: Muchnick has appeared on media forums as diverse as National Public Radio’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross and the former Fox News program The O’Reilly Factor. Frank Deford, the late sportswriter, author, and public radio commentator, said, “Irv Muchnick produces magnificent investigative journalism … He writes with passion and savage humor.”A HIGHLY UNDERREPORTED ASPECT OF FOOTBALL: Very often the deaths of young footballers are attributed to asthma, heatstroke, genetic heart disease, and sometimes blamed on exertional collapse associated with sickle cell trait, however what they fail to highlight is that these deaths are a side-effect of the game itself. This book will help educate readers on making well-informed choices about contact sports.INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM AT ITS FINEST: Muchnick lends his sports writing expertise to exposing some of the cover-ups of the death of young footballers by popular institutions. IN THE NEWS: 2022 alone saw the deaths of about 10 young NFL players, as documented by USA Magazine and CNN, among other major news outlets.