Tackling the Everyday

Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football

Tracie Canada

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English

University of California Press
25 February 2025

Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies; Black & Asian studies; Social & cultural anthropology; American football

Series: Atelier: Ethnographic Inquiry in the Twenty-First Century

A Black feminist take on exploitation and care in America's favorite game.

Big-time college football promises prestige, drama, media attention, and money. Yet most athletes in this unpaid, amateur system encounter a different reality, facing dangerous injuries, few pro-career opportunities, a free but devalued college education, and future financial instability. In one of the first ethnographies about Black college football players, anthropologist Tracie Canada reveals the ways young athletes strategically resist the exploitative systems that structure their everyday lives.

Tackling the Everyday shows how college football particularly harms the young Black men who are overrepresented on gridirons across the country. Although coaches and universities constantly invoke the misleading ""football family"" narrative, this book describes how a brotherhood among Black players operates alongside their caring mothers, who support them on and off the field. With a Black feminist approach—one that highlights often-overlooked voices—Canada exposes how race, gender, kinship, and care shape the lives of the young athletes who shoulder America's favorite game.

By: Tracie Canada
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Volume: 19
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 408g
ISBN: 9780520395657
ISBN 10: 0520395654
Series: Atelier: Ethnographic Inquiry in the Twenty-First Century
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 25 February 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. “I Love Saturdays”: Organizing the Team 2. “I’m an X in Their Playbook”: Concern for Individuals 3. “I Do It for Them”: Bonds of Brotherhood 4. “The Year My Mom Was Born”: Care from Mothers 5. “The Son That Gets a Lot of Whoopings”: Joking through Violence Coda Notes Bibliography Index

Tracie Canada is the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. Her work has been featured in public venues and outlets such as the Museum of Modern Art, The Guardian, and Scientific American.