Steve Almond on why he's abandoning football

Steve Almond loves football, but he no longer watches it. He thinks you shouldn't either.

In his new book, "Against Football," he argues that the damage caused to the players that fans admire it is a reason for every fan to stop tuning in on Sundays.

Almond in The New York Times:

Recently, though, medical research has confirmed that football can cause catastrophic brain injury -- not as a rare and unintended consequence, but as a routine byproduct of how the game is played. That puts us fans in a morally queasy position. We not only tolerate this brutality. We sponsor it, just by watching at home. We're the reason the N.F.L. will earn $5 billion in television revenue alone next year, three times as much as its runner-up, Major League Baseball.

The prevalence of head injuries is supported by research from the NFL itself which reported that retired players suffer from dementia and other cognitive problems at a "significantly higher" rate than the general population.

What is a fan to do? Abandon the game you love? Call for change? Leave your comments below.