Never Ran, Never Will: Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City

What journalist H.G. Bissinger did for high school football in Friday Night Lights, Samaha does for a youth football league in mostly black Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. Five years in the making, the story of the Mo Better Jaguars from 2013 to 2014 is both inspiring and depressing, a tale of children growing up in a mix of poverty, violence, and gangs. Samaha stresses that football was a means of escape for the boys ages eight to 13, many of whom aspired to a life beyond Brownsville; that is the beauty of the story. Through football, the boys are reminded that when they are running down the field, they are not running from the police. A criminal justice reporter for BuzzFeed, Samaha followed these players and their volunteer coaches from practices to games and back to their families. The final product is a joy for readers, an island of hope.