Mark Edmundson opens “Why Football Matters: My Education in the Game,’’ with a sentence I could have written: “I grew up watching football with my father.” I too began watching games on television with my dad at age 6, and I too rooted for the New York Giants and remain an avid fan. Edmundson, a University of Virginia English professor and author of numerous books, including the recent “Why Teach?’' (an impassioned and beautifully reasoned defense of liberal-arts education), vividly conveys the sacredness of the Sunday afternoon “football-wat...
