Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
When is the "beautiful game" at its most beautiful? How does football function as a lens through which so many view their daily lives? What's right in front of fans that they never see? Football celebrates and scrutinizes the world's most popular sport-from top-tier professionals to children just learning the game.

As an American who began playing football in the 1970s as it gained a foothold in the States, Mark Yakich reflects on his own experiences alongside the sport's social and political implications, its narrative and documentary depictions, and its linguistic idiosyncrasies. Illustrating how football can be at once absolutely vital and "only a game," this book will be surprising and insightful for the casual and diehard fan alike.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.

Mark Yakich is Gregory F. Curtin, S.J. Distinguished Professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans, USA, where he is Director of the Center for Editing & Publishing. He is the author of many poetry collections, including Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross (2004), The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine (2008), and Spiritual Exercises (2019), all from Penguin Books. His unconventional guide to reading and writing poems, Poetry: A Survivor's Guide (2nd Ed., Bloomsbury, 2022), is taught worldwide.

1. Introduction to a Slightly New Game
2. A Concession
3. The Name of the Game
4. Popularity, Contests
5. Standstill
6. How to Make a Football
7. Two Games
8. 90-Minute Meds
9. Geisterspiel
10. Pickup
11. The Life-Changing Magic of Three-Touch
12. Of Nutmegs and Fish up a Tree
13. For the Love of a Pretty Move
14. Zone
15. A 21st Century Portrait
16. Zone Painting
17. Future Stronger in Color
18. Reset
19. The Best Seats
20. Hacking, Diving, Hugging
21. Intersectionality
22. Live Football in a Pandemic
23. Child's Play
24. Assessment
Acknowledgments
Index