Episode 169: Exploitation and Care in College Football with Dr. Tracie Canada

In this episode of The End of Sport, Nathan and Derek sit down with Dr. Tracie Canada, Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Director of The HEARTS Lab at Duke University, to discuss her new book Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football (University of California Press). A decade in the making, this Black feminist analysis confronts how college football exploits and harms the young Black men who dominate rosters across the United States. While universities and coaches lean on the “football family” myth, Dr. Canada shows how a genuine brotherhood among Black players emerges alongside the tireless care of mothers who support their sons on and off the field. This conversation explores the deep inequalities of the sport, the forms of care that resist them, and what Tackling the Everyday contributes to ongoing debates about race, exploitation, and the future of college football.You can order Tackling the Everyday directly from University of California Press with a 30% discount by visiting https://www.ucpress.edu/books/tackling-the-everyday/paper and using the code UCPSAVE30.