Summary

Chapter eight begins with a rumination on the fate of the star student football player, who achieves an early glory that will only fade with time, and achieves it at the expense of his physical health. Casey describes the social prestige that he and his fellow players enjoyed, their particularity about uniforms, and the collective agony of the pre-game wait. He was once coached by Fred Walton to outwit an opposing team by running in the opposite direction of his teammates; it worked that night, but when Casey tried the maneuver against another team, he was roughhoused in retaliation until his arms bled. As Casey and his teammates moved into their junior year, they were advised that they would soon be assessed by college recruiters. The boys began to receive correspondence from recruiters that bordered on love letters. One day, a recruiter from...