Content Warning: This section of the guide references the source text’s depiction of grief, trauma, and domestic violence that results in death.

Football is symbolic of community. The sport gives characters including West Ashby and Brady Higgens a sense of belonging and family. The characters’ teammates give them support and friendship. The sport also brings unlikely individuals together and lets them bond over a common interest.

For West, football offers him a support system when his dad gets sick. He doesn’t immediately take advantage of the team’s support because he fears exposing his vulnerability. By Chapter 28, he realizes that his football friends are there for him. After his dad dies, he comes out into the hall, “expecting it to be empty,” but it isn’t (193). Instead, he finds his teammates Brady, Nash, Gunner, Asa, and Ryker “lying around on different chairs” and realizes that they’re not only “friends and teammates,” they are a family (193). Therefore, football provides West with a network he can rely on. The sport acts as a distraction from his home troubles and a point of connection with his friends. Furthermore, these football friendships help him through his grief after his dad passes away.