The book: Looming concerns about the long-term health effects of playing football — most notably, the prevalence of the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE — have led some to question the future of America’s most-watched sport. In 1st and Forever (Post Hill Press), Bob Casciola ’58 makes an earnest and personal argument that football can and should be saved. 

Writing with co-author Jon Land, Casciola, an All-Ivy tackle who returned to Princeton as its head coach in the 1970s, devotes parts of the book to rule changes and coaching guidelines that could improve player safety. He also drifts into tangents about the prevalence of injuries in other sports like soccer and cheerleading. But 1st and Forever is primarily a memoir of Casciola’s life in football, featuring the inspiring people he encountered as a player, coach, and president of the National Football Foundation.