Steve Almond is the author of Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto, in which he describes how he decided to give up watching NFL games because of growing concern about brain injury among players. He lives in Boston.

Spirituality and Sports is a program of the Office of Religious Life at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. It focuses on the spiritual aspects of competition and athletics through speakers and special events. Shawn Sorenson is its director.

Lee M. DelleMonache is director of the Neumann University Institute for Sport, Spirituality and Character Development at Neumann University in Aston, Pa.

The Neumann University Institute for Sport, Spirituality and Character Development focuses on the role religion can play in the development of the athlete. It hosts sporting events, conferences and other special events on the subject. Neumann is a Catholic university in Aston, Pa. Lee M. DelleMonache is the institute’s director.

Craig A. Forney is assistant professor of religious studies at Palomar College in San Marcos, Calif. He is the author of The Holy Trinity of American Sports: Civil Religion in Football, Baseball and Basketball.

Eric Bain-Selbo is associate professor and department head of philosophy and religion at Western Kentucky University. He is the author of Game Day and God: Football, Faith and Politics in the American South.

Michael W. Austin is a philosophy professor at Eastern Kentucky University whose areas of interest include the philosophy of religion and philosophy of sports. His books include (as editor) Football and Philosophy: Going Deep.

Jeffrey Scholes is assistant professor of religious studies in the philosophy department at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He has written a number of articles about sports and religion and is co-author of Religion and Sports in American Culture.

Robert Ellis is principal of Regent’s Park College, Oxford, and a member of the faculty of theology and religion at the University of Oxford. He is the author of The Games People Play: Theology, Religion and Sport.