Super Bowl special: Why football kind of matters, with Chuck Klosterman (kind of)

“I wish I loved sports, and particularly football, a lot less than I do. It consumes too much of my memory and too much of my time.” – Chuck Klosterman In this episode of Deviate , Rolf talks about why he's talking to Chuck Klosterman's former roommate Michael Weinreb about Chuck's book Football , rather than Chuck himself (2:00); football-themed video games, and the difference between emotional and analytical sports fandom (7:00); Pico Iyer's appearance in the movie Marty Supreme , how podcasting has changed the landscape, and how streaming video has become the standard way to watch even high school football (17:00); why going to football games in person is a "pagan" experience of games that is completely different than watching them on TV, and how there's a travel parallel in experiencing distant places in person (24:00); how important the season and the weather is to the experience of football at both the experiential and metaphorical level (32:00); what might become of football, and why it persists as the object of fandom even by people who've never played it (39:00). Michael Weinreb ( @MichaelWeinreb ) is the author of three sports books, including Game of Kings ; Bigger Than the Game ; and Season of Saturdays . He has been a contributing writer for ESPN, The New York Times , Grantland , Rolling Stone , The Athletic , and The Ringer . His Substack newsletter is called Throwbacks: A Newsletter About Sports History and Culture . Notable Links: Kicking & Screaming might be the best movie ever ( Deviate episode) Back to Penn State (2011 This American Life episode) Chuck Klosterman (author and essayist) Fargo Rock City , by Chuck Klosterman (2001 book) EA Sports College Football (video game) Super Bowl LV (game the Chiefs lost to the Buccaneers) Super Bowl LIX (game the Chiefs lost to the Eagles) A travel writers’ Super Bowl special ( Deviate episode) Pico Iyer (travel writer and novelist) Marty Supreme (2025 sports comedy-drama film) Chick Hearn (Los Angeles Lakers announcer) Wesley Morris on Deviate Bill Simmons (American sportswriter and cultural critic) Football History Deep Dive ( Bill Simmons Podcast episode) 2025 Kansas 1A football championship (high school game video)

You can listen to Super Bowl special: Why football kind of matters, with Chuck Klosterman (kind of) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Super Bowl special: Why football kind of matters, with Chuck Klosterman (kind of) is an episode from Deviate with Rolf Potts by Rolf Potts.

This episode is 00:45:51 long.

This episode was published on Feb 5, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Deviate with Rolf Potts when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.