If somebody’s hungry, he buys them a meal. While Brown seems to care little about his own well-being - friends believe the former offensive lineman’s weight has soared beyond 400 pounds - he cares deeply about that of his players. Kent Babb of the Washington Post chronicles this brilliantly in his new book “Across the River: Life, Death and Football in an American City,” which comes out Tuesday. What he has done is provide guidance and direction, in an environment where that is tragically lacking. What he has done, again and again, is save lives. That he has also made them wildly successful on the field is almost incidental. It offers a rich and unflinching portrait of a coach, his players, and the West Bank, a community where it’s difficult-but not impossible-to rise above the chaos, discover purpose, and find a way out.It is hardly overstatement to say that Brice Brown is a hero, as he often represents the best hope for the football players he coaches at Edna Karr High School, in the rugged Algiers section of New Orleans. What is sure to be a classic work of sports journalism, Across the River is a necessary investigation into the serious realities of young athletes in struggling neighborhoods: gentrification, eviction, mental health issues, the drug trade, and gun violence.
In Across the River, award-winning sports journalist Kent Babb follows the Karr football team through its 2019 season as Brown and his team-perhaps the scrappiest and most rebellious group in the program’s history-vie to again succeed on and off the field. An epidemic of gun violence plagues New Orleans and its surrounding communities and has claimed many innocent lives, including Brown’s former star quarterback, Tollette “Tonka” George, shot near a local gas station.
For years, this football program has brought glory to Algiers, winning three consecutive state championships and sending dozens of young men to college on football scholarships.Īlthough he is preparing for a fourth title, head coach Brice Brown is focused on something else: keeping his players alive. Short on hope but big on dreams, its mostly poor and marginalized residents find joy on Friday nights when the Cougars of Edna Karr High School take the field. On the west bank of the Mississippi lies the New Orleans neighborhood of Algiers.
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