host: nfl football, a history of america's new national pastime s a book written by professor richard crepeau. professor yes poe -- yes poe, why are you talking about football here at freedom fest? >> guest: well, that's a question i asked myself. [laughter] when mark schism, who organizes this event -- which i had never heard of -- called me a few months ago and said let me tell you about freedom fest. and i would really like you to come to freedom fest and talk about what is the national pastime. football, baseball, basketball, soccer, what. and he had gone on -- i asked him last night, why me? he had gotsch on the internet -- gone on the internet, he googled, he wanted somebody other than, you know, in the political stuff. so that's how i wound up here. and when he called me, i thought, eh, why not? this is not my politics, but why not? >> host: is football the national pastime in. >> guest: absolutely. i've decided that the book is wrongly titled. it ought to be national obsession. i think it's reached that level in the last, pticularly the la decade. >> host:ow? >> guest: it's become a 3

[laughter] >> host: we've been talking with professor richard crepeau about his book, "nfl football: a history of america's new national pastime." there's the cover. professor, thanks for being on booktv. >> guest: hey, my pleasure. >> every weekend booktv offers programming focused on nonfiction authors and books. keep watching for more here on c-span2 and watch any of our past programs online at booktv.org can. >> you're watching booktv on c-span2. and this weekend we're visiting santa rosa, california, to talk with local authors and tour the city's literary sites with the help of our local cable partner, comcast. up next, we tour sonoma state university's collections with lynn prime who shows us movies based on the works of jack london and a collection of ernest hemingway's private letters. >> we're on the campus of sonoma statement in the waring jones room which is where our jack london collection is housed. it also houses the jack london in context collection. and right next to us are all of our other special collections including our hemingway letters and some other unique and