The future of football is post-human despair (and fascinating sports meta-fiction)

We don’t normally associate online sports coverage with pushing the boundaries of multimedia fiction, but Vox’s SB Nation blog dropped a fascinating, mind-bending treat on the internet last night, in the form of Jon Bois’ speculative 17776, or What Football Will Look Like In The Future. Consisting (so far) of scrolling text interludes interspersed with pictures and video, Bois’ serial story is still in progress, but seems largely concerned with the “why” of sports. That is, given the massive resources, time, and information at our disposal (not to mention those available to our descendants), why does communal game-playing still hold such an important place in society? To say more would be to risk spoilers on a truly innovative piece of work, so if you’ve got an hour to spend thinking about football, consciousness, hope, despair, and the absolutely staggering amount of creative latitude SB Nation apparently allows its premiere writers, you can start the story right here.