Highlights: NFL player features, College Football Playoff committee, the magic of those Friday Night Lights, and more.

The Lone Star State might not mean more to football than all the others, but it’s hard to make a case that football means more anywhere else. At last count, 164, 733 high schoolers across Texas dressed out in helmet and pads. On Oct. 11, 110, 633 fans packed College Station to see the Aggies and Rebs, the largest crowd for a football game in state and SEC history.

And the biggest star on the Texas map – the Dallas Cowboys – with six wins entering November, finally look destined for a season worthy of their legacy. But of course, the numbers can capture only so much. To truly grasp the place of football in Texas, The Mag hit the trails: for an eight-day trip along I-20; on the streets of Palestine to hear the locals defend their favorite son, and to a steak dinner with J. J. Watt. Welcome to the State of Football.

On the cover: Eight days and 540 miles on I-20 will tell you everything you need to know about football.  In “Texas Road Trip: 9 Exits on America’s Football Highway” senior writer Wright Thompson traversed the state’s east-west Interstate, making pit stops along the way—Tyler, Dallas, Allen and certainly Arlington; Stephenville, Odessa, Sweetwater and Midland—to find out how the national narratives of football are playing out in the nation’s hotbed. 

State of Football Issue Features

How to be a Texas Legend

Big hat? Big buckle? Big game? Big-time righteous streak? The Lone Star State isn’t shy about saying it’s just plain better, which is why its new favorite son is J.J. Watt. By Michael J. Mooney

Chasing Down 2,105

DeMarco Murray’s sweltering start puts Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record (2,105 yards) in jeopardy. Will Dallas’ workhorse get there? The Mag explores the key metrics behind his run for history. By Scott T. Miller

A Family Kind of Town

In Adrian Peterson’s home town of Palestine, they are proud of their way of life. So while others decry the Vikings running back as a child abuser, to them he’s still their favorite son. By Joel Anderson

The Best Little Selection Committee in Texas

The teams in the College Football Playoff’s own backyard might need a little hometown help to make the cut come December. For the foreseeable future, the sport’s capital will remain within a two-block stretch of Irving, Texas, a city between Dallas and Arlington that doesn’t even have a team. It is home to the College Football Playoff headquarters. And right across the street sits the Big 12’s HQ, although the league that is just a stone’s throw away could be sitting at home as the inaugural title game is played in its home state. By Ryan McGee

Two-hand touch, Aquaponics, and the power of the unifying pastry

Just a sampling of the things you’ll see on a weekend in Texas: a 600-mile day trip, a one-sided (yet long-standing) rivalry and sweet potatoes grown between goalposts.

Additional State of Football Issue Highlights:

• NFL: In The Long Way Home, The Mag’s Eli Saslow discusses how Demaryius Thomas is within reach of realizing all his NFL dreams. But to gain what he wants most — his family reunited — he’s learning to let go of what tore them apart.
• NFL: In Fair Share, “Numbers” columnist Peter Keating writes about how much the NFL concussion settlement screws over players, and offers a solution to fix the problem, in the form of a concussion tax.
• NBA: Who is the league’s third-best player? The Mag’s Jordan Brenner asked an executive from each NBA team the following question: Who is the third-best player in the league right now (after LeBron James and Kevin Durant)? Anthony Davis won with 10 votes, but the lack of consensus—10 players received votes!—was stunning, so we’re looking to the numbers to find out the truth.
• NHL: Is home-ice advantage really a thing? The data says yes. We’re looking at the differences in win-loss percentages at home and on the road for all the NHL’s squads, with some surprises among the top (the Tampa Bay Lightning) and the bottom (the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins).

To download covers: https://bit.ly/1oLfwzi

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Media Contact: Carrie Kreiswirth at (646) 547-4686 or carrie.b.kreiswirth@espn.com