After Leaving Football, A Historian Emerges As an N.C.A.A. Critic

When Taylor Branch and his wife, Christy, exchanged vows in 1978, Branch had to do more than promise to remain faithful through sickness and health:  he also had to give up football.

Branch had been a standout high school football player in Atlanta before turning down a scholarship to play at Georgia Tech, but his wife was not a fan. She wanted him to refrain from playing, watching, cheering — everything — and in exchange, she pledged to learn to love baseball. Branch complied and kept his distance.

In the ensuing years, Branch wrote a historical trilogy on Martin Luther King, collectively titled “America in the King Years,” that won him a Pulitzer Prize. His friendship with former President Bill Clinton led to the 2009 book “The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President.” And he contributed numerous articles on politics and civil rights to various magazines. But 33 years after vowing to keep his distance, the 64-year-old Branch has in a way returned to the sport that he walked away from as an 18-year-old, 210-pound linebacker....