PBS explores America's dangerous love affair with NFL

The trailer for Frontline’s documentary “League of Denial,’’ premiering Tuesday night on PBS, features a lyric from the song “Run This Town” in which Rihanna sings, “I’m addicted to the thrill. It’s a dangerous love affair.’’

That sums up America and football, an increasingly complicated relationship given ongoing revelations about how physically ruinous the sport often is to those who play it.

The program draws from reporting in a book of the same name out next week by ESPN’s Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, with a particular focus on the concussion risk players face and what the NFL has done about it – or not.

“League of Denial” got a huge dose of publicity in August when ESPN removed itself from involvement with the television version of the story, citing its lack of editorial control.