Chris Jones and his son Sammy crossed the Atlantic to Hull in March 2023 to pursue a family football history, Jones writes in LEGS HEARTS MINDS: Loss and Its Remedies. They arrived on a sodden evening and watched the North of England pass by in rain-streaked train windows. Earlier legs of the trip were in London, where they saw matches at Tottenham and Fulham among the Premier League’s more affluent crowds.
Jones says a hotel within walking distance of Hull’s ground still felt like a forced march because of driving rain and broken glass underfoot. He concealed his grandfather’s Burnley scarf beneath a rain jacket and explained to Sammy the etiquette of “not getting your head kicked in.”
The book describes the strict separation of supporters at English matches: a dedicated away section penned by rows of security, with buffers of empty seats on either side. In Hull, Jones writes, the usual DMZ of empty seats was covered with fishing nets and he and his son sat on Burnley’s front line with roughly two thousand reinforcements behind them. Across the nets, grim-faced Hull supporters made an obscene gesture.
Jones offers a character sketch of a type of fan he dubs Homo miserablis — typically late middle‑aged, white males who habitually display discontent. He contrasts that spiritual violence with hooliganism and writes that Homo miserablis “has never given or experienced joy.”
As an example, Jones recalls a man at Tottenham who arrived seconds before kickoff, slumped into his seat and voiced relentless displeasure even after Spurs won 3-1. The spectator repeatedly called the match s—e, accused the referee of ruining the game and hurled insults such as “muppet” and “pillock,” Jones writes.
