ABANDONED. YA High School Football book with dangerous sporting goods store owner

[Matthew]

I read this book several times in the 80s. It was about a boy who moved to town and made the high school team as a running back. The team had a long winning streak. The owner of a sporting goods store took a special interest in the team and he somehow provided them with power through some supernatural method. I know the main characters father also had a gambling problem.

I think the title was something along the lines of run for your life or playing for life but I have googled that several times with no luck. Thanks in advance for any help!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Matthew, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Tadgh]

The GR list on high school football books only has 3 total books published in or before the 80s. Since you said you read this several times in the decade, I looked more into the only 1 published before the 80s (the other 2 are published very late in the decade): A Feast of Snakes.

The only difficulty is the main store mentioned is a liquor store, not a sporting goods store. And there's no supernatural component according to Allreaders.com's longer spoiler summary, (view spoiler)[although the MC loses his mind (hide spoiler)].

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Matthew, are you still looking for this or did you find it?"

No response in 2 years. Moving to Abandoned.