Analysis Of The Film Friday Night Tykes

The book, “Training Camp” by Jon Gordon is an inspirational story filled with invaluable lessons and insights on bringing out the best in yourself and your team. The story follows a little boy named Martin Jones who was a undrafted rookie trying to make it into the NFL.. He spent his whole life proving many critics that a guy with a big heart but is small can succeed against all the odds.After Martin sprained his ankle during preseason, he thought that he lost his dream., but then he meets a very special coach. The coach was a great mentor, he shared eleven lessons about life that kept his dream alive. This help him a lot and even made him to be one of the best of the best.

Football is America’s go to entertainment sport. The NFL hit its peak in 2015, with an average of 114.1 million television viewers throughout the year (“Statista,” 2017). This sport is loved by all, the players, parents, coaches, and fans. But, is football merely entertainment? Is it just a simple game, teaching young boys the value of teamwork, dedication, and discipline? Are parents spending their Friday nights to support their boys, or is there something bigger happening? In H.G Bissinger’s novel, Friday Night Lights, one can see the true effects of this toxic drug through the mindset of the players and the actions of the coaches. While society sees football as entertainment, it actually functions more like a drug.

Abstract: High school football in the state of Texas has become out of control. The sport is no longer played for the sake of the school but rather has become a Friday night ritual to these small towns in Texas. The players are no longer just high school kids inter acting in school sports but have now become heroes to these small town communities. Communities simply no longer support their local high school team but rally in pride of their hometown rivalry against another team. School administrators and coaches no longer are teachers and mentors for the kids but are the equivalent to what in professional football are team owners and "real coaches". Parents have become agents and sacrifice their jobs and homes so that their child

Youth sports are continuing to be shifted into adult standards, by promoting victory while risking injury. Kids do not have the same physical capabilities of professional athletes on television, yet some parents insist that their kids continue playing extremely harmful sports at a violent level of play. Young athletes should not put constant strain on developing bones and muscles. For example, in baseball, a twelve-year-old trying to throw a curveball puts constant strain on the elbow’s ligaments, and may cause

With each throw to home plate he felt a little bit more pain. Instead of resting him Mark Hyman sent his son out to pitch the very next game. Stories like these are not uncommon with anyone who child has played on any team. Over the last few years, adults have taken over kid’s sports. Many children under the age fifteen required medical treatment for sports injuries and nearly half of them are only the result of simple overuse. The quest to turn children into superstar’s are taken a toll on their

Sabo tells his readers “I learned to be an animal. Coaches took notice of animals. Animals made first team. Being an animal meant being fanatically aggressive and ruthlessly competitive” (7). This shows that the interference of acknowledgment of ones emotions caused by the normalized pain of injuries and the tough love generated throughout the sport is unacceptable if you want to be seen. The dogmatic belief of “pain is more important than pleasure” (10) is continuously being passed down through generations of teams. Society is teaching boys to look at taking pain as a badge of honor and courage. “I learned that pain and injury are ‘part of the game” (6). Most people want to get into sports or activities to have fun, but there are others, like Sabo, who play a sport to win a reward. “Like a young child who learns to dance or sing for a piece of candy, I played for rewards and payoffs” (3). In high school, I remember the teenage boys who succeeded in football were well-known across the school, dated the girls they wanted, and were accepted for the tough guys they seemed to be. “Winning at sports meant winning friends and carving a place for myself within the male pecking order” (3).

The purpose of this paper is to argue the fact that youth sports are not becoming too intense. After reading the New York Times article I decided to pick this topic and argue against this theory because as a division one athlete I have my own opinions. I picked three sources which can back up and prove that sports being too intense is very much your own opinion.

“‘Athletics last for such a short period of time. It ends for people. But while it lasts, it creates this make-believe world where normal rules don’t apply. We build this false atmosphere. When it’s over and the harsh reality sets in, that’s the real joke we play on people’” (Bissinger xiv). “Friday Night Lights” shows the darker side of high school football. Players are taught to play games to win, and thats all that matters. Football players are put under a tremendous amount of pressure, almost enough to be considered unfair. Even though football is a “team sport”, pressure on individual players is unnecessary. Some players have the burden of the team, the city, their family, and their future, resting on their shoulders. These players

There’s no doubt that concussions in football has become a major problem, not just for the professional athletes, but for kids of all ages from age 8 to 19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that concussion have doubled in the last decade and The American Academy of Pediatrics says that, “emergency room visits for concussions in children ages 8 to 13 years old has doubled, and concussions have risen 200 percent among teens ages 14 to 19 in the last decade” (Keith Dunlap, The Oakland Press). This shows that the seriousness of concussions is not just an issue at a pro level but an issue throughout all levels of play. The risk is definitely present when you play football but it shouldn’t stop parents from letting their children participate in the sport. Playing organized sports such as football isn’t just a place to get injured, it’s a place where your children can learn the importance of teamwork, sportsmanship, toughness, competitiveness, they learn succeed, and also they learn about failure. The parents who don’t allow their children to play sports don’t let their kids learn about these important lessons of organized sports. Football is also a way for kids to take their anger and struggles out in the game and help them express themselves. It can also be a way for kids in bad situations to get a way out, to try and reach the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Tim Green, the author of “Football Hero,” has had a life full of playing the sport he loved, football. Because of a great high school career, he was able to play as defensive line at Syracuse University. With this in mind, he was able to put the lessons learned while playing a sport into his books. With his experience, in books he gives interesting background about the game and what it takes to be a “football hero”.

All of the publicity that is attained by success, and the possibility of this success, places a great deal of pressure and stress on these young single-sport athletes. This stress and pressure takes the fun out of some sports. Youth sports are becoming serious and based more on winning than on having a great time and learning good sportsmanship. Adu points out the winning mindset of athletes in this day and age when he says, “Teams will do anything to win the game. My coach told me to expect that going in and that is exactly how it was. . .I felt like everybody was out to get me” (Goodall, 2003). This

These boys are taught the all too known, “no pain, no gain” philosophy, but to a new extreme. Bissinger tells the story of a boy who broke his arm during a game and set his arm by himself, rather than sit out. “By the time the arm had swelled up considerably, to the point that the forearm pads he wore had to be cut off, and unwillingly he went to the hospital” (Bissinger 43). Players are bred with the obsession of completing the task, no matter what is thrown at them.

Sports are a significant part of society and spectators enjoy particular events regardless of the type. However, there are many players who develop special working and social relationships with whom they are participating regardless of the type of sport. The relationship and how people interact with one another can be the determination of how successful a team can be. The particular film based on a true story that I chose is titled When the Game Stands Tall. This film consists of a high performing football team of De La Salle High School in the state of California. Jim Caviezel portrays the head coach (Bob Ladouceur) as a man with such vision and passion that goes beyond the fundamental principles of coaching the game of football. The football team had won 151 games without being defeated which is the highest winning record a team has had in the game of football. The film shows the internal struggles of the players in their lives as people, and how they perform on the field. It also shows the external tragic difficulties that they face while they attend and play for De Le Salle High School. In the movie, the head coach helps the students/players by not only coaching them but also showing them how to live a flourishing life by committing to endure difficult life situations and the way to overcome them. He helps teach the principles of brotherhood and companionship with the team that they build. In the movie, the head coach and the staff had taught the players

When were young, we dream of what we want to be when we grow up. Some will say, a police officer, a firefighter, a movie star, a doctor, and maybe even a teacher. There are probably many other choices, but mine was to be an NFL Football Player. This is not a dream I share alone as many other youths envision this dream too. So, we go out to parks and play the great American sport and pretend to be our favorite player. Growing up a Cowboy fan I would always pretend I was NFL great Emmitt Smith. So many of our youth still do the same as I work at an elementary school and here kids all the time at recess yell out football term such as “O’DELL” when a great catch is made, or “HOUSE” when some is apparently going to score a touchdown without contest. These action bring joy to my heart and tears to my eyes. This feeling is short lived though, as the Recess Supervisor usually ends the game because it is not a recess permitted activity. After it has concluded I ask myself “why is this game that promotes fitness so bad that they cannot even play it in a structured time of day that promotes physical activity?” The answer lies in the topic of a big social debate on youth football and its safety. Recent, I watch a episode of South Park that addressed this. Many social issues are viewed in this show in an entertain way. The episode show how parents growing concern over the safety of the sport lead to the modification of the game in an event the show called “ Sarcastaball” in which the

Children who participate in tackle football will be susceptible to minor injuries, such as concussions, abrasions, sprains, and strains of the extremities. Consequently, football accounts for more major and catastrophic injuries than any other sport. One story that grasped my attention was an ESPN segment on Outside the Lines, where stories range from sports and controversy issues off the field. The topic was Football at a Crossroads, which emphasized that children should not play tackle football until the age of 16. According to an USA Today article, “on November 6, 2011, Donnovan Hill was thirteen at the time of his injury as a member of the Lakewood (California) Black Lancers, a Pop Warner group” (Mihoces, 2013). When Donnovan Hill tackled