Friday Night Lights By H. G. Bissinger: An Analysis

The individuals in Odessa have “shared values or generally accepted standards of desirability” (Wallace and Wolf 18) regarding their feelings of high school football and the meaning of coming together as a town in support for the team. Hence the values that are placed on football, solidarity, and winning the theory of functionalism can be seen and applied in Friday Night Lights.

Football was and is a very popular sport in America and has always been a favorite. Erik Fisher plays football because he is great at the sport, hence page 27, “Dad had brought Erik to meet Coach Warner earlier in the summer. Dad had knelt down and held the ball for Erik to drill fifty-yard field goals, one after another, while according to Dad, the Coach’s jaw had dropped lower and lower.” But, Erik played football primarily for and because of the fame. He had never cared about whether he had to hurt someone in order reach the top of the “Erik Fisher Football Dream”. On September 5 (pages 50-94), when Mike Costello dies of lightning, Paul finds Erik and Arthur laughing about how Mike’s hair was singed off. Paul was disgusted. Though Erik and Arthur didn’t kill Mike, their laughter reflects their inner evil and selfish selves. Paul then reflects on his own self and decides to walk a path of truth, unlike Erik. In continuation, Ray Lewis had once said, “Don't walk through life just playing football. Don't walk through life just being an athlete. Athletics will fade. Character and integrity and really making an impact on someone's life, that's the ultimate vision, that's the ultimate goal-bottom line.” Erik never had any character or integrity, whether he played sports or not. On the other hand, Paul did have character and integrity. Paul noticed Erik’s evil actions to get higher and higher up the Erik Fisher Football

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.

Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and A Dream is a 1990 non-fiction novel wrote by H.G. Bissinger. The story chronicles the pressures and expectations of the Permian Panthers football team in socially divided Odessa, Texas. Throughout the story, challenges are presented with each of the protagonists: James “Boobie” Miles, Mike Winchell, Don Billingsley, Gary Gaines, Brian Chavez, and Ivory Christian.

     H. G. Bissinger is the author of this book and the narrator. He is very descriptive about each individual on the football team and how they impact society. Bissinger’s word choice and sentence fluency is excellent. He establishes his characters, develops the plot, and builds the novel to reach a climatic conclusion. The sentence fluency is well structured and easy to read. Bissinger’s writing will not allow you to put the book down when you start reading the novel.

In Hank Hill's short essay What in the Name of High School Football? He implies that some High schools focus too much on each of their athletic accomplishments and not enough on the visual and performing arts. Hill supports this claim with his word choice and diction. Hills purpose is to point out the unfair and lopsided views of society when it comes to extracurricular activities. Hill takes on an almost upset tone in order to expose the major problem that continues to affect society today. Based on Hills tone word choice and topic this piece seems to be directed at the school administrators and high school students.

The show Friday Night Lights gives viewers an inside look into the lives of high school football players of a small town in Texas. The show is astonishing on many levels, from it's unique camera styles to the complex characters. Many people usually dismiss athletes as dull characters and some think of sports as something pointless or shallow. The show disproves these thoughts by giving viewers a perspective into the lives of the players, coaches, and fans of the Dillon Panthers football team. This show ultimately builds empathy for the lives of the football players in the show, which helps in understanding real life athletes and their coaches.

This paper explores published articles that report on results from research conducted on this disadvantages of high school football. The articles vary in information and research conducted and have different argumentative points of discussion. This paper examines and states that high school football should be banned. Reasons are shown through different points of argument. Football causes continuous concussions, causes long term medical problems and causes different types of trauma to their body and affects their overall health.

“‘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

Is High School football a sport, or is it more than that to some people? I’ve learned that the book is more sociological, which means that it focused on our human society of racial issues and also emphasizes the economy and the divide between the wealthy residents of one city versus the more working-class denizens of another are all subjects that are given an in-depth examination. This is more of the main or focal point of the whole book and in not so much in the movie. Although Bissinger's story is a true-life recounting of the 1988 football season of the Permian High School team, it reads like fiction and even though I believe his book is superior, the theatrical adaptation still stands apart as one of the great

Sports, especially football, are a major part of the universities in the United States. Many times they are valued over education. Many college athletes end up getting a poor education, because they tend to look at how the universities sports teams are doing rather than the level of education they will be getting. Steven Salzburg notices this problem and writes about it in his article “Get Football Out of Our Universities.” He acknowledges the fact that we have prioritized a game used to entertain people over the education of Americans and that this trend has to come to an end. According to him, football needs to be removed from the university system in order to avoid becoming “the big, dumb jock on the world stage” (1). Salzburg uses a combination of ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos in an unsuccessful effort to persuade universities and avid football fans that the interest in football is jeopardizing our advances in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Sustaining the ambitions of not only themselves but the alumni and town of Odessa, Texas is a lot to ask from a young adult. That’s exactly what Permian football provides to the people of Odessa, where the post economic boom of the oil business has left the town in a racially tense, economic crisis. The lights on Permian High School’s football field are the only sanctuary for the west Texas town. Socially and racially divided, Odessa’s mass dependence on high school football constructs glorified expectations for the football team to temporarily disguise the disappointments that come with living in a town tagged as the “murder capital” of

He cannot escape his love of football, but at the same time, Justis hates what football has done to him. He says his hatred “may have been because of the two separated shoulders” or “the constant pain in his legs” or “the coach in ninth grade who thought he was faking a broken arm and wouldn’t let him leave the practice field until the fluid built up” Justis list on injuries goes on with Bissinger highlighting every single injury (Bissinger 283,284). Justis’s football days have destroyed his body and Bissinger makes sure the audience is well aware of that fact and feel sorrow for the man. The one that stands out the most though is his ninth grade coach. Justis would be fourteen or fifteen and here he is not only being forced to play with a broken arm but having his coach ignore him when he insists something is wrong is going to affect his perception of adults and how they should treat him. To go through something like this is scarring and leaves the audience wondering why he would keep playing, but as Bissinger has shown time and time again, football is everything in Odessa. Even now his body ruined by the sport Justis still cannot let go of it, and that only causes him to hate it more. He has sacrificed so much for football, and even as an adult he still cannot let go of

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

All the boys wearing their football jerseys at school. Automatically we know it is game day. All throughout the day the high schoolers are eager to get out and prepare for the game. The town of Kindred shows up to cheer on the boys on the football field. Football games on Fridays are the best. There can’t be enough of them.