Essay on Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger

There are many major characters in the novel “Friday Night Lights” by Buzz Bissinger, but two of them stand out to me. To start off, The Permian Panther football team was a very talented group of high school athletes. Many of the players had good potential into becoming a pro someday. One specific player that stands out in this novel is Boobie Miles. He was a “star” of the Permian football team. Going into another year looking to achieve their everlasting goal in becoming “State Champions.” But for Boobie Miles, this got cut short in a preseason scrimmage. He tears his ACL and will most likely miss most of the season because of his injury. Since the team has lost their potential “star” of the season somebody has to step up and fill his role,

Many movies, tv shows, and books about high school have depicted football as the main focus. In the majority of these forms of entertainment, the high school football players are seen as ginormous, ignoramus, fools. Buzz Bissinger portrays these stereotypes all throughout his book Friday Night Lights. Though these depictions may be true in some cases, playing American high school football neither limits academic success nor future success in life. Bissinger addresses this topic through two characters; Boobie Miles and Bryan Chavez. Boobie Miles being a stereotypical unintelligent jock and Bryan Chavez being an academically inclined individual who is also on the football team.

Constantly the boys are instilled with the dreams that they are gonna be big in college and then possibly the NFL. Realistically this is very untrue as in Permian’s fifty-five year football history, only six players have tried for or made the pro leagues telling us that football is not a good career. The boys envision themselves playing for some of the biggest colleges in the nation, however for many they want even have the grades to stay in college academically. “Charlie Billingsley found out that life in college was a whole lot different …you were a whole lot more expendable in college…there was always a bunch of guys ready to replace you in a second”(Bissinger 63).Furthermore the boys once in college will finally realize that they are disposable. No more are they the once “stars” that they were in Odessa but players needed to get wins and a good record.

H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights brings to mind the cold, autumn nights of 1988 where a town, just like any other rural town in America, was brought together in such a raw and emotional way. From the rise and fall of Boobie Miles to the push for the playoffs, it is clear that 1988 Odessa was swept up in the glory of football to replace the grandeur of the 1950s, which seemed to deteriorate throughout that hectic decade. While a modern reader may view Bissinger’s masterpiece as a tale from a dated and faraway place, several factors have kept it in the public’s eye. What is it about Friday Night Lights that still resonates today? The answer can still be found in the same rural towns of America. Though it may seem incredible, Texas is

The novel Boo by Neil Smith is the personnel journal of the late Oliver “Boo” Dalrymple, and is about how the adolescent experience shapes him as a person. The theme of the adolescent experience is explored as Boo matures, ironically after he dies. Firstly, he is constantly bullied because of his difference in appearance and personality. Secondly, Boo’s love for science and obsession with great scientists is an intricate part of his character, as he decides what he wants to do in the future. Lastly, Boo grows up during the course of the novel, when he learns more about himself and his peers.

Boo was extremely misunderstood. In chapter one, we find out that the entire neighborhood is afraid of Radley and his family. Everyone has made up stories about The Radleys. According to their neighbor, Miss Stephanie Crawford, he stabbed his dad with some scissors. In multiple chapters, Scout mentions that people have said that Boo eats wild animals. In chapter four, they mention that he bit off his mother’s fingers because he could not find any cats or squirrels to eat. Due to these stories about Boo, people wanted to kill him. Boo also never left his house. Scout’s brother Jem thought that Boo never left his house because his dad had him chained to the bed. While talking about misunderstanding people, Atticus hints at Boo and Walter Ewell. He tells her,

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.

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 large part of America’s culture as well as Odessa’s. In Friday Night Lights, the players spend their entire lives training to be successful because sports are all they have to look forward to. During the final game of the season to make it to state, Ronnie Beavers told his team, “This is the last minute of your life” (326). Beavers quote shows the importance of the moment. If Permian does not win the game, they have nothing to look forward to in their future. This semi-final game is “much more than a game” for Permian. What Beaver is saying is ridiculous, the Permian players act like Football will determine their future. By following the players and the town, Bissinger is able to show readers how important sports are in Odessa. Bissinger notes how it was “obvious” that the students of Permian hold the town on their shoulders (XIV). By following the story of the American small town, including many personal anecdotes, Bissinger shows the effect that sports have in Odessa. Friday Night Lights supports Lapham’s claim that games represent much more than a game. It is not merely a game but a way of life. Permian players eat, breathe, and live football. Their lives are centralized around one thing: Football. Bissinger describes the town when he states, “If you went to their homes, you might find black toilet seats, or black seat cushions, or black phone book covers, or black paper plates, or black clocks, or black felt on their pool tables” (39). Bissinger throughout the book displays how the town revolves around sports. Everything that Odessa does is centered around the football team. The players train everyday to work to improving their record and that is all that matters to

It’s been almost two years since Boosie has been free. A long battle with the legal system following a possible murder charge ended in him walking away a free man, back to his family, friends and fans. Even on the outside, he’s still fighting. Most recently, for his life. Late November ’15, he announced to the world that he has kidney cancer. A few weeks later, he lost half a kidney during surgery but it was a successful operation. This weighed

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.

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

     Is High School football a sport, or is it more than that to some people? Recent newspaper headlines include such items as coaches abusing student athletes; fathers of athletes murdering coaches, and mother’s disabilitating cheerleading candidates to assure their daughters make the cheerleading team. In Odessa, Texas high school football is a major contributor to the society of a small town in Texas society. Every Friday night, 50,000 people fill the stadium to see high school students put their lives on the line to win a football game. H. G. Bissinger writes a novel called Friday Night Lights, about a year in 1988 where High School players prepare and play on the High School team, and what an impact they have

For a lot of kids, it’s not until it’s all said and done, and they look back on it several years later, that they realize the difference the sport made in their lives. They are proud of playing the game. Have you ever met anybody who accomplished playing four years of high school football, and at the end of that run said, ‘Man, I wish I wouldn’t have played’? It doesn’t get said. Football players aren’t perfect. Nobody is. But millions of former players, one by one, can recount the life-altering principles they learned from football. They know the value of football is the values in football.That’s why high school football – and particularly high school coaches – play such a vital role in our society. Our football coaches are on the front lines of the battle for the hearts and minds of the boys in our society.

He was in his living room cutting articles out of the newspaper to put in his scrapbook. Boo’s father walked by him. The next thing that Mr. Radley knew, Boo had plunged the scissors into his father’s hamstring. Boo pulled it out, wiped off