The Importance of Football in the Movie Varsity Blues Essay

It was my senior year of high school football and all I could do was sit on the bench with an injury. It was so frustrating because all I wanted to do was be on the field playing with my brothers like I have since freshman year. I was just so happy to be on the field on those Friday nights and just get to play the game made me so happy when I first started playing. Until I got a big head and started thinking about myself and what I was going do that game or how many touchdowns I was going to score that game. I stopped thinking about the team because of my success. I think this might be a lesson I needed to learn and if I did not, I would have had a big head my whole senior year and never would have saw the real reasons why I loved playing

Football remains the most popular sport in America and the ninth most popular sport in the world for a reason. Since its creation in 1869, football has played a fundamental part of American society. Every Sunday, my family along with millions of other Americans turn the television to CBS, NBC or FOX to watch their favorite football team go to battle. My family and I bleed burgundy and gold and root for the home team the Washington Redskins. Americans including myself display great intensity and passion for the game of football and the result of the game often changes my attitude for the better or worse. Watching the game on television may come as exhilarating and entertaining, but playing the game creates the best times. Overall football has made a severe impact on many people’s lives. Football teaches unique lessons in a hands on manner which helps athletes like myself sustain a much more adventurous life. Football has made an immeasurably positive influence upon my life, but the sport has its dangers. Football changes lives.

Football is an American sport that consists of two teams composed of 11 men. On the 100-yard field, they go head to head, trying to keep the other team from advancing the ball down the field toward the end zone, resulting in a touchdown or field goal. Football pits the two teams against each other. The offense, which possesses the ball, is placed against the defense, which tries to prevent the offense from advancing the ball. Several different resources can contribute to a team’s success. Some of those resources are funds, talent level of players, and favorable position on the field, which makes it easier to score points. The four sociological perspectives, structural functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and social exchange theory, all credit different reasons for one team being able to achieve this goal more often than another team. Nevertheless, any of the sociological perspectives you view the sport from, football is a very complex entity. Football is more than just a group of men pounding one another. There is a complex equation that eventually equals success; the differences between these perspectives are the components of the equation that are most heavily weighed on for success. Although it may be a combination of all three perspectives that leads to success in football, it is fair to look at the game from each perspective individually because each holds important insight into what truly leads to a successful football team.

Football acts as a “driving force” for many high-school and upper level athletes, and often keeps the players striving to do better on the field, and in life. The support parents give physically, emotionally, and financially to their child that is participating in sports is important; however, fathers’ involvement specifically can often bring added pressure due to the high expectations.

High school football over the years has become a huge spectacle lets just talk about the DWF area or we can even get smaller to make a point if you made a 25 mile radius these local high school teams play at the Star (seats 12,000), Allen stadium (seats 18,000 cost 60 million), and McKinney’s new stadium (seats 12,000 costs 69.9 million). This is just high school football these young kids playing under tremendous pressure from the start. The pressure to play high school football is immense, there are so many media outlets for these kids, and they get coverage from what it seems like all the time during the season, yet this is all just considered a recreational activity I think it has become more than that now. The pressure for coaches is high as well dealing with parents, board members, keeping up with classes as a teacher, and oh you also have to win since football is a performance-based business (forewarning this will be said a lot). For example I will refer to Boobie Miles from Friday Night Lights for one final point. Boobie knew if he did not make it in football there was nothing special for him. That is why when he got hurt he still wanted to play, because he knew that’s all he had. That is a lot of pressure for a 16-18 year to handle, and if they are not up for it they crack.

Football: America’s greatest pastime and favorite all-American sport hides one of our nation’s biggest health concerns; concussions. On average, boys can begin playing tackle football at the age of five and weighing a minimum of 35 pounds, and from that point on they are taught the values of strategy, tackling, running, and teamwork. (Warner, 2016) Some of those children will later become the Professional Football players or college level players.

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

The day the team got together and fought threw a tough battle facing pinnacle high school. It was our second home game and our record was 1-2. After all of the hard work we had put in over summer, we realized we could not lose, especially in front of our home crowd. At the beginning of the game we did our usual warm-ups, I have never felt so much adrenaline pushing threw my veins in my life. After the warm-ups the whole team got in a big huddle, we chanted a chant that will never be forgotten and one day make history for the pride. After the chant we got ready for kick-off, lined up and ready to go. The crowd started cheering at the first 2 seconds of the game “go pride go, go pride go”. This made the whole team nervous, not just because there was so many

Football is a religion in my house, and during football season my parents get a little crazy. Every Sunday, they are decked out in full blue and green gear. Similarly, some people take sports a little too seriously, like Theodore Roosevelt's son, who whined to his father about not getting in the second squad. Responding to his son's obsession with sports, Theodore Roosevelt, the famous president of the United States, tries to convince his son, Ted, that sports shouldn't be his first priority. By empathizing with his son, using shifting tone and using step-by-step reasoning, Roosevelt articulates his point.

The scoreboard horn blares to signal the end of the game. The Enterprise band triumphantly belts out the fight song. Wildcat fans jump and shout in victory along with the players and cheerleaders. Dejectedly, the Daleville players head to their locker room, their hopes of victory dashed. Quietly, the Warhawk fans gather their belongings, and began to head home. The tall stadium lights are turned off, but they do not immediately go dark. Instead, they dim and fade slowly, just as the hopes of the Senior quarterback. He is the last player on the field, and as he walks off his father joins him, and arm and arm they leave the field. (They are two men, one whose dream was never realized, and one whose was.)

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

Any Given Sunday and North Dallas Forty, made over 25 years apart, are two of the most famous football movies ever made. Both of these movies focus on an examination of American values as seen through the lens of a professional sport, both on and off the field. Any Given Sunday and North Dallas Forty do indeed have many striking similarities. Furthermore, it seems that both movies try to give a detailed depiction on the corporate mentality of modern day professional football; while at the same time, still working to deliver a traditional, likeable sports flick. Though there is a large time gap between the two films, they have similar messages and much in common.

Imagine being member of a football team on the field while the crowd is cheering for their favorite team. You are probably wondering, “WOW, I never thought that I will be part of this team.” Football is not for everyone and being part of a football team does not mean that you are going to be in the spotlight. A person can learn much from playing football. Football teaches strength, discipline, and how to be a team player.

In today’s world of big time professional sports there are the two major players and they are football represented by the National Football League (NFL) and baseball represented by Major League Baseball (MLB). Now there are other sports that the American public enjoys watching, however the argument generally boils down to which sport is the true favorite of the American people: baseball or football. In this paper I will attempt to examine both sports from several different angles to include attendance, television revenue, ticket costs, venues, salaries, entertainment value, and athlete perception. The goal of this exercise will be to determine, once and for all, which sport is the American

My passion for the game of football went undiscovered until my senior year. I’ve played football for as long as I can remember. From playing flag football in third and fourth grade all the way up to my senior year of highschool, it has always been a part of my life. I always found myself doing something football-related, whether it be playing it with friends, watching it on TV, or playing it on the PlayStation. To me, football is a way of bonding with friends and family. This sport brings you closer as a team, and it’s a way of making memories and friendships that will last a lifetime.