Blog #14, "Mud Bowl", "Best Laid Plans," Epilogue and Afterward of "Friday Night Lights"

Just something I found on—what else—YouTube. Almost a minute of the Texas semi-final game between Permian and Carter.

It was all true. The sordid, sad story of Derric Evans and Gary Edwards sentenced to long prison terms for robbery while waiting to go play Division One football. Peter Berg's film ends with a note about Don and Charlie Billingsley still having a relationship, when in real life, it ends not long after the football. "Their living together had always been a rough road, and without the common bond of football it seemed harder than ever for them to stay together." This sounds more like the fictional relationship between Tim and Walt Riggins. No post-high school football for Mike Winchell or Jerrod McDougal or Brian Chavez (not counting house tackle football at Harvard). In the afterward to the first edition of the book, Bissinger writes, "In November 1990, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Permian football boosters for at least a decade had been making secretive cash payments to the Permian head coach ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 yearly." That same year, the year after it won the Texas state championship, "Permian was banned from participating in the playoffs...for conducting supervised workouts before the official start of the season. It was Jerry Taylor, head coach of crosstown rival Odessa High, who turned Permian in for the infraction."

And finally, Boobie Miles. In the movie, he shares the sidelines with the team as it loses to Carter. In real life he listens to the game from Odessa, "discarded," a term several of you have used to describe him, from the team completely. Peter Berg, in making the film, said, "I didn't want to end the story with him alone. I felt that would be too dark." But true.

1. So what is your reaction to the end of the book, including the afterward that updates the story of the players through 1999-2000? Is this a sad ending? A bitter ending? What kind of ending is this for you? Go ahead and quote a couple times.

2. Speaking of endings. Back in Dillon, in the episode "Mud Bowl," The Panthers overcome all odds by beating the Brant Vikings 10-2. What a glorious moment—they're on their way to State! Or is it a glorious moment? This is either the most audacious, courageous move the filmmakers made, or the stupidest (which reminds us, as Billy Riggins says, that Tim has a PhD. in stupid), clumsiest moment of the entire series up to this point. So what do you think—and why? And whether you like the decision or not, why might the show have done this? To what possible purpose?

3. Finally: what moment or scene stayed with you from today's viewings, and why?

One more episode. If you questions about the writing topic, ask me tomorrow.

Blog #13, "Extended Families," "Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes" & Chapters 15 and 16

Adria demanded football from the series, and tomorrow she'll get it, as we head to the penultimate episode of the first season of "Friday Night Lights." It was nice to see the main guys together, getting drunk on the football field, for the first time in what seemed forever in today's episode. Street rightly pointed out that he will win always any argument about who has the worst girl problems. Matt is still cute as a button. And we see Street at the beginning of a potential career down the road, football coach. I also loved how the quad rugby coach barked at him like Eric Taylor does to his players. Lyla may be the most annoying girl in Texas (just one opinion), but she wasn't off base giving her "fiancee" a hard time. Everyone: when someone asks you if you still want to be engaged, "I don't know" is not the answer that person wants to hear. And Tyra shows some true grit, as she makes the decision to be the Collette who both goes to college and gets out of Dillon. Which, as Street says, for all its problems, is still home.

No woman can resist the charms and hair of Tim Riggins.

But for this blog, I'd like you to mostly respond to Bissinger's book. We finally see what we saw in the film: the big game against Dallas Carter. And we see how even "based on true events" can mean "made up to a great degree."  In the film, as we talked about, there was no doubt that the Panthers were the "heroes," against the big bad villains, The Cowboys. We also understood when we were watching the movie that that was a simplistic viewing of the game; for we realized by rooting by Permian, we were supporting to some degree the corrupt system that not even the "feel-good" movie couldn't hide. Bissinger gives us the whole ugly, nearly unbelievable story—"nearly unbelievable" only because this is Texas and football. (And for a little more info, go here) So...

1. You reaction to the grading system at place at Carter High School? Quote a couple times in your response.

2. We talked about this after the film, as we all rooted for the Panthers over the Cowboys. Did you still find yourself rooting for the Panthers? If so, why? If not, why not?

3. Are Carter and Permian really all that different? Explain your answer.

4. For the second-to-last time of the class: what scene or moment stuck with you from today's viewing—and why?

See you all tomorrow.

Blog #12, "I Think We Should Have Sex"

I said in class that I think this is one of the best episodes that we've seen up to this point (with 5 left in the season). There's little not absolutely, uncomfortably, believable in this episode—even Tami just happening to be in the drugstore when Matt and Landry are looking at condoms. Hey, it's a small town. Matt pledging to Julie that nobody but he and the player whose cabin Matt and Julie are going to be using knows about the "plan": and his buddy is cool, he won't tell a soul. Of course in the next scene, the players are giving Matt all sorts of great advice (and we discover that Matt doesn't have a cell phone and totaled his grandmother's car the first day he got his license and has been driven by Landry ever since). Then there is Riggins dealing with his father's lie; Street's discovering how big a world there is outside of Dillon (allowed, ironically, only by his life-changing injury); Tyra's mother Angela being fired by Buddy with a several hundred dollar payoff from Buddy; Pam Garrity discovering Buddy's infidelity after church; and Tami and Eric's long night of waiting for their rapidly growing up daughter. As Sam said in class, so many of the plot strands the series has set up are now coming together; all being set up for some kind of resolution in the final episodes. Oh, and the Panthers keep winning. Perhaps this is the moment in the first season where football finally does seem less important than it has before, for both the characters and the viewer.

1. What moment, scene, stayed with you, stuck out for you, in this episode? And why?

2. One of the themes of this episode was discovery—and what do you do with that new knowledge? Think of nearly every character whom the episode focuses on (Smash and Lyla really aren't part of this episode): all have a moment of epiphany and then the decision of where to go from that realization. Talk about that moment in a character: what's the realization: what's the reaction: what does the reaction tell us about the character? Everyone cannot write about Julie and/or Matt. Five of you can; after five, choose another character. There's lots to write about here.

3. Speaking of epiphanies. In Chapter 14 of Bissinger's book, we get the real life versions of Lucas Mize in the series. What does the chapter tell us about what can happen to former Permian Panthers? And what is your reaction to what we see here? Go ahead and quote a couple times from the book here, and as much as possible, try to not repeat each other.

Five more episodes. In Permian, the Panthers are about to take on Dallas Carter. Summer vacation begins in five days. The excitement mounts. See you on Tuesday.

Blog #11. "Blinders" & "Black Eyes and Broken Hearts"

The series here confronts one of the great themes and points of Bissinger's book, that is the racism in small town Texas. Peter Berg left this out of his film—and later expressed regret that he did, acknowledging that it didn't mesh with his primary aim in the film, which was to look at what football meant to Odessa. But now he and Jason Katims do address it: not as deeply and grimly as Bissinger does, and arguably not as honestly nor effectively as it could or should be. By the end of the "Black Eyes and Broken Hearts," it seems to me too neatly wrapped up with Mac's apology. That said, it still left enough ambiguous to allow for some depth in its confronting of race and racism in Dillon.

"You quit football to try and make a point about racism in a small Texas town. Y'all ain't the Million Man March. You are 17 and you got a brilliant future ahead of you and I'm not gonna sit here and watch you throw it away trying to teach a lesson to a bunch of fools. You know how you get back at people who think like Mac MacGill? You get back on that team. You play like the star that you are. And you get recruited by an A-list university. Go on and get your degree. Now you get up from that bed, get you something to eat, and get your butt into bed 'cause you're going to that game tomorrow."

This, of course, is Corrina Williams, who shows a whole lot better parenting in this episode than the usual unimpeachable Tami Taylor does as she deals with Julie's few minutes at the strip club. Or maybe not. So:

1. Is Mac MacGill a racist? Maybe an easy question, maybe not. But answer it and explain your answer.

2. Were Smash and the other black players right in walking off the team?

3. Is Eric right in not accepting Mac's resignation? Is Eric as racially conscious as he should perhaps be?

4. Is Corrina right in telling Smash to go back and play?

5.  And, as always, what scene or moment stayed with you from today's viewing? 

Take a few minutes to answer these questions: try to go beyond yes or no and a sentence or two explanation of what you decided.

Blog #10, "Upping The Ante."

"You get ready for me. I'll be there the first day of practice, 2014. Remember the name, Coach. Miles Shepherd."

So says the little boy who approaches Eric and Smash. A Smash in the making.

Football as we've talked about it in the class has been primarily a negative thing. It's been corrupted by the adults in the world of the book, the film, and even the series. It is brutal. Yet it also something that is essential to lives and is even beautiful in all the texts. "What would life without football be like? He knew he would be lost, just like his senior friends before him had been lost. He would feel as if it was no longer possible to keep balance anymore, as hopeless as if he was trying to ride a seesaw by himself" (249). This is Jerrod McDougal in the book, and if there is something unhealthy in this—it's just football—it's also something that is powerful; it's a passion that makes kids like himself ignore pain, live with the hardships and pressure that the game brings. As Eric tells Smash in today's episode:

"That's not what I want you to to. That's not what football's about. You wanna fly solo, you go run track. You know sometimes we take this so serious we lose track of exactly why it is we love this damn game so much. Why it is we play this game. I'm guilty of that."

And with that, the little children approach, and Coach and Smash play football with them. At the end of the episode we laughed as we listened to Smash's repeated thanks to God for, basically, letting him play football again.  Not necessarily for the glory of it, not necessarily for the chance to win State, but to just be able to play the game he loves so much again. So:

1. Why do these characters love football so much? We know the obvious reasons—pride, community, winning, all the bigger, overarching reasons we've talked about in class. Put those reasons aside for now. Think of how the game brings together four totally different boys—Smash, Street, Riggins, Saracan. All for their love of football. So what is it about football that makes them—and the boys in the book—put up with all the crap that goes with it?

2. In Chapter 11 of Bissinger's book, "Sisters," we get a glimpse of what the oil boom and bust did to Midland and Odessa. What jumped out at you about what we see here? There's a lot here, so you don't have to repeat what's been said before.

3. The series takes place in the present, that is 2006. The boom and bust Bissinger describes is long gone. But this is not a world, a town, all that unlike what we see in Odessa.  What does the series tell us, granting that it works as a mirror of real life Texas at the time, about the economic realities of small town Texas, 2006? How specifically do we see this reality? Again: don't just repeat what comes before your entry.

4.  Finally: what scene or moment jumped at you, stayed with you, from today's episode? And why?

Blog #9, "What To Do While You're Waiting" and "Little Girl I Wanna Marry You"

As Sam said to me during break, "There hasn't been any football in three episodes." Well, ask and you will receive, as Dillon beats South Pine to earn its way into the playoffs.

This section of the series is perhaps the weakest part of the overall first season, for me, at least. It's the moment in the show—which at the time it was being broadcast originally was being watched by nearly  no one—where it seems like the powers-that-be, Peter Berg and Jason Katims, felt the show should be more like a "regular" t.v. show about high school. So more Street and Lyla; remembering that Tyra was part of the show (of all the characters she has had the least back-story up until now); less football; less—oh my goodness—Riggins. Less connection with its sources, the film and the book. It's in a slump. But it will come back. So to get us through these doldrums...

1. There was an audible gasp in the room at the end of the final episode, "Little Girl I Wanna Marry You" (the title of a Bruce Springsteen song, by the way).  As Adria said, everything Street said up until the proposal indicated that he was going to do the "right thing," and, as Lyla thought, break up with Lyla (so, of course,  he could do what Herc proposed he do—run off with Tyra). But noooo. Respond to this act: is this a "jump the shark moment" in the show, where it completely loses hold of reality and becomes totally ridiculous; or, knowing what we know of Jason Street, does this make sense—is it consistent with this character? And is marrying Lyla a good idea?

2. Another possible "jump the shark" moment: Eric not turning in Smash for steroid use. Eric makes very clear the ramifications of not turning in Smash—he could lose his job. And Smash could lose any chance he has of getting a scholarship. So does Eric letting Smash off seem, from what we've seen of him in the series, like something he would do? Is what Eric does for Smash make sense coming from a coach who kicked Bobby Reyes off the team?

3. Smash, of course, is the stand-in for Boobie Miles in real life. In Chapter 10, "Boobie Who?," we see what the fate of this young black athlete is in football obsessed Permian. What strikes you about the way he is treated by the Permian football staff? Go ahead and quote a couple times from the book. Try not to repeat the same quotes or the same points others make before you.

4. Finally, my regular question: what moment or scene in today's viewing stayed with you? And why?

Blog #8, "It's Different for Girls," "Nevermind"

Both episodes we watched today are named after music: "It's Different for Girls" for a 70's new wave song by Joe Jackson, and "Nevermind," the CD Jason wheeled himself four miles for, of course being Nirvana's zillion selling album.

For me, the weakest part of the series is the Lyla-Street conflict. Is it because Minka Kelly isn't much of an actor here? Is it the way the conflict has been written? Is it because rich girl Lyla has so little at stake? Is it because it is the most "high school" of the conflicts? Is it because Lyla's a cheerleader and who can take a cheerleader seriously? (Julie certainly doesn't) This said, the series affords Lyla and her love of cheering the same kind of respect and lack of judgement that it gives to everything else in the show, from high school football to the cute burgeoning romance of Matt and Julie to a blowhard like Buddy Gerrity. Lyla loves cheering—she's been prepped for it since she was five years old, in the same way the boys have been prepped for football for just as long. And if there's a problem with this–and the show implies there is, as Lyla begins to recognize the limitations of being a cheerleader—it also lets her have her feelings for it. If Matt or Riggins or Smash is allowed his moments of football glory, then Lyla gets her moment of glory too.


1. If there is an overt theme to these two episodes, as well as to the whole series, it's stated by Herc, Street's no-nonsense, unsentimental paraplegic buddy. "Whatever worked for you before may not work now," he tells Street at the bar. "Nothing's like it was before." So, how do we see this played out in one or both of these episodes you watched today? Don't try to repeat what's been said by others—spread your net far and wide. And don't go for the obvious either—we get that sex for Jason and Lyla is not what it used to be.

2. I have to ask as the middle-aged teacher watching a show about high school. Is the treatment Lyla gets from her classmates at all realistic? In what ways is it, and in what ways is it not, in your opinion?

3. I asked last week what the show got right about the life and lives of teenagers. So what does the show get right about parents and their children? Give a couple examples in your answer.

4. Finally, we get into a classroom! And they're talking about a book many of you have read, and will read if you haven't so far, "The Odyssey."And what a class—Smash, Julie, Tim Riggins, and the new girl, Waverly. So how realistic did you find this class to be? In fact, to go along with this, aside from the absence of classroom scenes, how realistic do you find the depiction of school to be in the series?

5. Finally: what scene or moment in today's viewing stayed with you—and why?