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?

Blog #7, "Homecoming," "Crossing The Line," "School Days"

As we make our way through this season of "Friday Night Lights," it can be helpful to have a central source for episode summaries, so, of course, here is the Wikipedia entry on season one. You can't use it for the test, but you can use it as you write your entries here. It's up to you whether you want to look ahead to see what happens.

It's not out of character for the series that doing the right thing doesn't make life any easier.  Lyla and Tim have (seemingly) broken off their relationship; Tim is actually being the friend he's supposed to be; and, accordingly, the roof falls in as Jason figures out what really happened. The repercussions are going to be big; those offensive linemen who visit Street aren't going to buy Riggins an Alamo burger, and Tyra has informed Lyla that rumors are flying.  Meanwhile, Smash, like Boobie in real life, sees his way out of the ghetto and ability to provide for his family tied to football, leading to his injecting steroids. And there is the cameo by Lucas Mize, the former Panther great, who can still rocket the football down the field but is reduced to begging for an assistant coaching job, which Eric either can't or won't give him (it's never clear if Eric really did ask his superiors about Lucas's request). Again, the metaphor and importance of football in this world: it's the one place in this universe where one can unambiguously win. And losing is never as bad as the losses everyone seems to suffer off the field.

A few questions:

1. What moment or scene from what we watched today has stayed with you, hours later—and why?

2. Go back to yesterday's blog and the definitions you all came up with for what the show is "about." Look them over again, yours and everyone else's, and say which definition you think works the best for this show. It may be yours, it may be someone else's. And say why you picked this definition.

3. As I wrote yesterday, we are going to go back to the book for a bit tomorrow to talk about Chapter 7, "School Days." For me, it's the most important chapter of the book, for it gets us, finally, inside the place which is central to every teenager's life, school. And it's not a pretty picture that Bissinger paints. What struck you about this chapter—what is the most important, for you, part of this chapter? Why? Go ahead and quote three times from the book in your response. And, finally, have we seen any of this in the series so far? I think we have—but you might disagree. There's a lot here, so please, don't simply repeat what others have said before you, okay?

Finally, without giving anything away—no real plot spoilers—below is the wisdom of Tim Riggins through the entire series. Pay particular attention to his explication of "The Scarlet Letter" to Tami.

Blog #6, Episode 6, "El Accidente"

Your reading of the series so far has been rewarded by the show itself.  Eric comes out and declares— surprise, surprise—that he loves football.  And as we were talking about in class today, his love of football has made certain ethical decisions a little too easy for him. And there is still enough ambiguity in his character for us to ask whether he believed Bobby Reyes because he knew the kid so well, as he told Tami (he's coached Reyes for years), or because Reyes was a key defensive player. Or perhaps it's a little bit of both.  And then Coach Taylor, who seems to care very much for his players, kicks Reyes off the team. "It's all I got," or something along those lines, is what Reyes says (something that no doubt most of the players could truthfully say), but Eric is adamant: "clean out your locker." Now Eric just a few days earlier declined to punish Matt when Matt admits to having trashed their rival's car. Eric won't even punish Matt for not saying who was with him. In this sense, Eric mirrors to some degree Gary Gaines in that Gaines has two sets of rules: one for Boobie and another for the rest of the team. As Bissinger writes, "The preferential rules Boobie received sometimes caused resentment among the other players. The coaches were aware of the gripes, but the bottom line was that Boobie had the talent and they did not" (66).  Sounds like why Eric started Voodoo over Matt. 

In addition, we hear from Tyra how she has plans to go to California, diploma be damned—anything to get out of Dillon.  The surprise is that Tami reveals that she was Tyra in high school: the pretty girl who hated school. In all these cases—Eric, Tyra, Tami—they all prove to be complex, complicated figures. And our main boy Matt Saracen, at least for a little while, goes over to the "other side," as Landy says, while Landry proves to not be as much a nerd as we may have first thought him to be.  These characters can surprise us.

1. Which character do you feel most drawn to?  And why?  Write several sentences answering this.

2. This episode was about being forced to choose whether or not to do the "right" thing.  Pick one of the characters who faced this decision and argue for whether or not he or she did indeed do the right thing. As always, don't simply repeat what others have written, but try to create your own original reply, while acknowledging what others have said if it is important to your argument.

3. If someone were to ask you what this series was about, how would you answer that question?  Don't just say "football," though clearly it is "about" football.  Think about all our characters. Then answer the question in several sentences.

Tomorrow we will watch two episodes.  On Friday I definitely want to talk about the book, in particular, Chapter 7, "School Days."

Blog #5, Episodes 4&5, "Who's Your Daddy" and "Get'Er Done"

What started out as a show about football in small town Texas has managed to now branch out—yet still remain true in spirit to its "inspiration," Bissinger's book.  What happens at the end of Chapter 6 could fit right into the series: "There was a keg and a couple of cases of beer. A fight erupted for entertainment. A girl everyone agreed was about the toughest shit-kicker in Odessa knocked another girl to he ground with a few punches and then started slamming her head against a stone floor, leaving blood all over the place" (126).  Okay, maybe that's a little extreme for the series.  At the same time, the parties we see are pretty wild, with players puking on Julie's nice boots, and Voodoo and Smash almost coming to blows.  This is not material for ninth grade Making Healthy Life Decisions class.  And the players at the end of Chapter 4 mirror the Dillon Panthers in their arrogance and cockiness.  Who cares if they lost—"they would still be gladiators, the ones envied by everyone else, the ones who knew the best parties and got the best girls and laughed the loudest and strutted so proudly through the halls of school as if it was their own wonderful, private kingdom" (127). This is exactly the attitude, as several of you noted in the previous blog, that makes Coach Taylor drag the team's sorry asses out in the middle of the night and makes them run wind sprints in a driving rainstorm. 


This is a rich series, "Glee"-like as it might appear to be on the surface.  Like the Berg film, it's not afraid to let the viewer figure things out; it trusts in the intelligence of the viewer.  With that in mind...

1. Being coach at Dillon is often hellish for not just Eric but also for Tami, as she points out at the party sprung on her suddenly.  For Eric, as we see at the end of "Get'Er Done," life is great when he wins; when he loses, though, he's being run out of town by fat guys at the burger joint. And the pressure of winning, as we've talked about, is terrible. So why does Eric coach at Dillon?  Julie lets him know there are a lot of other places he—they—could go.  But as he tells her, they aren't Texas, which is a blessing and a curse.  So with all the negatives that coaching at Dillon has, why do you think Eric stays?

2.  Short question: should Eric have started Voodoo or Matt?  Answer in a sentence with a reason for your answer.

3. So much of the series revolves, of course, around the teenagers. And sure, some of the teens look awfully old to be playing seventeen year olds (Scott Porter who plays Jason Street was 27 at the time; Aimee Teegarden, however, who plays Julie was 17, just two years older than the sophomore she plays).  That said, for you what does the show get right about the lives of these kids?  Take specifics, okay—name a couple scenes that especially capture well authentic adolescent life.

4.  The character we have probably the least information about and contact with, Tyra, finally gets real screen time.  What was your reaction to her in this last episode? 

Blog #5, Episode 3, "Wind Sprints". Chapter 4, "Dreaming of Heroes."

Today's episode had one of those great, possibly improbable, moments in the series when Coach Taylor gets the entire team out on some lonely country road and has them do wind sprints (hence the episode's title) in the driving rain. Or not. Is it any more improbable than the stories we get in the book of players who "leaned the much-admired lesson of no pain, no gain" (44) like the player whose testicle "swelled up to the size of a grapefruit and by the time the doctor saw him, it was too late; it had to be removed" (44)? We also see, as Sam predicted, Lyla and Riggins get together; dramatic but, again, possibly improbable.  But again, there is Don Billingsley's mother, who lets her son live with her train wreck of an ex, "but since she herself had been a Permian Pepette during Charlie's senior year, she understood" (82).  People do funny, improbable things, do they not?

So as you think back on the episode which we left as Jason is being moved to a special care facility and Lyla has just given him a kiss, and as you think back on the last couple chapters of the book, but in particular for today, Chapter 4 (Chapter 5's examination of racism in Odessa we will address soon enough), answer the following questions in the following order: the first four of you who blog, answer number 1 ; the second 4, number 2; nine through twelve number 3; and the final four number 4.

1. Why did Eric drag his team out in the middle of the night for wind sprints? Did he have a specific purpose? Or was it simply anger? And if he did have a purpose, did he achieve it—and how do we know he achieved it?

2.  Tyra is one attractive young woman—not surprisingly she is with Tim Riggins, over whom every female he runs into swoons. Yet Tim unceremoniously dumps her. Why?

3. It's a powerful moment when Lyla finds Riggins walking back from the wind sprints.  She slaps him, tells him—not incorrectly—that he's being selfish for not visiting his best friend in the hospital; she also reveals her own growing self-awareness about her own self-involvement and naivety, maybe even arrogance. What do we see her realize about herself her—and how did she get to this realization?

4.  This scene ends with, as Sam predicted, Lyla making out with her boyfriend's best friend.  Whoa!  What's up with this?  Explain this.

Now all of you answer the following:

5.  We determined pretty quickly that Peter Berg based Matt Saracen on Mike Winchell and Tim Riggins on Don Billingsley.  Pick either Saracen-Winchell or Riggins-Billingsley and draw the connection between the fictional character and his real counterpart.  Quote a couple times from the book in your answer. Please, in doing this, don't simply repeat what others before you have said.  Pick a different quote than others have, if you can; try to make another original point, ok?

6. Finally: what is your reaction to Don Billingsley's comment at the end of Chapter 4?

That's it.  Everyone has three questions to answer.  See you tomorrow, where we'll finish the episode and try to get two more in before the end of class. 

Blog #4, Friday Night Lights. "Pilot" and "Eyes Wide Open"

So now we are into the series. "Pilot" is written and directed by series creator Peter Berg, the writer and director of the film, and you can see the clear influence of the film on this episode (the bull ring directed toward Riggins is an almost carbon copy of what we see done to Ivory in the film, and still effective).  "Eyes Wide Open" is written by Jason Katims, the main producer of the series. So just to get us started on our discusion of what will be, ultimately, 22 episodes, as well as the book...

1.  Your reaction(s) to what you saw today.  Like? Dislike?  What scene or moment especially jumped out at you, stayed with you, from the first two episodes (we have still to finish the second)?

2.  What so far distinguishes this from the film—what, to you, is the main difference between this and the film?  Yes, there are the obvious differences—characters, plot, etc—so think about the way the show deals with the big themes that were brought up in the film.

3.  There are several story lines being presented to us in the series: which one do you particularly find yourself drawn to at this moment, and why?

4.  There are many characters in this show—you have the list that I gave you on the first day of class. Pick one of them and characterize her or him so far: the word or phrase that best describes the person and how do we see this person fulfill this characterization? Until we run through the entire list of characters (Coach Eric Taylor; Tami Taylor; Julie Taylor; Jason Street; Lyla Garrity; Brian "Smash" Williams; Matt Saracen; Landry Clarke; Tyra Collette; Tim Riggins), each of you do a different character.  So whoever blogs first gets to pick anyone; the next, what's left; the third, what's left minus two; etc.  The eleventh blogger gets to start again.

Go ahead and respond to what your classmates write. Be sure to answer all the questions. Try to not repeat what has already been written: add to the conversation. Enjoy the weekend, do your reading, and we'll see you Monday.

Blog #3, "All I Wanted To Do Was Make It To The Pros."

So says Boobie Miles in Chapter 3. One of the things we didn't really get to today in our discussion was the differences between Peter Berg's film and Bissinger's book.  Both works put Boobie dead center in their narrative. Several of you mentioned that incredible scene of Boobie and LV in the car after Boobie has cleaned out his locker as one of the most powerful, albeit saddest, moments of the film. In just one brief shot, we see Boobie's entire life come apart. Nothing like this happens in the book, yet Bissinger clearly sees the pathos of the injury that will change everything about this young man's life.

"Boobie lay down and several student managers took off his pads.  In his uniform, with all the different pads he fancied, he looked a little like Robo Cop.But stripped of all the accoutrements, reduced to a gray shirt soaked with sweat, he had lost his persona. He looked like what he was—an eighteen-year-old kid who was scared to death." (57)

1.  So why do you think Boobie is given such a central position in both the film and the book?  Why give such an emphasis on a figure who plays such a small role in the central narrative of the story (in real life, Boobie got hurt in a preseason game)?  Go ahead and quote a couple times from the book in your answer; and don't simply reiterate what we said in class today.  Expand on what we said; better yet, take your response in additional directions from what we said today.

2.  One of the major points I wanted us to get to in our discussion today was how the film is on some level a confusing mix of messages.  On one hand, as we said in discussion, it is a clear critique, criticism, as is Bissinger's book, of Permian football culture.  At the same time, it is also a feel-good, uplifting, let our boys win the big game against those big bad guys from Dallas-Carter.  What part of the film's narrative or message is, for you, most contradictory?  This doesn't mean you have to dislike the film, not at all; but it does mean you have to be analytical and critical of what the film does.  I would argue that the film wants to have it both ways: to criticize what is clearly a corrupt high school football culture and to have us cheering for a team that is neck deep in that culture.  So look at a way that the film tries to have it both ways.  And how does this work for you? 

Finally, a little preview of where we go next.  This is the opening of the pilot for the series "Friday Night Lights".

We'll watch the rest of this tomorrow.

Blog #2, "This Must Not Be Planet Earth."

"'This must be hell."
But it wasn't.  It was just Odessa. (30)

Two chapters into Bissinger's book, you should be seeing how Peter Berg has softened or sweetened his cousin's take on small town Texas football.  Which is okay: the film works well enough on its own, in its more conventional view of sports (in my opinion).  But you should be seeing by now what has been changed.  Boobie's story for one. Look at pages 17-18. And then:  "Boobie officially quit the team two days later.  But no one paid much attention.  There were a lot more important things to worry about that that pain-in-the-ass prima donna with a bad knee who couldn't cut worth a crap anymore anyway. There were plenty more on the Southside where he came from" (20),

This is not Berg's story.  That said, there are parts of the film that approach the messiness of the "true" story.  For one, the relationship between Don and Charlie Billingsley, whom we meet in Chapter 4 of the book.

This is one of the most uncomfortable moments in the film; note the reaction of Coach Gaines, who does not say a word during this awful moment.  What I really like about the film is its willingness to let Gaines be a bit of a mystery, to let him be a complicated man who can alternately punish his players mercilessly, as he does Ivory in the bull ring on the first day of practice, who can scream at his sensitive quarterback Mike Winchell, yet can give that beautiful half time speech below:

So, with all this in mind:

1.  What is your reaction to the film separate from the book?  What do you like about it and perhaps dislike or question?  What scene or moment in it especially stayed with you, and why? What character has especially struck you as we get toward the end of the film?

2.  Now to be more critical:  do you think Gary Gaines is a good coach?  Do you think he is a good human being?  Why or why not for both questions?

3.  You've read the first two chapters of the book.  What do you think the film gets right about the book?  For you, where is the perfect intersection of the text and the film?

4.  And finally: Odessa in the book. A place you'd want to live?  Why or why not?

We'll finish the film tomorrow, talk about it, and the book as well.  Then onto the series.

Blog #1, "It's Like The Gladiators."

We're now in this strange place where we are watching a film about real people and real life events and the fictional version is what we will carry with us as the real version—if that makes any sense at all. Then we will look at the television show which even further fictionalizes the real people and story.  But at the same time, as Tim O'Brien, the author of the great Vietnam War novel, "The Things They Carried," says about "true" war stories:  "Absolute occurrence is irrelevant. A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may happens and be truer than the truth." The same applies here to the series we will begin in a few days. The truth doesn't have to be real—it just has to be true.  Wrap your heads around that for a minute.

What is certainly the truth is the video above of the real Boobie Miles.  I'm not a huge football fan, but I can even tell from these clips that Boobie was a great football player; and that the game Permian High School played was nothing like the game I played in high school nor have seen since in high school. In the book, Brian Chavez will later reflect upon his one day as a player for Harvard: "[He] quite after one day after coming to the conclusion that the program was on par with the junior high one in Odessa" (344). 

Anyhow. Great first day of class.  Thanks for the free sharing of experiences of you and athletics and for the willingness to talk honestly about your visions of small town America.  We're going to find many of our assumptions and stereotypes both reaffirmed and challenged in our reading and viewing.  But first:

1.  What did you learn from the prologue to the book?  What especially jumped off the page that stuck with you in this introduction to football, Odessa, and the kids that play the game?

2.  Which player in the reading particularly interested you—and why?

3.  What image or moment from the first ten minutes of the film particularly struck you—and why?

Write a couple hundred words in answering these three questions.  And remember to have this done by 8:30 tomorrow morning.  Welcome to Short Term B. And remember to answer in the comments box: don't create your own post, okay?