Insider Rowing

I picked up H.G. Bissinger’s original Friday Night Lights (2000) shortly after it came out in hardcover and I was blown away by what a compelling story it was and the remarkable people involved. Clocking in at 367 pages, the book is meticulously researched and details the 1988 season of the Odessa-Permian Panthers . The central characters of the story are well rendered: Mike Winchell, the star quarterback, Boobie Miles, the stud running back who gets injured early in the season, badboy Don Billingsley, Head Coach Gary Gaines, and others. Football is greater than religion in Texas, especially so in the tiny town of Odessa where the residents hang their hopes and dreams on the games on Friday nights. The issues of race, poverty, poor vs. rich, and politics are intertwined tightly with the athletics, and this story is an unforgettably human story. Friday Night Lights burns with passion for the sport, and I have this book to thank for igniting my own rabid hunger for football, the college variety in particular.

The 2004 movie version of Friday Night Lights, directed by Peter Berg, is a fairly faithful version of the same story. Berg pumps up the football scenes with requisite flying bodies, crunching tackles, and huge plays just like in any other football film, but he goes way past the straightforward sports story and balances the action with strong development of the flawed heroes and the town of Odessa itself, which is very much a character. Gaines, Winchell, Miles, and Billingsley are well rendered, and my only gripe is that I would have liked to have seen the same treatment for linebacker Ivory Christian and tight end Brian Chavez, who get their own story lines in the original book version. Billy Bob Thornton, who plays Coach Gaines, gives a nuanced and standout performance. I originally watched the film in the theater when it was first released and my original impression is that it was remarkable for a football movie, but it didn’t quite stick in my brain afterwards. I wasn’t moved by it. I rented it the other night (3 years later), watched it twice more, and found the level of detail and the performances totally remarkable. I connected with the characters deeply on the second go around, to the point that I nearly wept at the end of it (disclaimer: I was still vulnerable after the last Gators loss). My guess is that the movie was just too fast and flashy on first viewing and the human drama got buried, or maybe my football IQ wasn’t high enough. Either way, Friday Night Lights ages well and I recommend it for fans who want to see mature human drama and real sports passion in the same space.

Lastly, the soundtrack by most-modern rockers Explosions in the Sky is a major revelation…I didn’t even know music like this existed.