friday night lights odessa summary

Friday Night Lights

Buzz bissinger, everything you need for every book you read..

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Friday Night Lights - critical summary review

This microbook is a summary/original review based on the book:   Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream

Available for:  Read online, read in our mobile apps for iPhone/Android and send in PDF/EPUB/MOBI to Amazon Kindle .

ISBN:   0306824205

Publisher:   Da Capo Press Inc.

Critical summary review

In July 1988, noted Pulitzer Prize-winning Philadelphia journalist H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger moved with his family to West Texas, to a town called Odessa. An addicted sports fan, he was fascinated to learn that out of Odessa’s 90,000 inhabitants, over 20,000 filled the seats of the local stadium every Friday night to watch their favorite football team, the Permian High School Panthers. 

Ever since Buzz was 13 years old, he wanted to explore “the idea of high school sports keeping a town together, keeping it alive." Now, he knew he had the chance. He didn’t know, however, that, over the following year, he would discover something even more profound.

One of the best sports books ever written, “Friday Night Lights” shares the results of Bissinger’s investigation. So, join us at the line of scrimmage and tag along as we meet the 1988 Panthers and follow their run toward the Texas State Championship – fumbles, tackles, touchdowns and all.

Prologue: the invention of a city

Most towns are founded; Odessa, in the words of Buzz Bissinger, was “invented.” “There had been no reason for its original existence,” he writes. “It owed its beginnings to a fine blend of Yankee ingenuity and hucksterism.”

Namely, two decades before the end of the 19th century, a group of men from Zanesville, Ohio, saw a great opportunity to make money, if only they could figure out some way to get people to the dry and arid land of Odessa. So, they started advertising it as being as fertile as that of the finest acre of farmland in Kansas or Iowa. And on May 19, 1886, during a great land auction, people – mostly German Methodists from western Pennsylvania – bought not only their story but their land as well.

Since nothing could really grow in Odessa, nothing really happened for the next half a century: by 1900, the town had only 381 residents, up to a little over a thousand in the next census of 1910, and down to 760 a decade later. Most of these people depended on ranching, but droughts made their survival almost impossible. Little did they know that their houses had been built in the middle of the oil-rich Permian Basin that, even today, accounts for one fifth of US crude oil production. 

And then, in 1926, they suddenly found out. Overnight, the town transformed from a dying settlement to an overcrowded den of lawlessness riddled with numerous issues, ranging from prostitution and chronic diarrhea to non-operational infrastructure and “a rat problem so severe that the local theater put out a rat bounty and would let you in free if you produced twelve rat tails.” 

Odessa, a city obsessed with football

As Odessa grew, so did the town’s obsession with football, spurred on by the unlikely success of the Odessa High School’s football team that won the state championship in 1946. It was a monumental event for a town of Odessa’s size, akin to Armstrong’s landing on the moon. Everybody there had an answer to the question, “Where were you the moment the Bronchos won the championship?” And, in the case of most, the answer was “at the stadium.”

In 1959, thanks to an economic boom, a second high school opened in Odessa, the Permian. Within the next two and a half decades, the Permian High School outgrew its predecessor both in popularity and football success. It not only managed to win four state championships (in 1965, 1972, 1980, and 1984), but it also became the real pride of the town. Since losing its primacy to Permian, Odessa High School was mainly attended by poor whites and even poorer Hispanics; the best of the best, as a general rule, went to the Permian. And when we say “the best of the best,” we don’t necessarily mean the most talented or the smartest; we mean the most skilled football players. That’s everything the town expected from their boys: not good grades and valedictorian speeches, but great passes and winning touchdowns.

And this held especially true during the last few years of the 1980s, when Odessa, after a decade-long boom, went into a dire economic slump. High school football was the only distraction, so expectations – necessarily high every year – were even higher than usual in 1988. Especially in view of the fact that the team had an incredible array of talent, the best of any Permian team in a decade. The Associated Press had even picked Permian to win it all.

The players: the 1988 Permian Panthers

An exceptional football mind, Gary Gaines had been signed as the Permian Panthers’ head coach two years before Bissinger’s arrival in Odessa. By 1988, while constantly fighting off the immense pressure coming from the football-crazed Odessans, he managed to build a highly competitive team, mostly around the qualities of the following players:

• James "Boobie" Miles. During 1987, African-American fullback Boobie had rushed for 1,385 yards and was now widely touted to become the next big thing coming from Odessa. Everybody was after him, with Texas A&M, Nebraska, and Houston routinely cramming his mailbox with “heady testimonials to his magnificence.” It was because of him that the Associated Press had picked the Panthers as the favorites for the 1988 title. Owing to his talent, Boobie was allowed to get away with anything, including self-aggrandizing behavior and extremely bad grades.
• Mike Winchell. Shy and unspectacular, Mike Winchell was the starting quarterback for the 1988 Panthers. Though extraordinarily effective on his good days, mostly due to numerous family-related anxieties, Winchell was an inconsistent player, as summed up in one of his own characteristic assessments: "One day I throw the ball like Roger Staubach, one day like Roger Rabbit."
• Jerrod McDougal. An offensive lineman for the Panthers, Jerrod McDougal was a crowd favorite, owing to his fearlessness and dedication. Though frustrated with both oil and football – the two hallmarks of Odessa – he was actually in love with his football team. To make up for his small stature, he trained more often and more rigorously than all of his teammates. 
• Ivory Christian. A gifted African-American linebacker, Ivory Christian was a religious person and, as skillful as he is, he is quite ambivalent about football, preferring to become a preacher instead. There were, however, moments when he loved the game he tried so much to hate.
• Brian Chavez. The smartest one of the bunch; the exception. Son of a lawyer and the most prominent Hispanic player for the Panthers, Chavez was valedictorian of his class and dreamed of going to Harvard University after graduating from Permian. He was the team’s tight end and defensive lineman. 
• Don Billingsley. Son of a local legend-turned-alcoholic – a star player for the Panthers in the late 1960s – Billingsley was one of the most attractive boys at Permian High and the team’s halfback. Plagued with problems at home, Don was known less for his on-field achievements than for his off-field activities, which ranged from courting most of the Pepettes, the Permian cheer squad, to heavy drinking and fighting.

The season: an injury, a coin toss, an incomplete pass

The problems for the 1988 Panthers started even before the season had: during a preseason scrimmage in Lubbock, Boobie Miles – of all players – suffered a significant knee injury. Hoping to take part in the team as soon as possible, Boobie opted to tend the injury with therapy instead of surgery – which limited both his movement and his playing time. Coach Gaines had no option but to call up junior running back Chris Comer to replace the Panthers’ marquee player.

Fortunately, Comer would settle well, and Winchell would up his game to give the Panthers a blow-out victory in the opening game of the season. A wake-up call followed as Permian lost a tough game to Marshall, the first non-conference loss for the team in almost a decade. Amidst pressure, the team recuperated with another Chavez-led blow-out win over Midland High School, which served as a preparation for the game against their fiercest rivals, Midland Lee. Even though the two towns were actually quite similar, their inhabitants hated each other pretty profoundly. Odessans saw Midlanders as rich snobs, and Midlanders saw Odessans as uneducated rednecks and drunkards. Their game for the 1988 season ended with a Midland victory, which left an air of uncertainty around Permian’s season and Gaines’ future.

Fortunately for both, they somehow managed to win out the remainder of their games for the season to eventually accrue an identical record as the Midland Lee Rebels and the Midland High Bulldogs: 7-2, and 5-1 in the district. Since only two teams could go to the playoffs, the district's tiebreaker rule went into effect: a coin toss. With the hopes of a whole town hanging in the balance, Coach Gaines won the flip and the Permian and Midland Lee advanced.

The Panthers played extremely well in the playoffs, soundly defeating the Tascosa and the Andress High School before routing Texas’ sixth-ranked high school team, the Irving Nimitz Vikings, to progress to the quarterfinals. There, they beat the Arlington Lamar 21–7 to earn a semifinal game against, arguably, the country’s best high school football team: the Dallas Carter Cowboys. On December 17, 1988, after an incomplete pass from Mike Winchell to Robert Brown from the 24-yard line, Permian’s season ended with a bitter 14–9 defeat. 

The other side of the coin

Despite their loss to the Dallas Carter, for the entire 1988 season, the members of the Permian Panthers enjoyed bathing in the glory and splendor of the magnificent Friday night lights. They were the pride of their town, local celebrities with a status comparable to that of Hollywood stars. And because of this – just like their movie counterparts from LA – they could be excused for almost every one of the numerous faults of their characters, be it propensity for fighting and late-night drinking (as in the case of Don Billingsley) or a prevailing disinterest in school (as was the case of Boobie Miles). The problem is that this kind of conduct doesn’t prepare kids for the real life that follows after high school; on the contrary, in fact: it encourages them to sacrifice their chances to succeed in the long run for one or two years of fame and triumph. 

"Athletics lasts for such a short period of time,” said an Odessan father to Buzz Bissinger during one discussion. “It ends for people. But while it lasts, it creates this make-believe world where normal rules don't apply. We build this false atmosphere. When it's over and the harsh reality sets in, that's the real joke we play on people... Everybody wants to experience that superlative moment, and being an athlete can give you that. It's Camelot for them. But there's life even after it." 

Epilogue: the 1988 Permian Panthers, 25 years later

Twenty-five years after his first year-long stay, Bissinger returned once again to Odessa to discover what had happened to the heroes of his celebrated book in the meantime. As he might have feared, it was rarely a fairytale ending for most of them. 

Boobie Miles never really recovered from his knee injury. After spending some time playing semi-pro football, he quit and started a string of menial jobs. He has a wife now, four children, and numerous regrets. Despite setting numerous QB records at Permian, Mike Winchell, still single, didn’t get a football scholarship offer and currently works as a lease manager for an energy company. Jerrod McDougal didn’t marry as well: he now works for his family’s construction business. He still has trouble letting go of football. Unlike all of his teammates, Ivory Christian received a Division I football scholarship from Texas Christian University. He never became a preacher and is currently working as a trucker.

Brian Chavez made his dream a reality, graduating from Harvard and following in his father’s footsteps to become a lawyer. However, his legal license was suspended in 2009 after he pleaded guilty for home invasion and assault of his fiancée’s ex-husband. Don Billingsley somehow found the strength to reinvent himself and is no longer the troublemaker of his youth, but a family man and a successful consultant. Finally, just one year after Bissinger’s original visit, Coach Gary Gaines won the Permian Panthers the state title. 20 years afterward, after some bad results, the school hired him once again, this time with no real success. He retired in 2012. 

As of late, Odessa is doing fine economically. As a consequence, most of its inhabitants are not as obsessed with football, for the better of their children.

Final Notes

In 2002, Sports Illustrated ranked Friday Night Lights the fourth-best sports book ever written, describing it as “a brilliant look at how Friday-night lights can lead a town into darkness.”

And, indeed, there aren’t many books on football as poignant, painful, political and peering as Bissinger’s magnum opus. 

A must-read.

Never forget that, though they stem from the same place, obsession is as different from love as wellbeing is from anxiety. Be careful.

Who wrote the book?

H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger is an American author and journalist, best known for his book “Friday Night Lights.” In 1987, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for his story on corruption in the Philadelphia court system. He has been a contributing editor... (Read more)

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Chapter 1 - Odessa

On a dog-day Monday in the middle of August, practice for the 1988 season begins. No matter what the fantasies of the players, it all seems possible this day. On the wall of the field house, every player who had made All-State during the last 29 years is immortalized in a four by six inch frame. There are proclamations honoring State Championship teams. The color black reflects everywhere from the black and white cabinets to the black rug in the shape of a Panther. It is more historical and enduring than anything Odessa, the town could proclaim.

Odessa was settled in the 1880’s by a group of men from Zanesville, Ohio, who wanted to attract people to the land they had bought. But the land was virtually impossible to farm anything, because of the difficulty of getting water, so it eked out a living from the livestock trade. Then, the droughts came and raising livestock became impossible. Fortunately, the town was sitting in the midst of the Permian Basin, a geologic formation that would ultimately produce roughly 20 percent of the nation’s domestic oil and gas. Then, it became inundated with men simply known as boomers, because the town’s fortunes now became entwined with the oil cycles of boom and bust. It gained a reputation for a hearty, hair-trigger temperament and earned the distinction in 1982 of having the highest murder rate in the country. By 1987, Money Magazine ranked it as the 5th worst city to live in in the country out of 300. Nonetheless, it was “a place rooted in the sweet nostalgia of the fifties - unsophisticated, basic, raw - a place where anybody could be somebody, a place still clinging to all the tenets of the American Dream, however wobbly they had become.”

Whatever else Odessa had or didn’t have, there had always been high school football. Everyone knew where they had been when the team won a State Football Championship, so it isn’t unusual that expectations are high at the beginning of the 1988 season. No one can see how Permian could miss a trip to State. Coach Gaines hates the assumptions, because it creates more room for anger and disappointment if the team doesn’t get there. For the moment in the field house on this first day of practice, the team belongs to no one. But all too soon they will be unveiled to the public, and then they would become the property of those so desperately devoted to it. The great unveiling will take place in late August at the Permian Booster Club’s Watermelon Feed, when the excitement and madness will quickly move into high gear.

This chapter gives the reader a historical background to the town of Odessa with all its cycles of boom and bust, more bust than boom. This history is significant, because it helps explain how the town came to depend so much on high school football to take away the disappointments that came with living in a town like Odessa.

Chapter 2 - The Watermelon Feed

The Watermelon Feed takes place in the high school cafeteria. On this night, the boys of the Permian football team will come before the crowd to be checked out and introduced. Then, two weeks later will come the glorious start of the season. People come to the Watermelon Feed with their children as if they feel it’s important for the little ones to see this spectacle at a young age and be awed by it. They come dressed in black, the major Permian color, and they come with the 1988 Permian football yearbook to be autographed by their heroes. The “grand dukes of Permian,” men in their 50’s and 60’s who are hooked on Permian football and treat each game with reverence, are also there. They are the people who were dubbed “football crazy” on ABC’s Nightline by Ross Perot. They responded with letters telling him to mind his own business and not disturb a way of life that had thrived for years and brought the town a joy it never could have experienced anywhere else.

Playing for Permian, however, involves great sacrifice for the players: some play with broken limbs, one lost a testicle; vomiting was routine; others took shots of novocaine to mask the pain of their injuries. In contrast to the pain, there are the perks: the black jersey worn only by “privileged children,” the Pepette who takes care of her player with candy and other treats, signs in his yard, and his number on the white shirt she wore. They are the special ones of the school all through the season.

The Watermelon Feed begins with a prayer and film of past great games. The boys are then introduced and Boobie Miles is introduced as the player who will take the great Shawn Crow’s place on the team. Shawn has been the object of the film they have just watched. L.V. is as proud as he can possibly be unaware that everything will change at a pre-season scrimmage with the Palo Duro Dons.

This chapter is particularly poignant, because the reader already knows that the season is not going to be the perfect one the people envision at the Watermelon Feed. Their hopes and dreams are still fresh and new and the Midland Lee game is weeks in the distance. What’s more, it’s a poignant chapter when we see how alive the dreams of Boobie Miles are and how far we know they will fall.

The Real-Life Inspiration Behind 'Friday Night Lights'

In Texas, Sunday is for church, but Friday nights are for high school football.

The Big Picture

• Friday Night Lights is based on the best-selling book by journalist Buzz Bissinger; it follows the 1988 football season of Permian High School in Odessa.
• Although Bissinger's novel would go on to sell 2 million copies and spawn the 2004 film and a TV series, the citizens of Odessa felt bitter about how they were portrayed in the book. To this day, Bissinger is no longer welcome at Odessa-Permian events.
• The book-turned-movie highlights the intense pressure and adoration towards high school football in Odessa, Texas. Unfortunately, the film fails to address racial implications and the real-life outcome of the football players and community involved.

If you grow up in Texas, you know how important high school football is. If Sunday is for God and church, then Fridays are for your local varsity football team under the lights. So what do you do when something becomes almost as important as religion? Well, you make a movie about it . Friday Night Lights is the cinematic portrayal of the cult of football and how it affects the young men who play the game, their coaches, and the small towns in which they are at the center. But you better dot your "I"s and cross your "T"s, because if you misrepresent the sport of football in the Lone Star State, (especially if you aren't from Texas) there are hordes of Texans ready and willing to release the hounds of hell on you. Just ask Buzz Bissinger, who hails from New York City and was writing for the Philadelphia Enquirer . Bissinger is the intrepid scribe who took on the behemoth that is Friday night football in the great state, and what came from it will follow him and the people he wrote about for the rest of their lives.

Friday Night Lights

Based on H.G. Bissinger's book, which profiled the economically depressed town of Odessa, Texas and their heroic high school football team, The Permian High Panthers.

'Friday Night Lights' Is Based on a Best-Selling Book

As detailed in an interview with Fresh Air , when Buzz Bissinger decided in 1988 that he wanted to write about the phenomenon that is Texas high school football, he went to a college football recruiter and asked him which town best represented what it was all about. That recruiter didn't hesitate and directed him to the town of Odessa, Texas and the Permian High School program. So Bissinger moved his wife and two children to the central Texas town and started writing Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream .

Bissinger had no idea what he was getting into. In Texas, high school football on Friday nights is a hallowed religious experience, especially in a small town in the middle of the dusty Texas plains whose other claims to fame are oil fertility and being a couple of hours' drive outside of Lubbock. The Head Coach of the program at the time was the legendary Gary Gaines (played by Billy Bob Thornton in the film), and he wielded more power than the mayor of Odessa. In a town like Odessa, where there is an almost cult-like environment surrounding the high school football team , sharing your thoughts on Gaines is akin to writing about a man who has achieved a quasi-Messianic status. His 16-18 year-old players were like rock stars. What became of Bissinger's account would later sell 2 million copies of his novel, spawn a movie, and also a TV series .

Pete Berg on Directing 'Painkiller' and Why There's No 'Friday Night Lights' Spinoffs

What is 'friday night lights' about.

The movie that is based on Bissinger's book follows the 1988 football season of the Texas District 5A powerhouse football program at Permian High School in Odessa, Texas. In the season that is chronicled, the Permian Panthers advanced all the way to the State Semifinal game against another hallowed Texas program, Dallas-Carter High School. The star athletes on the '88 team were the talented quarterback, Mike Winchell ( Lucas Black ) and the elusive and lightning quick running back, Boobie Miles ( Derek Luke ). The game was a clash of two titan programs that both had a "State Championship or go home mentality." There was everything to lose for these teenagers playing for Permian and the director, Peter Berg , really presses that upon the audience. By the time these teams get on the field together, the viewer is so emotionally invested that every play and every tackle keeps you on the edge of your seat. But once the movie is over, what became of Bissinger, the coach, and the players that have the weight of Texas high school football put on their shoulders?

Buzz Bissinger Is No Longer Welcome at Odessa-Permian Events

Some of the things that Bissinger wrote about in his book didn't go over very well with the football-crazy town of Odessa. He spoke in his Fresh Air interview specifically of how a lot of the locals felt misrepresented as racist :

"Did they trust me? Of course. Did [I] want them to trust me? Of course. But when I hear the n-word used repeatedly, when I heard the n-word used to describe a tragic black running back ... who is now in prison, when I heard those things, what am I going to do? Not put it in? Issue a Miranda warning saying, "Don't say that anymore! Don't go there!"

The running back he is referring to is Boobie Miles. He expounded on what he perceived as Permian using Miles as a ringer and ignoring his education:

"Boobie was basically treated as a football animal. He was pushed through school without any demands. He basically had a tutor who gave him the answer to all the questions. There was no attempt to educate him at all. I never saw him play because in a preseason scrimmage, in a silly play that was meaningless, his cleat got caught in the turf, he blew out his knee."

Bissinger says he still communicates with the now 53-year-old Miles, who is serving a 13-year sentence relating to failure to register as a sex offender.

Bissinger was not invited to the 25-year anniversary of the storied season . Permian and the people of Odessa still hold a grudge. The running back who came in and replaced Boobie in the movie, Chris Comer, died in 2018 at just 46 years old. Heroic quarterback Mike Winchell currently works for an oil fields services company outside of Denton, Texas, which is an hour north of Dallas. And legendary coach Gary Gaines would win 6 state titles, including the following year after Friday Night Lights in 1989 at Permian. He passed away from Alzheimer's Disease in 2022 at the age of 73.

'Friday Night Lights' Is Actually a Story About Race and Appropriation

The grand finale of the film is the game between white middle-class players from Odessa Permian, and Black, inner-city players from Dallas-Carter. There is a heavy, problematic way in which the film clearly portrays the privileged white athletes as the "heroes" overcoming everything and trying to beat a team full of physically imposing Black players who play dirty. David Green writes a piece for NPR about this dichotomy :

"In the film, Thornton tells his team that to win state, they'll have to beat 'a team of monsters' from Carter High School in Dallas... Carter High School is really an afterthought in Friday Night Lights — the evil, thug-like team that stole a championship."

When you watch Friday Night Lights now, it reinforces how much the film fails in its opportunity to confront racism in athletics, and more specifically, Odessa's long history of racism. Another thing the movie fails to mention is that Dallas-Carter would go on to win the Texas State title that year after disposing of Odessa Permian. Twenty years later, the questionable and loaded way in which Black athletes from an all-Black school are portrayed signals the film's missed opportunity to address racial relations head-on.

Friday Night Lights is available to stream on MGM+ in the U.S.

Watch on MGM+

Friday Night Lights

By h. g. bissinger, friday night lights summary and analysis of chapter 9 & 10.

The next game is against the Midland High Bulldogs. This still a regular season high school game yet Permian fans camp outside the Ratliff Stadium on Sunday night in order to get first crack at the tickets. After the Marshall game many fans are nervous that Permian might not be as invincible as their pep rallies had indicated. In the locker room, Coach Gaines ’s pep talk is laced with motivational doubt: he leads the boys into a chorus of chants.

The two teams trade punts but Permian scores quickly. Individual players have private battles with opposing team members. Jerrod McDougal continually sacks Jeff Rashell while Brian Chavez punishes another Midland defensive player. Tony Chavez watches proudly from the stands. He wonders at how this quiet rather introverted boy, turned out the way he did. Not only was Brian an exceptional football player, he also had a keen intellect. He had been number one in his class for years and now he was considering of applying to Harvard. Tony Chavez was a product of poor Mexican immigrants. He had worked hard to get himself out of relative poverty. He had worked his way up to becoming a policeman and finally, after great struggles, to a lawyer in 1978. He developed a successful practice in Odessa and is wealthy, even by the standards of the upper echelons of the local oil community. Although he supports the Mojo brand, he still sticks out in the crowed of Permian fans. He is Hispanic, a liberal, and a self-made success story. He developed a successful practice in Odessa. Tony can see his drive for success in his son Brian.

Permian wins this game 42-0 but what is most impressive is the surreal scene after the game; it is a scene that creates the illusion of America that West Texas football fans conjure up in their dreams. The bands on both teams belt out patriotic tunes; the smell of hot dogs; popcorn and beer lingers in the air. The teams line up on both sides of the field, their helmets off, looking like young gladiators after a battle. Children, parents and grandparents stand in awe of this truly American spectacle before them.

Politics comes to Odessa in the form of George Bush and the Republican Party. Really Bush might have skipped visiting Odessa without having to worry about missing out on the white vote. White Odessa was firmly Republican and Conservative. The Bush name was synonymous with the values most middle class West Texans cling to amidst their rapidly changing world. George Bush does come to bask in the adulation of thousands of white supporters. Hispanics and Blacks apparently missed the memo about the rally.

Boobie Miles has not fully healed. His knee is weak and he still needs surgery. Boobie, however, feels he has no choice but to return to football before the season ends. He knows that if the college scouts don’t see the same unstoppable Booby Miles sprinting to the end zone, his scholarship chances are all but done. Boobie returns to the field but there are no bellowing voices chanting out his name. Instead of running behind the team captain, he is relegated to near the back of the line up wearing the dreaded white second-string jersey. Chris Comer has usurped Booby’s place and impressed everybody with his one hundred rushes in five games.

The coaches are well aware that Boobie needs surgery and that trying to play is his last act of desperation. Still Boobie is given the green light to play in the next game. He suits up on Friday night against the Abilene High Eagles with his familiar Nike cleats and Terminator X towel. Booby finally gets to play in the second quarter. He bounds onto the field outwardly showing his old confidence. Inside, however, Boobie is scared. He knows that he is one strained knee injury from football oblivion. He gains four yards and then carries the ball eight more times. He displays brief flashes of his old brilliance but the sad truth is that Boobie is not the same. He is tentative, unable to cut up the field without hesitating a split second longer. He knows his knee is exposed, it is his Achilles heel and everybody knows it.

L.V. wonders if he has done the right thing letting Boobie play. Perhaps Boobie would have been better off having surgery first and then recovering. Boobie, however, emotionally cannot wait that long. The soul-crushing wait to get better was destroying him. Boobie does not do badly against the schools Dallas-Jesuit and the Cooper Cougars: he scores his first touchdown of the year against the latter. Tragically, his playing ‘not badly’ isn’t good enough for a player like Boobie. He no longer leaps past his opponents and dazzles the crowd with his invincibility: Booby is just another player.

Mike Winchell still can’t believe he is playing as well as he has been. He wonders if his playing is merely a streak of luck. Still, Mike is willing to let things happen, as Boobie too must let things happen but in a much less positive way.

Tony Chavez watches his son, Brian -- the team’s only Hispanic player -- clobber opponents. Brian is so relentless sacking defensive players that it is a wonder they can still breath. Despite Permian crowd’s adoration of his son, Tony still doesn’t fit in. Tony Chavez was a product of poor Mexican immigrants. He had worked hard to get himself out of relative poverty. He had worked his way up to becoming a policeman and finally, after great struggles, to a lawyer in 1978. He developed a successful practice in Odessa and is wealthy, even by the standards of the upper echelons of the local oil community. Although he supports the Mojo brand, he still sticks out in the crowed of Permian fans. He is Hispanic, a liberal, and a self-made success story.

Despite the fact there are blacks and a Hispanic on the team, many Permian fans consider their team a product of white values from a white institution. There is of course much irony in this. Tony Chavez is an extremely wealthy successful lawyer while most male Permian fans are blue collared oil workers dreaming that an oil boom might get back. In addition to this, Brian Chavez is a gifted intellectual despite the mediocre education that Permian offers. When the season ends, most of the boys on the team will sink into blue-collar oblivion, while Brian plans on attending Harvard.

Politics comes to Odessa. George Bush makes a stopover, which excites a certain demographic of the population. Really Bush might have skipped visiting Odessa without having to worry about missing out on the white vote. White Odessa was firmly Republican and Conservative. The Bush name was synonymous with the values most middle class West Texans cling to amidst their rapidly changing world. George Bush does come to bask in the adulation of thousands of white supporters. Hispanics and Blacks apparently missed the memo about the rally.

When Booby Miles returns to the field there is no longer the adulation he once commanded. Boobie is a kid who feels his time is running out. Boobie knows colleges would not be interested in an injury prone has-been. The season is ending and he had to prove he still has what it takes. Unfortunately his injury makes him tentative on the field. He shows signs of his past brilliance on the field but that isn’t good enough. The college scouts want to see the old Boobie, fearless and unstoppable. Boobie understands that he was never a special “player” rather than a special “commodity”. He also knows he is a commodity to be used by white educational institutions to make money and foster pride. The parallels with slavery cannot be ignored. Sure Boobie would be amply rewarded, but only as long as he was able to razzle and dazzle on the field. The moment Boobie ceases in that role, he becomes just another “big ol’ dumb nigger” (67).

Friday Night Lights Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Friday Night Lights is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Why will Jerrod McDougal not be playing college football?

In context, Jerrod was far too small to play football at the college level. Recognizing this, he decided that he would focus on coaching and mentoring high school athletes.

Who is the protagonist?

I would have to say that each of the six football players, on whom the book is focused, would be considered the protagonists.

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Study Guide for Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights study guide contains a biography of H.G. Bissinger, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Friday Night Lights
• Friday Night Lights Summary
• Character List

Essays for Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger.

• Analyzing Friday Night Lights: Like Father Like Son?
• Society and It's Status Quo

Wikipedia Entries for Friday Night Lights

• Introduction
• Inspiration

Friday Night Lights

69 pages • 2 hours read

Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Chapter 1

Chapters 2-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapter 16 and Epilogue

Key Figures

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 4-6 Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 summary: “dreaming of heroes”.

Mike’s father died when he was only 13, leaving him with an overwhelming desire to leave Odessa. Mike had a very close relationship with his father and idolized him even after his death. His older brother, Joe Bill, persuaded him to give the town another chance by reminding him that he could play football with the Panthers. Mike, a shy child, had excelled in Little League baseball with his dad’s support. He later devotes himself to football with similar success, though sometimes overanalyzes his plays.

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