High School Football in Friday Night Lights

The book might be seen as an academic, judgmental indictment from on high, the product of a writer from the big city who comes to the little town to study the inhabitants like a scientist studying rats. But it is clear that that is not what Bissinger means to do. In fact, he is not sure what is going to happen when he goes to the town. What does happen is that he becomes very close to the people and the football players of Odessa:

I could not have written this book without the townsfolk of Odessa. I have never found a group of people more down-to-earth , more honest, more willing to express their opinions without restraint. I am indebted to all of them. . . . Above all, I thank the players themselves. It is hard for me to express the feelings that I have for them. . . . I remember how I thought of them at the end, as kids that I adored (364).

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f small-town America, but those values are hard to live by in such tough economic times. The town needed a receptacle which would express those values, and the football team fulfilled such hopes. But, as Bissinger points out in one of the main points of his book, it was and is a false hope, and the ones who pay the most for such a lie are the football players themselves. There is a big price to pay for living out the False American Dream of high school football. As Bissinger writes with respect to the father of one player: He saw the irresistible allure of high school sports, but he also saw an inevitable danger in adults' living vicariously through their young. . . . 'Athletics lasts for such a short period of time. . . . But while it lasts, it creates this make-believe world where normal rules don't apply. . . . When it's over and the harsh reality sets in, that's the real joke we play on people' (xiv). After the roar of the crowd dies, in other words, both the crowd and the players must return to a harsh reality which is harder than ever to endure after the brief and false hopes of the football game on Friday night. We hear the philosophy of the town, which is pitiful and painful in its immaturity and shallowness: "Life wou
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Some common words found in the essay are:
American Dream, Odessa Texas, Southside SALE, Permian Panthers, King Jr, Team Dream, school football, football players, football team, small-town america, York HarperPerennial, dream school football, social economic, main book, harsh reality, permian panthers, book seen, football game, Night Lights,
Approximate Word count = 1407
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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