The film Friday Night Lights (2004) is based on the real-life story of the 1988 Permian Panthers football team in Odessa, Texas. The film is a more fictionalized account of the book it’s based on, written by author H.G. Bissinger and downplays the more intense issues that plagued Odessa when Bissinger followed the team during the 1988 season (Briley 1). The film follows Coach Gary Gaines (portrayed by Billy Bob Thornton) as he coaches the Panthers in the football obsessed town. The film portrays the societal pressures put on young athletes, especially in a town where one sport seems to be the dominating past-time. No matter where these athletes go, they can’t escape the pressures to succeed in the sport and go undefeated. There is the underlining …show more content…
They mimic the real life pressures placed on young athletes. There are plenty of scenes throughout the movie where these boys are all but harassed by their fellow community members. The support can turn off with a flip of a switch. You can see how the pressure affects them and their love for the game. Leff states, “Parents may support their children in their athletic endeavors physically, emotionally, or financially, it is primarily emotional support.... Support and encouragement by family members, especially by parents, are important in young athletes’ initial involvement in sport.” (Leff 187). Billingsley’s father, a former Panther State champion, is shown to be mentally abusive, running onto the field on the first day of practice to yell at his son for “not holding onto the football.” Winchell and his mother study football strategies at breakfast, all the while with her asking him if he’s going to get a scholarship. When a couple scouts come to speak to Winchell, his mother inserts an answer for him and when asked by one of the scouts if he thinks football is fun, Winchell is slightly hesitant to answer. The movie portrays the issue of when young athletes feel much more pressure and stress to succeed in their sport than they should. It becomes almost important to win. The …show more content…
A caller on the radio calls him an “idiot” with a not-so-nice expletive and states that the team “can’t do anything without Boobie.” Boobie is their star player and with his injury comes anger, stress, and disappointment not only from the team itself but from the community. Mark Edmunsond wrote, “Sport is also--it almost goes without saying--an intensely hierarchical world. In sports your identity and prowess are one and the same. When one teammate looks at another, what he sees first is how good the other is. He makes a quick calculation: Am I more or less able than he is? Or are we the same? If we are, what can I do to surpass him? Sports are about standings, and not just of one team against others but within the team itself. Everyone has a place in the hierarchy, and that hierarchy is constantly shifting” (Edmundson 8). With Boobie’s injury and the subsequent lose that is suffered at the next game without him, it seems as if the stress grows on the boys. Even before they end up winning the next game, due to Chris Comer, Boobie’s backup-backup, coming in to save the day. After hearing the fallout from the injury, the following scene involves Winchell, Chavez, and Billingsley where Winchell states that they are “dead” without Boobie. Chavez reminds the other two that they are only seventeen years old. This causes Billingsley to retort, “Do you feel
It shows the challenging life of high school football players, struggling to keep their priorities straight when just about everything that highlights their hometown environment makes life seemingly hopeless. Daniel Lindsay and TJ Martin co-directed this 2-hour long film, and won an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 2012 for their hard work (American Film). Taking personal cuts from their filming, and following them up with interviews, the duo was able to create an emotional upbringing of the lives of three african-american football players, and their volunteer white coach.
Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissinger, follows the Permian Panthers, a successful high school football team in Texas, while they do everything in their power to win the state championship. Near the beginning of the book, we learn about the star running back on the Panthers, Boobie Miles, and how he has college coaches all over the state who are offering him scholarships to come and play for them. Unfortunately for both Boobie and Permian, Miles injures his knee before the season even starts which forces the team to fall back on the second string running back. Boobie’s knee injury was not the only thing that bothered him, he deals with a lot of racial discrimination also. “The black population in Odessa was quite small- about 5 percent” (102).
There are multiple movies, books, and television shows that display psychological skills or sport psychological development. One of the best sport movies ever created and one of the best examples of a movie to show psychological skills is the movie Friday Night Lights. The movie was released in October of 2004 and is based on the small town of Odessa, Texas and their high school football team, Permian, in the year 1988. The movie was based on a book written by H.G. Bissinger who followed the football team throughout the 1988 football season. Not only does the movie focus on the football side of the town and players but also other factors that were heavily involved in the actual story such as poverty, segregation, and racism.
While all this is going on with Boobie, it is shown that another starting player by the name of Mike Winchell is suffering through a hard time with his father dying. After the head coach, Gary Gaines, returned home after suffering from the loss there was a for sale sign in his front yard and he realized that the community no longer cared about all of the wins he had led the team through, but they were only focused on the one loss that had occurred. They always say that a team is the reflection of their coach, and that saying goes very well with this movie because after Boobie gets hurt the head coach is the only one in the community that believes in his team. Before they got back on their winning streak, Coach Gaines knew that his job and his life depended on leading this team to the playoffs and making sure that they got themselves together as a team. He steps up to the plate and makes the team rise back up to where they used to be at and get them back on their winning streak.
The characters in both, please use sports to bond with their sons, but we also witness the unfavorable effect of their single-minded focus on athletic excellence. The myth that all it takes to succeed in life is to be popular is ultimately debunked, and the characters are forced to face the limitations of their own lives and the realities of their dreams. Sports can be a significant part of life and teach us important lessons about perseverance and discipline. However, they do not guarantee success, and a sole focus on athletic success can make us miss other significant aspects of
In “Do Sports Build Character or Damage it?” Mark Edmundson explains the pros and cons of children who grow up playing football. Firstly, he believes the perseverance it takes to show up for hard practices is useful later in life. Especially when they get frustrated with something and don’t notice the little bits of progress they are making.
Subculture of College Football “Isn’t there supposed to be a storm coming?” I asked my mom as were getting dressed for a college football game. “Yes, Uncle Mickey said get dressed anyway” “Don’t the storms get bad in this part of the country?” I asked “Yes JaKyrah, now stop asking so many questions” my mom replied, wolling her eyes. This is the moment I realized… they may take this game a bit too far.
The film introduces Andrew, the athlete, he is cocky and arrogant, he is great at sports and is at the top of
Theodore Roosevelt in his letter to his son, The Proper Place For Sports(1919), proposes to his son that football in college is dangerous and he should think before he play. He supports his claim by first bringing up the subject, then telling his son of he should make the decision, then telling his son to not let sports get in the way of school, in closing he states general things going on to change the subject. Roosevelt’s purpose is to beget the problems of football in order to make his son realize the consequences of playing and make him rethink. He adopts a sincere tone for his athletic son.
Harry Gerard Bissinger wrote a non-fictional book entitled Friday Night Lights. Bissinger created this non-fiction book in 1990. “Bissinger , also known as Buzz Bissinger, is an American Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and author, best known for his non-fiction book Friday Night Lights” (Wikipedia, 2017). Bissinger was inspired to write Friday Nights Lights while he was attending Harvard College. He wanted to write a book based on a small town high school football program.
In Texas, football is a way of life; people eat, sleep and breathe it. Specifically for the people of Odessa, Texas this is very true. The book Friday Night Lights follows the 1988 Permian High School football team as they made their run for the State Championship. This type of culture that puts football and, everyone involved in it, on a pedestal creates no room for anything besides football to succeed in a town like Odessa. In 1988, when this took place, gender, class and race all mattered a great deal.
Many people all around the nation are in debate whether or not high school football should remain a sport. In addition, it was recorded that between the years 2005 and 2014, ninety-two high school football players have been killed due to football injuries. Although, high school football has been a traditional sport in all states, but many are wondering if football is truly worth the risk. However, endless numbers of parents across the nation have numerous opinions on their sons playing football or not. Nonetheless, if parents are letting their sons play this game, they understand the risks of their sons getting injured.
The writer further explains that the idea of winning sometimes causes severe injuries that may prevail for a lifetime. In these games, a child may crash into one another accidently that creates a fear of getting hurt. Just to protect themselves some children back out of many games and are left behind when it comes to the development of their bodies. The rest of the children who are part of these games are in a constant pressure from their parents and coaches that cause the stress and anxiety. Furthermore, the writer states that this “sport becomes job like”.
“In the U.S., about 30 million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports, and more than 3.5 million injuries each year” claims Stanford Children’s Health. It’s definitely true that competitive sports can cause all sorts of injuries from big to small. The media teaches people simply that sports leads to horrific injuries and can cause stress, but what the mainstream media hardly discusses are the great benefits of competitive sports. While there may be some negatives to competitive sports, that’s just life, and to add on to that; there are plenty of benefits which are sure to override to media’s facts. Kids should play competitive sports because competitive sports teach children powerful life lessons, contributes to their social and mental stability, and because of the physical gain competitive sports provides.