friday night lights

Friday Night Lights is a 1990 book and 2004 movie that documents the coach and players of a high school football team and the small, economically-depressed Texas town of Odessa that supports and is obsessed with them. The book was authored by H.G. Bissinger and follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they made a run towards the state championship. A television series inspired by the movie — also called Friday Night Lights — premiered on October 3, 2006 on NBC.

Plot

Bissinger shadowed the team for the entire 1988 season, which culminated in a loss in the semifinals against Carter High School from Dallas, Texas who went on to win the state championship. However, the book also deals with — or alludes to — a number of secondary political and social issues existing in Odessa, all of which share ties to the Permian football team. These include socioeconomic disparity; racism; segregation (and desegregation); and poverty.

The coach is constantly on the hot seat. After a loss, he comes back to see "For Sale" signs on his lawn. Also, when he overuses his star player, James "Boobie" Miles, sports radio is flooded with calls for his resignation. His job depends on making the playoffs which under Texas rules due to a tie, the tiebreaker is a coin-toss. In an effort to prevent a riot, the location of the coin-toss is kept under wraps, and the Texas TV stations air it live at an unearthly hour. Permian does get a spot. They make it to the finals (in the movie, but actually only the semifinals), where they lose to a powerhouse Dallas high school team. The players are in tears as the game ends. The star fullback, whose father won a championship with Permian, is given his father's ring. The movie ends with the coach removing the departing seniors from the depth chart on his wall. This symbolizes how they are no longer part of the town's obsession with football and just regular citizens. The final scene is the high schoolers throwing the ball to a bunch of pee-wees playing pick-football, symbolizing the changing of the guard.

Book

The book's release during the 1990 season coincided with the team being under investigation for holding illegal off-season practices, which resulted in the team being declared ineligible for the playoffs and thus not participating in the postseason for only the 2nd time since 1980. Permian's absence from the playoffs allowed San Angelo Central (see below) into the playoffs for only the 3rd time since 1966. The negative reaction to the playoff situation was exacerbated by the book, and many residents of Odessa received the book with responses ranging from mild indignation to threats of physical violence aimed at the book's author.

The movie version of Friday Night Lights was released in the United States on October 6, 2004, and starred Billy Bob Thornton as Permian Coach Gary Gaines. The film was a box office and critical success and, in turn, spawned an NBC television series of the same name. It will begin airing in October 2006.

Tagline

• Hope comes alive on Friday Nights.
• Some of the gameplay in the show was filmed from actual high school football games with the Pflugerville Panthers

Quotes

Note: Many of these quotes have small errors though their overall messages are correct.

• Radio Listener: There's too much learning going on at that school.
• Coach Gary Gaines: DIE (repeated many times)
• Coach Gary Gaines: Gentlemen, the hopes and dreams of an entire town are riding on your shoulders. You may never matter again in your life as much as you do right now.
• Reporter: Should we believe the hype?

Boobie Miles: What hype?

Reporter: The hype about Boobie Miles.

Boobie Miles: The hype is something that's not for real. I'm all real.

• Boobie Miles: God made black beautiful. God made Boobie beautiful. Black and strong!
• Reporter: Your dad played at Permian. What's it like to be the son of a local legend?

Don Billingsley: Next question.

• Unknown: Billingsley! Party at Taylor's house NOW Billingsley! Better be there! Gonna get wasted! Yeah! Billingsley! BILLINGSLEY!

Brian Chavez: Isn't that guy, like, 35?

• Don Billingsley: We're gonna get drunk, we're gonna get laid, and we're gonna win state but not tonight.

Mike Winchell: I'm not going out drunk and foolin'.

• Charles Billingsley (father): Can't hold on to the lamp, can't hold on to the football.

Don Billingsley: I can hold on to the football, Dad. Now get the hell out of here!

• Brian Chavez: We will win State.

Don Billingsley: Chavez, you're like a human pinata. You get your ass all beat more than anybody I know, and you just sit there and spit out candy.

Mike Winchell: That's because he's out of here. He's got the grades. And no matter what, we win or lose, he knows he's getting out. He's the one foot out the door man.

Brian Chavez: Give me the gun.

Don Billingsley: [making fun of Chavez] You're going to be drinking martinis, eating lamb chops, getting manicures...

Brian Chavez: You're just jealous.

Don Billingsley: ...removing your freakin' shoes.

Brian Chavez: You've got to lighten up. You're 17.

Don Billingsley: Do you feel 17?

Mike Winchell: I don't feel 17.

• Coach Gary Gaines: Hey, hey son! Come here. Where are you going?

Chris Comer: You don't want me to go in Coach?

Coach Gary Gaines: You're not wearing a helmet?

[Comer realizes he has no helmet on]

Coach Gary Gaines: My goodness gracious!

• Boobie Miles: What am I gonna do if I can't play football? I'm not good at nothin'!
• Coach Gary Gaines: Stop reading the news clippings. You're small and you're going to be smaller every week. There ain't going to be no growth spurt between now and the first game. You're going to use your minds! You're going to play with your heart! And that is what you're going to use to win the State Championship.
• Jennifer Gaines: Are we going to move again? (after seeing boosters at Wal-Mart)

Sharon Gaines: No, honey.

Coach Gary Gaines: Possibly.

• Sharon Gaines: How about Alaska? We could move to Alaska. I bet they're not as serious about their football in Alaska.
• Ivory Christian: What's wrong with y'all? Y'all are playin' like some little girls! Y'all act like you never played football before! These guys are nothin'! They bleed just like we do, and sweat just like we do. They went through two-a-days. We went through two-a-days in 110 degree heat. I want you to hit everything that move! If the ref gets in your way, you hit him! They're cheatin' us too! They're against us too. This is our team. This is us! Let's go right now! Let's get it off now and let's go!
• Coach Gary Gaines: (halftime speech) Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It's not about winning. It's about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn't let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is you did everything you could. There wasn't one more thing you could've done. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, with joy in your heart? If you can do that gentleman - you're perfect!

I want you to take a moment, and I want you to look each other in the eyes. I want you to put each other in your hearts forever because forever is about to happen here in just a few minutes. I want you to close your eyes, and I want you to think about Boobie Miles, who is your brother. And he would die to be out there on that field with you tonight. And I want you to put that in your hearts. Boys my heart is full. My heart is full.

• Mike Winchell: This is for the state championship. I love all of ya'll, baby. I love all of ya'll.
• Brian Chavez: I'm gonna miss the heat.

Don Billingsley: I'm gonna miss the lights.

Brian Chavez: Yeah, me too. Stay low boys, keep those feet movin'

Don Billingsley: Hey Chavo, be perfect.

Brian Chavez: You be perfect.

• Mike Winchell: Hey Boobie?

Boobie Miles: What?

Mike Winchell: You didn't lift.

Boobie Miles: Cmon baby, this is god-given, only thing I gotta do is just show up.

Analysis of major movie characters

• Mike Winchell: As the quarterback of his team and with the town's hopes resting on his shoulders, Winchell was forced to deal with pressure on a regular basis. Despite having a strong heart and solid leadership, Winchell's success was limited because of his inconsistency and inability to overcome the pressures placed upon him. Like so many of his teammates Winchell responded strongly to the power of suggestion and was easily manipulated as evidenced by his decision to go to a party and later by his actions at the party.
• Boobie Miles: The once cocky star tailback was forced to watch his dreams of becoming a professional football player slip away due to a serious knee injury. As reality set in Boobie's arrogance slipped away, although he did his best to hide his change in attitude from his teammates until the end of the movie. Boobie's story might be an example of how the best laid plans can go awry. However, this is debatable as some might argue that Boobie's failures were due to poor decision making and therefore preventable.
• Don Billingsley: Forced to live with a stern, football-obsessed father with a short temper, Billingsley had an especially tough time after bad games. Throughout the movie Billingsley fails to live up to his father's expectations sending his father into fits of rage. When upset his father scolds him, punishes him physically, and publicly humiliates him in front of his mother, girlfriend, and team. In reality, Don did nothing to upset his father off the football field but his father failed to notice this. Though he was a wild partier, deep down Don was distressed by his relationship with his father. Don was a good person and forgave his father after every time he was chastised. An interesting aspect of the movie is their relationship at the movie's conclusion. Don and his father are on good terms as they hug, but there is no indication this is permanent. As a matter of fact some might argue that they are only on good terms because of Don's successes in his final game.
• Chris Comer: A year younger than the other main characters, Comer rises from obscurity to lead his team through the state tournament. The most obvious change involving Comer is that at the end of the movie he is no longer afraid of being hit and injured. While it may seem like he changed a lot, his personality remains the same as he still has the desire to be successful and popular.
• Ivory Christian: Without a doubt the quietest player on the team, Christian uses his personality as a way of motivating teammates. He seldom speaks but his actions on the football field make it clear that he has as much heart as anyone. On one of the few occasions that he does speak, Christian is passionate and delivers his message powerfully in a way that brings out the emotions of others and encourages them.

Differences between the movie and actual events

• In the movie some of the players' numbers and positions were changed: Boobie Miles in the movie is #45 and playing tailback, but in the book he is playing fullback (while Don Billingsley was the tailback) and was #35. In the movie, Brian Chavez is the #4 strong safety, while he was actually the #85 tight end. Ivory Christian, in the film, is a defensive end and wears #90, while he was really the #62 middle ("Mike") linebacker. (Note: At the beginning of the film, as the camera pans over Coach Gaines' depth chart, you can see the name 'Miles' listed under the FB tag.)
• In the movie, district play began in week 2. In the real regular season, district play would have begun in week 4.
• In the movie, the footage for that first district game was shot during a 2003 district game, where Abilene High won, 49-6 (this was the score shown during the movie). Inexplicably, however, Abilene fails to tie for the district lead, which means that they would have had to lose at least three other district games — highly unlikely given their dominating performance against a very good Panthers team. In the real regular season, Permian defeated Abilene 49-0.
• In the movie, Permian defeats "North Shore Galena" in a mid-season (presumably district) game. In reality, North Shore High School is located in Galena Park, a suburb of Houston, over 500 miles (800 km) southeast of Odessa. Although North Shore and Permian have both been 5A football powerhouses, they have never played.
• Since 1982, the UIL Class 5A football playoffs have had six rounds (though a second, parallel playoff bracket of five rounds was added in 1990), so while Permian did play Dallas Carter in the fifth round, in reality it was a semi-final and not a final. In the Texas playoffs, a team from North or Western Texas always plays a team from Southern Texas in the final. So the Carter vs Permian final would not have been possible. The actual final featured Carter versus Judson High School of the San Antonio suburb of Converse.
• The Carter-Permian game was played in front of 10,000 people in a heavy downpour at The University of Texas at Austin's Memorial Stadium, not in front of 55,000 in the Astrodome in Houston.
• While the game in the movie was a high-scoring affair, the score of the actual game was 14-9 in favor of Carter.
• In the movie, it is said that Carter was the state's top-ranked team, when Carter was never ranked higher than No. 3 in the Associated Press poll.
• The fact that Carter's state championship was revoked following their use of an academically-ineligible player is never mentioned, nor is the prolonged legal battle that Carter went through to enable them to play in the playoffs at all. Officially, the 1988 state champions were Converse Judson. (Deleted Scenes on the DVD release show Carter being removed from the competition, and later Coach Gaines receiving a telephone call informing him the Supreme Court has overturned the decision.)
• Permian's first opponent in the playoffs was Amarillo Tascosa and not Dallas Jesuit as in the movie. In fact, in 1988 Texas public schools (such as Permian, Carter, and Tascosa) and private schools (such as Jesuit) competed in separate leagues with separate playoffs. Jesuit was not allowed to join the previously all-public school University Interscholastic League (UIL) until 2003, starting football competition in 2004. Dallas Jesuit and Strake Jesuit of Houston are currently the only private schools who play in the UIL, the rest competing in leagues such as TAPPS and the SPC. Also, given the district setup at that time, it would have been impossible for Permian to play a team from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex until the third round for the playoffs. Now, however, Permian would play Fort Worth-area teams in the first round of the playoffs, but still could not play Jesuit until round 3. Permian did play Dallas Jesuit in Odessa during the regular season in 1988, winning 48-2. Jesuit's only points came on a missed-PAT runback, which was a new rule instituted that year. Also, Jesuit's helmet is shown as white and orange with a sort of wildcat's head logo on it: in actuality, the Jesuit Rangers' football helmets are solid gold, with no logo on them.
• Permian was also depicted as playing "San Angelo" in the quarterfinal round. There are actually two high schools in the San Angelo Independent School District; San Angelo Central High School (the district's only 5A school) had, until 1998, been in the same district for football as Permian (having since been transferred, for football only, to the district with Lubbock and Amarillo schools), and could only have played Permian in the quarterfinal round (owing to the structure of UIL playoffs) if they had qualified. However, Central finished 5th in the district that year, and as only two teams from each district qualified in 1988, Permian and Central did not play in the 1988 playoffs.
• In the movie, the top-ranked Permian Panthers defeated the hapless Marshall Bulldogs in a non-district game. In real life, the tenth-ranked Marshall Mavericks (whose colors are red and white, not purple and gold) won the game over 5th-ranked Permian 13-12. In the movie, the game is played on a Friday night in Odessa. In real life, it was played at Maverick Stadium in Marshall on a Saturday afternoon. Permian's football team chartered a jet for the 500+ mile trip from Odessa to Marshall, spawning controversy on the cost of the trip. Played before a crowd of more than 12,000 fans at Maverick Stadium, the game was on a searing September afternoon where the temperature topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38°C). The footage shown in the movie is from a game against the Midland High Bulldogs, who weren't mentioned in the movie. Permian defeated the Dawgs 42-0 in district play, but the two teams ended up in a three-way tie along with Midland Lee for the district title.
• In reality, the three teams tied for best district record were Permian, Midland Lee, and Midland High, all with 5-1 district records. In the movie, Permian and Lee are joined not by Midland but by Abilene Cooper, and each team has two district losses. The tiebreaking coin flip was held at a truck stop outside of Midland, and Midland High lost (Cooper in the movie), so Permian and Lee went on. Midland High's missing the playoffs was particularly poignant as it had not been to the playoffs since 1951 and would not get to go on to post-season play until 2002.
• Permian is portrayed in the movie as a single large high school in a small, one-horse town in West Texas. In reality, Odessa was a city of nearly 100,000 people at the time of the events portrayed in the movie, and is part of a metropolitan area of nearly 250,000 combining the populations of Midland and Ector counties. (The quaint downtown shown in the trailer for the movie is actually Manhattan, Kansas.) Also, Permian was (and still is) only one of two large Class 5A high schools in Odessa. The other and first high school in the city, Odessa High School (mascot: the Bronchos), was never mentioned in any way in the movie, despite the fact that they have always played Permian every year, as the two schools have been in the same UIL district since Permian opened in 1959. An entire chapter in the book is devoted to the "Civil War" between the schools.
• In the movie, Odessa is portrayed as being a mostly Anglo town with a sizeable African-American population and virtually no Hispanics. In 1988, out of the almost 100,000 people that lived in Odessa, one-third were Hispanic while African-Americans made up only 5% of the population.
• Ratliff Stadium is depicted as the location for Permian football practices. In reality, the team mostly practices on campus, and the stadium (which both Permian and Odessa High use) is on the outskirts of town in a fairly unpopulated area and about three miles (five km) away from the Permian High campus. It is also unlikely that children would be playing touch football near the stadium, as depicted in the movie, as few houses were nearby at that time. The area around the stadium has grown dramatically since then (which caused an anachronism in the movie — the houses you see near the stadium weren't there then!).
• Also, while Ratliff Stadium has had artificial turf since its opening, in 1988 it had the original AstroTurf, not the modern FieldTurf surface seen on the stadium in the film.
• The team is depicted as practicing in full pads and with full contact on the first day of practice. Under UIL rules, teams cannot use pads or hit until the 4th day of practice.
• Boobie Miles, in the book, injured his leg by getting his foot caught on the astroturf during a pre-season scrimmage against Amarillo Palo Duro at Jones Stadium in Lubbock. In the movie he is tackled by two players at the knee during a blowout non-district game at Ratliff Stadium.
• Don Billingsley's father Charlie is depicted in the movie as having won a state championship. In reality, his Permian team lost in the state finals.
• Carter is depicted playing "Hays" High School in the playoffs. Hays High is depicted as wearing green and white and nicknamed the Rams. The real Jack C. Hays High School, located 15 minutes south of Austin in Buda, instead uses red, white, and blue as its colors, and its nickname is Rebels. Hays was a Class 3A school in 1988 and did not become 5A until 2000. Hays was in the movie because the makers filmed crowd shots at Hays High during a Rebels home game against the Austin Westlake Chaparrals, another team depicted as being a Permian playoff victim.
• The players are shown wearing Under Armour clothing. The company was not founded until 1995; in 1988, founder Kevin Plank was attending high school in the Washington, D.C. area.

External links

• Official web site
• Friday Night Lights at the Internet Movie Database
• Friday Night Lights at Rotten Tomatoes
• Friday Night Lights at Box Office Mojo
• Information on the Odessa Permian football program in Texas.