Essay On Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and A Dream is a 1990 non-fiction novel wrote by H.G. Bissinger. The story chronicles the pressures and expectations of the Permian Panthers football team in socially divided Odessa, Texas. Throughout the story, challenges are presented with each of the protagonists: James “Boobie” Miles, Mike Winchell, Don Billingsley, Gary Gaines, Brian Chavez, and Ivory Christian.

     Is High School football a sport, or is it more than that to some people? Recent newspaper headlines include such items as coaches abusing student athletes; fathers of athletes murdering coaches, and mother’s disabilitating cheerleading candidates to assure their daughters make the cheerleading team. In Odessa, Texas high school football is a major contributor to the society of a small town in Texas society. Every Friday night, 50,000 people fill the stadium to see high school students put their lives on the line to win a football game. H. G. Bissinger writes a novel called Friday Night Lights, about a year in 1988 where High School players prepare and play on the High School team, and what an impact they have

The show Friday Night Lights gives viewers an inside look into the lives of high school football players of a small town in Texas. The show is astonishing on many levels, from it's unique camera styles to the complex characters. Many people usually dismiss athletes as dull characters and some think of sports as something pointless or shallow. The show disproves these thoughts by giving viewers a perspective into the lives of the players, coaches, and fans of the Dillon Panthers football team. This show ultimately builds empathy for the lives of the football players in the show, which helps in understanding real life athletes and their coaches.

The impact of preserving sports in high schools has been surrounded by much controversy as people suspect that it is the reason behind the poor academic achievement of students. Opponents to high school sports feel that allowing athletics to be a part of schools sidetracks the focus of the student body, which goes completely against the main purpose of schools. Indeed, this assertion is completely true and based upon plentiful evidence. High school sports undoubtedly come at the expense of student academic achievement since they divert the attention of students away from academics and they come with far too many financial costs, both of which incur negative impacts on the academics within a school. The bottomline is that sports are harming the education of students, so a school must make the decision between composing quality sports teams or providing high level academics; both of these choices simply cannot occur simultaneously.

“‘Athletics last for such a short period of time. 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’” (Bissinger xiv). “Friday Night Lights” shows the darker side of high school football. Players are taught to play games to win, and thats all that matters. Football players are put under a tremendous amount of pressure, almost enough to be considered unfair. Even though football is a “team sport”, pressure on individual players is unnecessary. Some players have the burden of the team, the city, their family, and their future, resting on their shoulders. These players

In the article Athletes and Education, Neil Petrie argues, that some colleges let student athletes get little to some amount of homework or projects in classes, while other students have to

In H.G. Bissinger’s novel Friday Night Lights he goes in-depth describing the world surrounding high school football in Texas. There is nothing like high school football in Texas, it is the best thing to happen to many of the people that live there. Winning a high school state championship in Texas can make someone a hero for the rest of their lives. This being said, it causes a lot of difficulties once this peak in their life is over at such a young age. Many of these people do not know how to live with themselves after their days of football are over. They grow up and live through their kids. Sports and academics are two of the areas of life where parents attempt to live their dreams and ambitions through their children.

“Friday Night Lights” is a true story about a run-down town in Texas called Odessa. There are two high schools in Odessa, Odessa High School and Permian High School. The “slums” of the town were usually where the minorities lived, compared to the nicer parts of the town where the whites lived. When the two schools were combined, a black politician started a movement to s bring together the minorities and whites. The minority school was shut down (which is not what was intended) and the better athletes were sent to Permian High and the rest were sent to Odessa High. Because Permian was better known for their athletics, they received all the more athletic minorities. As the story moves along, Boobie Miles, the star running back for the

In Odessa, Texas high school football is a major contributor to the society of a small town in Texas society. Every Friday night, 50,000 people fill the stadium to see high school students put their lives on the line to win a football game. H. G. Bissinger writes a novel called Friday Night Lights, about a year in 1988 where High School players prepare and play on the High School team, and what an impact they have on a small city in Texas.

With Warren Hartenstine’s article in The Baltimore Sun, he is responding to Paul Marx article “Athletes New Day,” with stating the disagreement of facts that Mr. Marx represents about the graduating student athletes. The explanation of the article explains all of the resources student athletes have to succeed while playing the sport. The graduation rate in 2011 was up by 59 percent, 61 percent were women and 56 percent were men (The Baltimore Sun). With these facts there is an explanation that some student are enrolled as “exceptional admits” but there are tutoring programs and the success rate shows that it is working. While in school Hartenstine has the insight to this topic just because he did play Division I football and had the inside look to graduation and success rates as a assistant dean. With more explanations of how the NCAA has scholarships that pay for rooms, tuition, books, and even money for laundry every month. Warren Hartenstine wants players to have discipline and success while being college athletes and within this article he tries showing this explanation.

These days, teachers pass school athletes in order for them to continue playing. They don’t care whether or not if they do the homework or actually understand what is being taught, as long as they keep the school wining in that certain sport then they will pass. Henry Gates stated, “The failure of our public schools to educate athletes is part and parcel of the schools’ failure to educate almost everyone”. Most young black athletes can’t read or write but they still get passed year to year. It’s know that 26.6% of black athletes at the college level earn their degree, which means that they didn’t have enough pass knowledge to continue to excel in higher education and they still didn’t make that goal of being a professional athlete.

Bissinger does a good job of depicting Permian’s sex roles which emerge from the social significance surrounding the football team. Gender inferiority is abundant throughout Permian’s socialization. The football identity was something that was revered. The girls of Permian desired anything having to do with their football team, while their proximity to the epicenter of the program gave them more honorable status within the schools social

There are these ongoing stereotypes that student athletes are “dumb,” “lazy,” and “privileged.” It’s understandable that people believe these stereotypes, news magazines and reports are always talking about how athletes are “coddled” and “cheat” their way to success. Though it is nowhere near true for the majority of student athletes, a select few situations encourage this negative categorization of us, thus putting student athletes under even more pressure to perform. Student athletes are constantly misjudged and the assumptions are affecting us.

Analysis of Friday Night Lights Friday Night Lights is a good view of how football envelops the live of everyone in the Texas town of Odessa. While it does use football as a main theme, I don't believe it is a book mainly about sports. The story is mostly about the people in a town that has nothing to look forward to except football. The story chronicles the lives of a few players and their parents. The author describes their background, characteristics, and reactions to football and life

Mentors feature prominently in the Gothic genre. From Dr Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula, who leads the young heroes into their quest to annihilate the Count, to Rupert Giles, the Watcher in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, older and more experienced adults have provided essential guidance for the younger protagonists of the genre. The differences in media of expression and the subsequent adaptations from novel to television series has not affected the presence of this character, more than a hundred years after the publication of Dracula in 1897. What also unites the novel and the series is their fin-de-siècle resonance.