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Title: Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H. G. Bissinger, Rob, Jr. Clark ISBN: 0-306-80990-7 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: July, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (139 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: High School football at its best and worst...
Comment: Friday Night Lights is the true account of the 1988 season of the Permian High School Panthers, the winningest high school football program in Texas history and the pride of Odessa, a boom town where the money had dried up and desegregation had been in place for all of six years. Shocking, saddening, and exciting, the story of the boys who played and the town that lived and died with their every game is one of the great stories of American sport.
This book is a portrait of the best things and worst things that come of high school sports. It is a story of young men who sacrifice and dedicate themselves to a unified cause, ignoring racial and economic differences to reach a level of success that none of them could attain on his own. It is also the story of a community whose racial tensions are far from settled and whose drive for football success pushes it so much that academic results are secondary, and the largest issue with social change is how it affects the football team. The contrast is striking: the community loves and supports its football-playing sons, while fostering an environment of entitlement where football is the only thing that matters, and the football player holds the highest place in the social order.
The personal stories make for some of the most compelling reading in the book. There is the quarterback who is ashamed to let his girlfriend see the inside of his house and struggles with his inconsistency; the star running back who injures his knee and is forgotten by his coaches and the college recruiters; along with many others. Each one of these kids has a story that is tragic and hopeful, though in Odessa it seemed to be generally more of the former. You see how the season and the pressure grinds on these boys and how they embrace and rebel against the Permian MOJO culture, ultimately pushing ahead for themselves alone.
There is a little bit of Odessa in every town in America, whether it's under the lights on Friday, or in a gymnasium or on a baseball diamond, which is what makes this book such a classic. The story of Odessa's Panthers may seem crazy to some and beautiful to others, but it strikes a chord with all of us who have ever witnessed or participated in high school sports, where the hopes of a community are carried by its young people, for better or worse. Bissinger captures this phenomenon without holding back or rendering judgment on the people of Odessa, and delivers it in a stark, visceral style that lends itself well to the bleak surroundings of Odessa, Texas.
Rating: 5
Summary: Sorry, Merc!
Comment: Years ago, maybe in a more innocent time or at a minimum, at least a less cynical time, the one time Running Back of the Miami Dolphins was sentenced by a Federal Judge for trafficking in cocaine. Giving him a 10 year sentence, cognizant of the joy Mercury Morris had brought the Dolphins and their Miami fans, the Judge said, "Sorry Merc."
Of course, football afficianados were saddened by the sentence. What had happened? How did he suddenly fall? It must have been overnight because he was such a wonderful running back.
How does it happen that we lose sight of our heroes, are deaf to their problems, ignorant of the huge crash when the stands empty forever?
It starts with the Permian Panthers, a High School football team in Odessa, Texas in the late '80's.
Bissinger's book remains the quintesential 'not-feel-good-story' about high school sports. Nothing bad happens, there are no pregnancies, DUI's, deaths or shootings, but there are worse things. There is the false society that these young (for the most part) men live. The adulation. The absence of no other alternative other than what they have been taught as the only way out of poverty, boredom, and the greatest punishment of all, anonimity. We are all enablers. While Bissinger aims at the coaches we would have to include school officials, town leaders, fans, ourselves.
Extremely well written I picked it up again as in this year, as we closed in on the College Football Championships with all the controversy of "who is the real winner?"
Of course the whispered answer may be, do we really need one? Is there any point before professional sports that the joy of the game remains the joy of the game?
The parents of all high school children, ex-athletes, sports lovers, kids, and couch potatoes should read Bissinger. It's a great read.
Rating: 5
Summary: tHiS bOoK iS aWeSoMe, MaN!!!
Comment: I first saw this book when i was researching John Elway for my English Class. I saw it in the sports section and it kind of jumped out at me. As i began to read it, it hit home so much, because I too, just came off of a devastating highschool football season. The way the author was inside the story and his account of the team was perfect. The way the football team took winning to the extreme was intresting and almost shocking. The characters like Boobie, Winchell, Christian, and all the others are so well developed that it brought me right back to the lockeroom!
Even if you don't like football, I think that you would still enjoy this book. Not only is this book packed with ingame action from Permian's '88 football season, but it really shows how important highschool athletics are to small towns, and in this case, how crazy the town goes over it. I gave this book 5 stars because of it's way to bring the reader right into the season with them. It truely shows the emotion of Friday nights!
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Title: The Junction Boys: How Ten Days in Hell with Bear Bryant Forged a Championship Team by Jim Dent ISBN: 031226755X Publisher: Griffin Trade Paperback Pub. Date: 09 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Secret of Mojo: The Story of the Odessa, Texas, Permain High School Football Team by Regina W. McCally ISBN: 0961970308 Publisher: Regina Walker McCally Pub. Date: November, 1986 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Fall River Dreams : A Team's Quest for Glory, A Town's Search for It's Soul by Bill Reynolds ISBN: 0312134916 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: SEASON ON THE BRINK by John Feinstein ISBN: 0671688774 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 15 November, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: When the Game Stands Tall: The Story of the De LA Salle Spartans and Football's Longest Winning Streak by Neil Hayes, Tony LA Russa, Bob Larson, Tony La Russa ISBN: 1583940863 Publisher: Frog Ltd Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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