FOOTBALL: A GAME FOR MEN
For decades high school athletes have enjoyed special privileges, high social status, and a special swagger in their step; no athletes have enjoyed these things more than the high school football players. The gods of high school athletics, gladiators in their own right, and warriors of the gridiron have been crowned the privileged few. Why have athletes been crowned kings of the social hierarchy? And why are football players gods? Sports bring together students of different backgrounds, it highlights those special few among us with gifts, and it brings out the raw competiveness that all humans run on. Football is a real mans sports with its emphasis on muscle mass, military precision, and gladiator brutality of the game gives the game its special hold on people.
By looking at one specific example of just how much a high school football team can shape a community you can see how these gods are created. I will take a close look at Odessa, Texas and the Permian High School Panthers through H.G. Bissinger’s book, the motion picture based on the book, and the NBC television series, to show you just how much football can mean to a small community. I will examine the brutality of the game, the racial issues that divide a town, and how one town lives and dies on the hopes of a high school football team.
Odessa: A History
Odessa, Texas a small town in the heart of Texas has one of the last schools to desegregate, a full ten years after most schools in Mississippi and Alabama. Thirty years after Brown v. Board of Education residents were forced to file a federal suit seeking desegregation. Judge Fred Shannon of the United States District court for the Western District of Texas charged the Ector County Independent School District “with the affirmative duty to taek whatever steps might be necessary to convert to a unitary system in which racial discrimination would be eliminated root and branch.” (Durau, pg 4). The city’s minority high school, Ector High, was closed down and the students were distributed between Odessa High and Permian High. Many of the white citizens were outraged at this and were quick to blame the Mexican and black students for any faults they found in the school. "One resident who was completely outraged by this change, stated, 'My God, Mexico’s nothing but a big goddam pigpen…Hell, look at Africa. They’ve been here a lot longer than North America and they could be civilized and they’re the same way they were three or four hundred years ago.' Such statements were not uncommon in the community. While blacks and minorities remained blemishes on the school’s record a select few found their way into Panther football. Because even though the boosters felt a nigger could read he sure as hell could run a football; Ivory Christian says it best, 'If you were big and strong and fast and black it was difficult not to feel as if the whole word expected you to do one thing only and that was play football'" (Bissinger).
Football and Race:
Because of its ability to bring together people of different racial backgrounds it could be said that high school sports is a utopian of sorts, but this is far from reality. If it weren’t for their usefulness on the football field very few white people would have any use at all for black people in Odessa, Texas. Perhaps the racism that runs through the town can best be seen by how casual racial slurs are used.
An excerpt from Friday Night Lights: a Town, a Team, and a Dream:
What would Boobie be without football?” a Permian coach when asked the question one day. The answer was obvious, as clear as night and day, black and white in Odessa, Texas, and he responded without the slightest hesitation.
“A big ol’ dumb nigger.”
Throughout the book blacks and Mexican are looked down upon and seen as a trouble unless they can run the ball then please, please come play for our team.
That was exactly the attitude the community had when Ector High was closed down and integration took place. The white community north of the railroad tracks had long feared that this day would come but now that it had they were going to use it to their advantage. There wasn’t a straight line drawn down the Southside but rather zig zag pattern through the area, which lead to a larger population of blacks attending Permian High. "'It was gerrymandering over football,' said Gomez" (Bissinger). Even though blacks may have found their claim to fame in football you couldn’t just be any mediocre player and expect to walk on the field. Only six of the 55 players on the 1988 football team were black. Five of those players were starters and the sixth one was hurt. If you weren’t an exceptionally great black football player you didn’t need to bother trying out.
"'We don’t have to deal with blacks here,' said Lanita Akins. 'We don’t have to have any contact with them, except on the Permian football team. It’s the only place in Odessa where people interact with blacks'. As she sat in the stands, Akins watched with fascination how the fans accepted the presence of blacks on the Permian team as if they were for the time being part of a different race altogether, as if something magical happened when those boys donned the black and white" (Bissinger).
Friday Night Lights: the movie
Although the book captures the ugly racism in the town of Odessa, Texas and the affect the high school football team has on the community; does the movie, which is based on the book, do the same? Peter Berg's retelling of the 1988 Panters caputures the heart of a small town team, but does it capture the truth?As the film begins the viewer is introduced to a small football-crazed town in the heart of Texas whose hopes and dreams rest on the shoulders of one high school football team. Five members of the football team, two white, two black, and one Latino, are seen as a united front for the team; as they lead their team against larger opponents they portray an idealistic team working together, crushing larger opponents, working through injury and disappointment, and come within minutes of a State title. The film neglects to show though the immense racial issues the town faces, and in fact the Panthers lost in a semi-final game not the State championship.
Why did the film skip over the racial issues that shaped the town? The book didn’t paint an idyllic little town where everyone got along and everything was just peachy; it, however, does paint the ugly truth that racism even blemishes the most sacared of high school activities, sport. This was proven over and over again by players and community members who read the book after it was published. Not everyone was happy about the H.G. Bissinger’s take on the town though and when it was to be made into a major motion picture concerns were brought forth. When the Director, Peter Berg, requested to take footage on the Permian’s stadium it came with a stipulation; he would only get footage of the stadium if he guaranteed the film would not portray the town and the community members of Odessa as racist. "Berg agreed to sow a “softer, gentler” rendering of Odessa" (Duru).
By taking the school boards offer and taming down the racism that was so prominent in the book and plays a vital part in the history of the town and in that 1988 season do that not take away from the story? The movie reaches a much broader audience, including adolescents. Does this de-racialized version of the book give them a fair view? H.G. Bissinger seems to think so and when asked about the film stated, “The book focused a lot on racial issues and displaced educational priorities. That’s touched upon in the film but it’s not the focal point of the film. But I would say that 80-90% of what’s in the book is in the film. In the intensity, in the pressure, in the way these kids are, it really captures the great phenomenon of Friday night lights.” (Murray). While you may not get the full understanding of the racism that was happening you do get a true sense of how important football was to the town, and the pressures that the players were under to succeed.
Not everyone was a quick to agree about the films adaptation of the book though, and after reading the book I would have to agree. The book dealt with heavy issues- racism, politics, and social values. The movie glosses over these, removing racial slurs and manipulating events for dramatic effect. For instance, in the book Boobie Miles is injuried in a scrimmage game and shortly afterwards quits the team, but in the movie he is depicted as some sort of hero, meeting his teammates to ride to the State finals game together. Friday Night Lights was made into a feel good movie that lacks the raw intensity that made the book a good read. This "softer, gentler" version of the story does appeal to a greater audience; espcially adolescents, which were the target audience for the movie.
Friday Night Lights: NBC's TV series
NBC's television series by the same name is loosely based on H.G. Bissinger's book, but even more so than the movie it to also glosses over some of the heavier issues. Although there are episodes here and there that deal with the racial differences on the team and community members that still hold on to racial superiority it isn't consistently present. It’s more of a feel good show that will occasional address the pressing issues but at the end of the day nothing comes before the all important Friday night football game. For what the show lacks in racial issues it makes up for in football politics. The coach’s job is on the line every Friday night, and is forced to deal with the ever persistent boosters during the week. Some of the things drawn from the book includeof the for sale signs in the coach’s yard after a big lose, gerrymandering by the boosters when the school district is split in two, and the struggle between academic funding and the athletic program.
Although the issue of race is often overlooked by the show there are some episodes scattered throughout the three seasons that deal almost explicitly with racial issues. In episode 12 of the second season, entitled "Who Do You Think You Are", Smash Williams, the Panthers star black athlete, and his girlfriend, who is white, have to deal with the consequences of having a interracial relationship in a not so accepting community. Both of their parents decide that even though they are okay with their relationship others will not be so accepting; it would be best if the two no longer saw each other. Later in the episode Smash takes his girlfriend and younger sister to the movie theater in the town over, which is primarily white. During the movie Smash’s little sister is harassed by several white boys; Smash tries to talk to them but before you know it punches are thrown. In the next episode “Humble Pie” Smash is forced to publicly apologize for his actions while the white boys accept no responsibility for what happened even though they were were the first ones to throw a punch.
As the show develops it would appear that it will incorporate more of the key issue found in the book. This season the show added highly influential parents, the McCoy’s, who begin to throw money around trying to get what they believe is best for their son, the star quarterback his freshmen year. With the boosters being backed by more money they begin to throw around their power a little more too. The issue of redistricting comes up in the third season, and with the threat of the town being split in half the boosters do everything they can to secure Panther football’s future. So while it may not always get down and gritty with the racial issues of high school football it does illustrate never ending politics that surround a small town football team. (Martens)
