Award winning investigative report H. G. (Buzz) Bissinger, was a regular for the Philadelphia Inquirer for a number of years. He even won a Pulitzer for his series on the Philadelphia court system. So when he took a leave of absence from the paper in 1988 and moved his wife and family down to Odessa to write about Texas football in Friday Night Lights, it was only natural that he would come up with a huge blockbuster.
Odessa is situated in the Oil Belt of West Texas. The fortunes of Odessa took a dive when the oil boom headed south, and it is constantly ranked as one of the worst places to live in the entire nation. But there is one area where Odessa excels year after year, and that is the football program at Permian High School. It has not just the most successful program in all of Texas, but also the United States as well. Bissinger got permission to follow the team for an entire season, starting with pre-season practice in August. He attended practices, met with players, interviewed coaches and fans, and also met with a few football critics. He attended games-always on a Friday night with a stadium packed with 20,000 screaming fans.
Along the way, he learned much about football, the oil business, Odessa, and politics. Some of what he saw was good. The pride in the Permian Panthers gave the entire town something to rally around. The Panthers were not always the most physically talented team, but Permian coaches always got the most from their well-prepared and well-conditioned athletes. But Bissinger also saw many negatives surrounding football mania. Football took a backseat to academics at Permian, and more money was spent for athletic tape for one year than for English supplies. Football players were treated like gods, and authority figures looked the other way when they misbehaved. Players were expected to play injured-at the expense of being called a slacker or losing a coveted starting spot. Racism was always an underlying theme in Odessa, which seemed a contradiction considering the strong religious values Odessians claimed to hold dear. The girls at PHS were relegated to support roles, and heaven help the girl who appeared too intelligent. And the fans tended to be rabid. When Coach Gaines lost for the second time in the 1988 season, he came home to discover almost a dozen "For Sale" signs on his front lawn. These signs would also make appearances on the lawns of players who happened to have a bad game.
When Friday Night Lights was first published, the people of Odessa felt outraged and betrayed. A book signing in Odessa had to be cancelled because of more than a few death threats. But at least the book forced a few Odessians to look at themselves in the mirror, and they didn't like what they saw. The book I read has a 10 Year Afterward, and Bissinger tells of some of the major changes brought about by Friday Night Lights. Academic programs were beefed up and test scores are on the rise. More money and efforts are being directed toward women (both athletically and academically). Fans have toned down a bit, although football still holds center stage. And he gives a synopsis of the six players he highlighted in the book. Almost all discovered that there was little that could top playing Friday night football in front of 20,000 fans.
Friday Night Lights is not just a sports story, and Bissinger shows that he is equally talented whether writing about Texas football or the city of Philadelphia. It is definitely one of the best books I have read this year.
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