American Football collides with racial,
economic and personal tensions; in a book which is ostensibly about a
high-school football team, but really about the meaning of sport and its place
in our society.
You could be forgiven when
reading the cover of Friday Night Lights, that it is another clichéd heroic rags to
riches story about a high-school football team. The sort of story where despite
economic hardship and various other obstacles, the power of positivity and just
believing things will go well wins the day; the type of story that doesn’t hold
up well in the harsh light of reality. Friday Night Lights is not that book, it
is a far deeper story going beyond what American football means in small-town
America; to what sport (of any type) means for us.
The story takes place in
Odessa, Texas, 1988. Right from the outset of the book Bissinger tells us that
he moved his family to live with the people of Odessa, to understand what
football meant for them. It sets the tone for this non-fiction story of a
compassionate, but gritty and realistic, account of a season with the Permian
Panthers. Bissinger hints at the fall-out the book created, and the bonds of
trust he may have broken, to create this portrayal of Odessa; indeed we will
never know in what guise Bissinger inserted himself into Odessa and what
explanation he gave to the subjects of his book. Whilst some may question the
impartiality of Bissinger, it is clear that he has gone to great efforts to
paint of realistic picture of what high-school football means for the people of
Odessa.
This is what makes the book
so profound is its ability to not just look at the narrative of the Panthers
striving to mark their place in football folklore in Odessa, but to understand
how that relates to the wider problems within 1980s America. For anyone who has
watched Any Given
Sunday; it is clear to see how hard it is to tread
the line between glamorising the flaws of American Football- the excess of
players, the pressure by teams to push their players to the limits, etc.- and
showing the heroic feats athletes put themselves through in the name of sport. Friday
Night Lights treads this line brilliantly. Whilst the reader is made fully
aware of the problems with Odessa (discussed below), they are made to feel part
of the town and can’t help but root for the Panthers.
The pure narrative arc of the
story is about the current Panthers
team attempting to make their way into Odessa’s
football history. It is Bissinger’s rich back stories about the players and
Odessa, which draw the reader in and understand how important football is for
Odessa’s community. He starts by outlining how white and black people live in
separate parts of the town, even though segregation has ended, how the Permian
Panthers have to pick from a smaller catchment area of players due to the
school being located in a poorer area and how Odessa’s economic wellbeing
hinges upon the boom and bust cycles of the US oil industry. With
Bissinger setting the scene, he uses it to segue to highlight the challenges of
education within Odessa as some players see football as their way through life
rather than learning. It is here where Bissinger may have drawn the most anger from
the residents of Odessa; as he seems to imply
that with restricted budgets and funding, the school prioritises its football
team rather than educating its pupils. One of the many strengths of the book is
that Bissinger does not bludgeon us with his views, simply painting stark
ordinary pictures of what is going on and allowing the reader to decide.
Bissinger makes sure we know the
meaning of football within Odessa. It’s hard to describe the contrasting
fortunes of the players without in-turn ruining the book, but the words from
the synopsis- these days will have been the best of their lives- are telling
and sad. For some players football forms the very meaning of their existence
and status, whereas for others it is a means to an end and in some cases a way
of obtaining an escape out of Odessa. This is where the parallels with Friday
Night Lights and other sports come into play. We are asked to question
ourselves to see whether pursuing a passion to its absolute end is the best way
for a person at any age to live their lives. Bissinger invites us to feel the
heroics and thrill of the on-pitch battles, whilst contrasting this with the bleakness
that many of its players feel after playing their sport; showing how few
options there are to the less academically gifted players
on the Panthers team.
This brings to the surface
the perennial question of whether sports can truly elevate someone beyond their
social and economic circumstances, or is more needed to be done. Bissinger
certainly hints at there being more that could be done in Odessa, especially in
relation to education. A possibly simplistic view that was derived from reading
this book, was that sport can only take someone as far as their talent will
take them. Thus for most children pursuing sport to the exclusion of all else
until their late teens, will be detrimental for them (as illustrated in the
book). This problem is exacerbated by the tremendous amounts
of money that professional top-tier
athletes are paid (in many team sports), with a child desperately hoping that
through sheer grit and determination they can be that superstar. When in fact
the chances of that happening are low. It’s almost as though Odessa acts a
microcosm of how society behaves, prioritising the ability of superstar sports
men and women over their other responsibilities towards society.
The ultimate question that Friday
Night Lights asks is why do we so readily want to watch exciting sporting
events, rather than focussing on the problems in our lives that can cause us so
much harm. A flippant answer is because one is fun and the other harmful,
however we all know that it is deeper than that. Sport can provide definite
outcomes in a world where answers are ambiguous, one can associate with the
glory of their chosen team and escape the day-to-day drudgery that they may
find themselves in. American football-just like running- can make us better
people, enrich our lives and allow communities to come together. What it won’t
do is solve the complex problems of employment and education that Friday Night
Lights refers to in 1980s America. Perhaps society as a whole is placing too
much of a burden upon its sporting youth. No matter what your view on this book is, one thing is guaranteed; there will always be
a group of young people lacing up their spikes, trainers, boots, etc. to take
part in the sport they love. It’s down to us on what expectations we place on
them, the support we provide (during and after) and the context we place sport
within society.
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