Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream

Bissinger explains his move to Texas to write Friday Night Lights about the role of football in the small, deprived town of Odessa. A lifelong “addicted sports fan,” he has dreamed of living in a football-obsessed town since childhood (preface). Now in his thirties, Bissinger leaves his position as a newspaper editor to move to Odessa. He spends four months closely shadowing the town’s Permian Panthers football team at their meetings and practices and in their personal lives. While the football culture fascinates him, Bissinger also explores more significant societal themes such as education, race relations, politics, and the economy. To do so, he interviews hundreds of Odessa residents. Bissinger foreshadows how athletic achievement can be a powerful, though short-lived, aspect of a young person’s life and concludes his preface by claiming that, despite their young age, the Permian Panthers “held the town on their shoulders” (preface).

Boobie Miles is an African-American adopted from the foster system by his Uncle L. V., who desperately wants Boobie to become a professional football player. Boobie lives in a neighborhood of Odessa predominantly populated with Black and Mexican families. He recently had knee surgery and has not performed well on the field since.