Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger

“‘Athletics last for such a short period of time. It ends for people. But while it lasts, it creates this make-believe world where normal rules don’t apply. We build this false atmosphere. When it’s over and the harsh reality sets in, that’s the real joke we play on people’” (Bissinger xiv). “Friday Night Lights” shows the darker side of high school football. Players are taught to play games to win, and thats all that matters. Football players are put under a tremendous amount of pressure, almost enough to be considered unfair. Even though football is a “team sport”, pressure on individual players is unnecessary. Some players have the burden of the team, the city, their family, and their future, resting on their shoulders. These players are put under pressure that is physically and emotionally damaging, not to mention future ruining.

Boobie Miles experiences many types of pressure in this novel. Boobie, the player that carries the football team, has the mentality of a child. He gets angry easily and he’ll throw tantrums when a scenario isn’t going his way. Boobie’s child-like mind set makes him more susceptible to the pressures of being a Permian Panthers football player.

Boobie pressures himself when he makes football his whole lifestyle. Everything in his life revolves around football. Even one of Boobie’s coaches said that without football all he would be is “‘A big ol’ dumb nigger’” (Bissinger 67). Boobie doesn’t see school as a priority, which means he completely relies on football to continue his life after high school. He took “...correlated language arts, a class for students at least two years behind their grade level in english” (Bissinger 150). “He then went on to algebra I, a course that the average college bound...

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...football player and scholar. “...and he admitted that part of the problem in the Carter game had been his own lack of belief of his abilities” (Bissinger 348). Finally a starting quarterback, due to Boobie’s injury, Mike pressures himself about being a good enough player to perform under the lights. “He would never be able to throw the ball, never be able to get a grip on it. It wouldn’t be a field of dreams at all, but one of nightmares” (Bissinger 315). Even towards the end of the season, Mike still doubts himself. He worries about helping his team carry the city of Odessa to the state championship. Not winning scares Mike, he doesn’t want to let anyone down.

The coaches inflict lots of pressure onto Mike, so much pressure that he ended up being too burnt out to play in college. His dreams were crushed by the powers that controlled him as he grew into an adult.