Friday Night Light Analysis

H.G Bissinger addresses many social and political issues in his book “Friday Night

Lights”. Even today, decades later, these issues are still very prominent in our society. Much like

the situation described in Odessa during the 80’s, football is a huge part of the society in

America currently, and most likely will be for the years to come. Along with football, there are

many underlying controversies that take place.

Proper education is something that is often overlooked when it deals with athletes. The

problem lies with a society that care more about winning teams than they the education those

kids get. Here in America, it's more common for kids to cheat in order to get their homework

done than to actually put in effort and

work. Statistics show that around 70% of high school

students have admitted to cheating in the past. This is even more true amongst the athletes.

Many athletes focus more on their games and events than education. In some cases they are even

awarded for it. As long as they receive decent grades, honestly or not, and play a great game,

they are in the running for huge scholarships. In Friday Night lights, some of the good football

players were treated like they were royalty. They didn't do homework, got away with skipping

class,got grades for exams without even taking them, and so on. “ I never did homework”,

“Sometimes we didn't even take our exams, we'd just get a grade”, “I loved goin’ to school
because I didn't have to do nothing, I just went”,(pg.284) these are all quotes by Derrick Evans,

a football player at Carter High School. Circumstances like this went on all the time during this

era. Today, there isn't this much leniency in the education system but its occurs on a smaller

scale.

Racism has been part of our country for as long as America been around. Although the signs

were hidden under different masks. From the horrible slavery during the antebellum era to the

segregation of black and whites, it's all unjust persecution of people solely based on the

pigmentation of their skin. Obsessa experienced racism greatly, like many of towns in America.

The views many citizens from Odessa and surrounding areas had in Friday night lights aren't

different than many people have today. The signs of racism were evident then and are still

evident now. “She also knew that Odessa's’ values were old-fashioned as well when it came to

race, still rooted in the days when the line between white and black was bluntly defined by the

American version of the Berlin Wall- the railroad tracks that inevitably ran through the heat of

the town” (pg. 74). Bessinger perfectly portrayed what many towns are like, segregated. A lot of

towns are still very segregated. For example, inner city Detroit is mostly inhabited by African

american while the suburbs of the city is where many white families reside. Even today, after

coming to far in the equality of races movement, we still experience white privilege.” there is no

integration.

There is desegregation. There is no integration in this community, the same as any

community in America” (pg. 81). This is a quote by Jim mOore, the last president of Ector High

School before it was shut down. America likes to believe that we are truly free, but if all the

parties that live in America aren't free, is the country as a whole free? We have seen a lot of acts

of unjust prosecution against the African American people in this country. We do not provide

equality for everyone in the United States. There is discrimination in the workplace and in the

law. There has been multiply killings of blacks that have been unjust but received no

prosecution. The killing of Trayvon Martin, Laquan McDonald, and Michael Brown are just

some of the many examples of racism in America today.

Although all of the issues Bissinger wrote about are important, these are the two that stick

out. Football is a huge source of entertainment in this country, and sometimes entertainment

came mask some of the pressing issues of society. You have to be educated on issues in order to

help fix them. Don't let entertaining, or a day of watching football blind you on problems that

shouldn't exist in the extremity that they

do.