High School Friday Night Lights

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High school athletics leave a major impact on everybody that is involved with them. It also can even leave a mark on people who aren’t associated with them. There are many conflicting opinions on whether high school sports are a positive or negative influence on a student’s life. Athletics in high school can have an effect on the community as a whole. In H.G. Bisssinger’s highly regarded Friday Night Lights, high school football is accurately portrayed as the most important thing in Texas; it receives much more attention than academics. Football players are often treated like celebrities; yielding confidence, and at the same time creating pressure. High school sports are approached with clashing opinions. Some of these opinions are positive, and supportive of athletics. “Athleticism, among many activities, offers teens a physical outlet to exert their troubles, anger, emotions, and other feelings” (Chen 1). This can be observed in nearly all of the football players in Friday Night Lights. This can also be noticed in the world today. “Athletics help high school students understand their own abilities and talents” (Chen 1). This piece of evidence is very accurate when describing high school athletes. Sports can make a high school student humble. As can be seen by the preceding information, high school athletics can have a positive impact on a student’s life. In contrast to the positives, high school athletics can be seen in a negative light. “Concussions [from athletics] cause structural brain damage” (Solotaroff 7). Even though nobody is said to get a concussion in Friday Night Lights, they are very frequent in football and in other sports today. They occur all the time in football especially. In addition to that piece of nega... ... middle of paper ... ...s football will always play a major role in the lives of people who live there. Works Cited Bissinger, H. G. Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub., 1990. Print. Chen, Grace. "Pros and Cons of Sports Competition at the High School Level." Publicschoolreview.com. Public School Review, n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. Goisman, Matt. "Book Review: Friday Night Lights." Sports of Boston RSS. Sports of Boston, 9 July 2010. Web. 06 Mar. 2014. Nande, Anushree. "Book Review: Friday Night Lights – HG Bissinger - Write Club." Write Club. The Write Club, 2 July 2013. Web. 06 Mar. 2014. SOLOTAROFF, PAUL. "This Is Your Brain On Football." Rolling Stone 1175 (2013): 56. TOPICsearch. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. Stricker, Paul R. "Pressure to Perform." HealthyChildren.org. American Academy of Pediatrics, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 04 Mar. 2014.

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