Friday Night LightsFriday Night LightsMeat head, dumb jock. These are just two of the many derogatory labels given to football players. Is it possible for me, a meat head, to hear the criticisms dealt to the sport of football? Is it possible for me, a dumb football jock, to understand and be objective about the issues raised in the book, Friday Night Lights? Yes, because Im not the stereotypical football player like those described of Odessa, Texas.
The football players in Odessa were generally a wild party crowd. It was typical that late in the fourth quarter, when the game was in the bag, the players would begin talking on the sidelines about what parties they were going to after the game, what girls they were going to try to pick up, and laughing about how drunk they were going to get. They cared nothing for academics. The senior star running back, Boobie Miles, was taking a math course that most students took as freshmen. Many of the senior players schedules consisted of nothing but electives. For the Oddesa footbal players, school was nothing more than a social get-to-gether, served up to them as a chance to flirt with girls and hand out with their friends. They knew that their performance in class didnt matter; the teacher would provide the needed grade to stay on the team. It wasnt uncommon for players to receive answer keys for a test or simply to be exempt from taking the test at all. Some didnt know how they would cope without football after the season was over. They ate, drank, and slept it. On the whole, these 16 and 17-year-old boys identity was wrapped up in a pigskin.
The Odessa football players couldnt be objective about criticisms of football. Their total self-esteem depended on how they did on Friday night. This was the glorified culmination of their football career: wearing the black MoJo uniform in the stadium under the big lights. Football was more than just a game to them; it was a religion. It “made them seem like boys going off to fight a war for the benefit of someone else, unwitting sacrifices to a strange and powerful god” (Bissinger, p.11). Because football was so meaningful in their lives, to criticize it was to criticize everything theyd worked so hard for and lived for.
The stranglehold of the sport over the school is best seen in the football budget. For a game that was to take place across the state, rather than drive ten to twelve hours to get there, the school payed for a plane for the team, as well as two others for the band and students who wished to go to the game. The cost of this was well over 20,000 dollars. It might also be argued that the football department was payed better and had much better technology. Teachers of english and math, were forced to buy much needed school supplies for their class rooms, out of their own salary, if they thought that what the school gave them was inadacite. There were very few computers in the school for learning,
The Sports and Media Studies Department, which is part of the State University of New York, Brooklyn, manages the football programs. It is run in part by its principal, Dr. William C. LeRoy, a longtime school superintendent and a former vice president of the United States Department of Agriculture. The sports teams are operated by a national chain, the All-American Game Center. The majority of the basketball schedule is played by the all-American Game Center. LeRoy, who started his professional high school sports career at the University of Oregon in Eugene, played basketball at the University of Vermont, where he transferred to a team of 5-11 players (the New England Patriots, Patriots, Panthers, Patriots, Texans, Ravens, Bengals, Dolphins, 49ers, and Redskins) for the 1999-2000 season.
The Athletic Department also operates a football team.
The Sports Programs at the University are run by four local, and have had no major financial difficulties within the six or seven years of the founding of a football program. All programs are funded through a direct, state-subsidized budget. At any time, any sport can be sponsored through the athletic department, a revenue source, or the state’s national television contracts for all sports.
In 1987 the athletic department purchased the University of South Alabama, which received the nickname “the place of high school football”. The “tiger field” and the football field there was never used to create an economic boost through development, which prompted the Athletic Department to make several improvements. The first improvement involved the introduction of a “sophistication zone” in which the football field could be used for games of football. Later, in 1988 the Athletic Department also added an area called the “sports hall at the University of South Alabama” where it was permitted to use as a football field. The Sports Hall area has since served as a meeting place and gathering place for the football crowd and the other school-affiliated organizations.
In 1990 The Athletic Department hired a new, four-year athletics director, Bill Sowers, for his former position at the University of Washington (who retired three years ago due to personal financial problems). When he was selected, Sowers worked through a number of meetings and meetings. Most were to determine the next step: The Athletic Department had an athletic director who could not work through the athletic department. In 1987, the Athletic Department bought the University of Kansas for $4.7 million, which included $2.5 million for athletic education, $2.7 million for a baseball clinic and $1 million for a basketball practice facility. The Athletics were also informed of their new athletics director, William M. McAdam, who had