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

After winning the first playoff game, the Permian Panthers fly to El Paso to play the Andress Eagles in winter conditions. Though they win the game, Coach Gaines yells at them repeatedly for what he considers a lackluster performance. The team parties together when they get home, drinking heavily. On their next practice day, they each find an unsigned note accusing them of unruly behavior and warning that they will be “losers” if they do not make it to the state championship. Many players suspect that this note was written by one of the coaches. Later, starting linebackers Ivory Christian and Chad Payne find additional notes in their lockers that are more explicitly insulting and threatening. The players are exhausted from their continued training and the immense pressure to win games, and these unsigned letters stir up resentment and anger among the players. Going into the next playoff game against the Nimitz Vikings, “the atmosphere in the locker room seemed more grim and determined than it had ever been” (293). The threatening notes “had their intended effect” (295) as the players are angry and desperate for victory. After an impassioned game, the Panthers are victorious yet again—and plan to party as usual.

Jerry Hix is a Permian Panthers player who was part of the team when they won the state championship years before. While Jerry enjoys a stable professional and family life, he admits to greatly missing his time as a football player and feeling nostalgic for the excitement and glory of playing ball for Permian. Because of his role on the team, he remains respected by the community and sometimes speaks at Pep Rallies. Other former Panthers players—Joe Bob Bizzell and Daniel Justis—have complicated relationships with football. Trapper, a Permian trainer, has seen many high school players like Joe Bob and Daniel struggle greatly to find a new identity after the glory and excitement of playing for Permian abruptly ends. Trapper questions how helpful it is for parents and coaches to encourage players to focus on football instead of building academic or career skills, calling it a “Friday night addiction” (310).

During Permian’s game against the Vikings, the trainers give Ivory an IV of lactose after he complains of exhaustion. Ivory recently remarked that he does not like the football program and does not seem invested in their playoff success. Ivory remains focused on his dream of becoming a Baptist preacher. However, his plans change when his great success on the field attracts the attention of recruiters from Texas Christian University. They have tentatively offered him a scholarship. This attention causes Ivory to dream of going professional.

The chapter ends with a hint that the Permian Panthers’ next game would be immensely challenging, as they will face the exceptional Dallas Carter Cowboys.

Like the players at Permian High, the football players at Dallas Carter High are treated like “princes” and enjoy relaxed rules for their behavior compared to the rest of the student population. Unlike Permian, Carter High has a mostly Black student demographic, with 96% of its students identifying as Black. Like all students across Texas, Carter’s football players have to comply with the “no-pass, no-play” rule that mandates that football players maintain grades of 70% or more to play. This law was passed to force student-athletes to remain engaged in their studies. However, teachers and other administrators at Carter High get around these rules by simply providing the answers for football players, encouraging them to cheat, and not giving them homework or tests.

Since Carter High had a particularly poor academic track record, the school implemented a “School Improvement Plan” that makes class participation a central aspect of student grades and thus renders quizzes and exams worth very little. While the plan was intended to improve overall school scores, some educators see it as a poorly disguised way to ensure that players meet the “no-pass, no-play” guidelines. The school’s improvement plan becomes a major controversy in Texas and the subject of many lawsuits. Will Bates, the math teacher at Carter High, does not allow students to easily pass his courses whether they are football players or not. He is the algebra teacher for a student named Gary Edwards, whose grades become a focus in the School Improvement Plan controversy.

Carter High’s football team was very successful in the playoffs, but an anonymous phone call that alerted authorities about irregularities in Gary’s grades interrupted their ascent. An investigation into Gary’s grades in Algebra ll revealed that the grades had been miscalculated, and Edwards had not received the 70% necessary to play in the playoffs. This technicality meant that Carter High’s victories were ineligible, and they would have been removed from the playoffs. However, the principal of Carter High resolved this issue by retroactively changing one of Edwards’s grades from “No Credit” to a 50, improving his grade just enough to satisfy the “no-pass, no-play” rule and confirming Carter High’s place in the playoffs.

However, when a school board launched a suit to remove the team and replace it with one of theirs, East Plano High, the Texas Education Commissioner William Kirby had to consider the case. Wanting to uphold the “no-pass, no-play” rule and bar teachers’ irregular grading, Kirby supports Carter High’s removal from the playoffs. Remarkably, lawyers for Carter High then coaxed a judge to delay the next playoff game while they appealed the decision. Because of this, Carter High continued in the playoffs while the matter was further adjudicated. Carter High eventually made it to the semifinals, where they would play against the Permian Panthers. The many issues that the two high schools have to agree on before the game include the game location, where the bands and cheerleaders will perform, the race of the officials, the number of tickets set aside for each group of supporters, the presence of police, and how best to manage large crowds of rowdy, rival fans to avoid violence.