A book Review

While generally I am reading many law books and cases, which usually happens to law students, during the semester breaks I generally try to read absolute fluff or at least non-legal stuff. Recent reads include John Grisham and Isaac Asimov. But for 14 hours of plane sitting going to a from London, I decided to read a book recently made into a film, Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger. I strongly recommend the book and not even having seen the film, I can guarantee the movie is nothing like the book.

The book takes a long hard look at the sociology, psychology and politics, surrounding west Texas high school football in Odessa, TX. Expecting a story focused on the players and what they go through in the pressure cooker of the hopes and dream of an entire town, I was surprised to see segments on political values, morals, politics and race relations as it revolved around the Permian High School football team in the late 1980's.

Bissinger writes well and probably could have done a lot better in dealing with the personalities of the players and coaches, but on the whole does a good job presenting the background against which these young players struggle. Bissinger receieved enormous backlash from the people of Odessa for portraying their town as a football mad group of knuckle draggers, but in my experience there are times with parents and communities place so much pride in their high school that the pressure upon the students is so intense that physical manifestations are not unusual. Bissinger writes of team captains who regularly vomit prior to games, who struggle with and play injured, sometimes severly so, and the nerves associated with games.

Parents and communities often put enormous pressure on young kids to succeed in some given field. But the subtext in the bulk of hte book and later explicitly mentioned, is the damage to the educational system that focusing on football created. So intense was the desire to win in the Texas communities that all sorts of behavior by the student atheletes was tolerated and implicitly condoned. Bissinger leaves the reader to make the determination of whether the community was right or wrong in the cases provided. I believe Bissinger leaves too much for the reader to determine on their own. Additional analysis would have been helpful.

In the over 15 years since Bissinger followed the Permian High School football team, I wonder how much has changed, not only in Odessa but nationwide. I am a big believer in the value of sports, particularly team sports, in the development of kids. I am also a big believer in using sports scholarships to allow kids to get a college education, but has the desire for school to have excellent sports teams undermining their purpose--that of educating kids. Ultimately, that is what Bissinger asks and my answer is yes, it has.