First off, I have to thank Zach Leon for insisting I read this book. If  Friday Night Lights  isn't the best story of sports and culture and history and human nature and politics and racism, I'm not sure what is. Bissinger does a tremendous job taking the individual stories of a group of teenagers and showing how they came to shape the destiny of an entire town.

What was most telling was that I found myself rooting for Permian by the end of the book. I can't even explain why. Here were a bunch of kids essentially brainwashed into believing in the sanctity of a football program, disregarding academics and physical health for the opportunity to play on Friday nights. The whole ordeal speaks to what is wrong with America today. Yet I couldn't help but recognize the appeal. I couldn't help but remember those nights I spent in high school as a statistician in the press box, diligently counting every yard and tallying every tackle to prepare reports for the coaching staff. I couldn't help but feel some regret for never strapping on some pads myself.

If nothing else, read this book to better understand a corner of the world you'll probably never visit. Read this to understand what happened to West Texas during the boom and bust years of the 1970s and '80s. Read this to understand why football was and still is a rallying point for a town with little else to root for.

I don't like football, and I enjoyed this book. Perhaps I feel this way because the book is more of a sociological overview of Odessa, rather than a book primarily about football. Bissinger writes with humility, nuance, and complexity that exemplifies the preciousness and messiness of human relationships.

“Friday Night Lights”
Let me start by saying, that I don’t read any books at all, but this is a book that I tried,
and was not able to put down. The book “Friday Night Lights” is made to go inside the
heads of these football athletes that are from a little and very western town that all the
citizens there breathe Permian (The Local High School) football.
People will hear the usual cliché from football players about how they always will
remember and love playing under the “Friday Night Lights”. I never really understood
that before I read this book. It really explains what it means to play on Friday Nights in
front of everyone who loves you. Whether that be your family, friends, girlfriend etc., it
just really impacts the teenager community by hitting main points of a teenagers life on
a daily basis.
Like I mentioned, this piece of literature hits on every important topic that a teenager
goes through on a daily basis. Those topics are, racism, pain, over thinking, and peer
pressure. First is racism. One of the main characters in this story (Boobie Miles), who is
an all­-american running back for Permian, has to go through many racist people to
achieve his goal of becoming an all­-american athlete at the collegiate level. There is a
whole chapter dedicated to the “N Word” and how it affects him. There’s moments in
their games whenever he makes a mistake, people will threaten to kill him because he
is an African­-American.
Second is over thinking. Many points in the story is when characters are afraid of doing
something just because they might be made fun of, or be threatened like Boobie.
Almost all characters are scared of even running the ball in front of their fans just
because if they make a mistake, some crazy man in the town might do something to
him or his family.
Third is peer pressure. In a teenager’s life, they have to go through the whole stage of
“peer pressure”. If you don’t know what peer pressure means, it usually involves illegal
substances or actions that friends are trying to get you to do. For example, there are
many occurrences where after a win, some Permian players go out and drink and
smoke for the fun of it at parties. I won’t spoil anything, but there are many occurrences
when these players try to make the main character do these things just so he could “be
cool” like the other guys.
All in all, this book was very interesting and very fun to read. It made me love the game
of football, as well as made me think of what some people have to go through when
their town is psychotic about their high school sports.

Great book that Bissinger wrote while embedded with the 1988 Permian Panthers and living for a year with his family in Odessa, Texas. Bissinger's book not only focuses on the high school football team's quest to win state, but he also provides an understanding of the people who make up the town, its history, and their views on everything from politics to race. For those people who are looking to understand white people in rural America who are likely Trump voters, I found that this book provided more insight that many of the books that have attempted to address that subject in present day. In the end though, Bissinger clearly shows how an overemphasis on sports in high school in place of academics often leads to not much else thereafter.

I highly recommend this book.

This book tells the story of the other side of America, the side that is lackluster, raw but no less authentic. Football, a sport, or specifically, high school football, a sport event, did not become a para-religion of a town, or many towns, without a reason. Unlikely the show or the movie, FNL the book explicitly and unreservedly presents the social stigmas in the Midwest desolation.

The intertwined poverty, ignorance, hatred, racial tension and desperation are mind-blowing and heart-breaking. Football was a way of release, an expression of anger, a mask over the fractures, a hallucination of hope (with exceptions), and possibly an omen of the awaiting abyss. The path towards the abyss not only results from the uneven distribution of the fruit of macro economic development but also from self-abandonment and reaction. Uncertainty and restlessness pervades the book, from the past to the future.

Bissinger successfully finds the balance between apathy (objectivity) and sympathy (resulting in something more nuanced than empathy) towards his subjects, which helps him make the readers bask in their joy of victory and pain over their losses on and off the gridiron and, at the same time, incisively point out the aforementioned issues in the bigger picture. He proves that football is more than a sport, and probably any sport is more than a sport--it carries, matters, and crushes too much. A double-edged blade, football both embodies and suppresses hopes and dreams.

P.S. A personal note after watching Hell or High Water: I somehow sense a smattering of hope. It seems that many are struggling and inching out of poverty. Does this symbolize anything, say, the gleam of hope at the crossroads of the fate of Odessa and its kind? Maybe only time will tell.

I watched this movie years ago (which I highly recommend) and remember balling my eyes out, so picked it up when I saw it on the shelf of my Airbnb.

Such a masterfully crafted book, expertly weaving in the story of Odessa (Texas) while following the Permian Panthers highschool football season of 1988.

I played American football in highschool and it still remains the most fun I’ve had playing sport. I’ve never felt so emotional and satisfied playing a sport - the whole school out to support, the cheerleaders, my name being announced when scoring a touchdown or making a big play, the adulation in the hallway from teachers, parents and classmates after a great win.

Yet this is 1% of what it must have been like for the boys at Permian with the hopes and dreams of a whole town on their shoulders. It is nigh impossible to feel something more meaningful - but it is also a cursed trap so because how could one not simply peak in highschool after such an experience?

Beyond the story of football, it’s about a town left behind, like so many places in America, and the issues such as poor education, economic destitution, racism and much more it struggles to overcome.

I was on an airplane one Friday night when I was reading this book. As the plane took off from Cleveland I noticed a high school football game in progress. I could see the lights.. the two teams on the field.. the crowd and the marching band. I watched the field as long as I could. Just at the point when I couldn't see the stadium anymore my eye caught the lights of another football field. Then.. when I looked out over the countryside I noticed that there were football games in most of the small towns we were passing. I played connect the dots from one stadium to the next for over an hour.

I’ve been a fan of Friday Night Lights, the movie and the TV series, and after reading an episode review at the AV Club which suggested the book had a rich sociological analysis within the story inspired me to pick up H.G. Bissinger’s book that spawned the film and TV show. I guess you could say that the central theme in the book is football as the all encompassing spectacle that ties together the West Texas community that backs its powerhouse highs school team the Permian Panthers, but through this conduit Bissinger gives a portrait of politics, race, class, economics, and life at a certain time in a certain place: Odessa in 1988. The players are coddled and academics rank a distant second to the football program that has nurtured a mystique that spurs boys to mammoth efforts of achievement seemingly through will power alone. Bissinger also provides background information about how this part of the country became populated and how its fortunes are inescapably tied to the boom and bust of the oil business. The sociological make up that is dominantly white, conservative, and racist The population is economically uneven with a poor population of black and Hispanics thrown into the mix. The history of the fabled sports program is seen through the eyes of the stars of the 1988 team as well as many of its past stars. It is a compelling story and the aftermath of the loss to eventual champion Carter and the fallout of that team is almost just cause for another book. However, it doesn’t end there, Bissinger has added an epilogue to the 10 year anniversary edition and explains how the book has had an effect on the community and inspired some soul searching that led to an more equitable balance with academics and even women’s sports. Another effect was that the mystique and dominance that made the team so dominant has been lost. One of the best sports book I’ve ever read, because it is about more than just football much the same way that The Blind Side was about the South race and economics.

Friday Night Lights is not a football book, but rather an in-depth study of a town centered around and defined by high school football.

H.G. Bessinger’s immersive journalism is impressive. Living in Odessa for an entire year, he attended every meeting, practice, game, and everything in between. He offers an incredibly in-depth look into Texas football and how it shaped an entire town.



I was fairly obsessed with Friday Night Lights the movie and the tv show, so I really enjoyed reading the true story that inspired those stories.

“Friday Night Lights” is a true story of a high school football team in Odessa, Texas with the hopes and dreams of another championship title. In the book star player James “Boobie” Miles is the Panthers ticket there and they feel as if without him they are never going to make it. Well that hope becomes a reality in a scrimmage one week before opening day Boobie injures his knee, leaving all the pressure on quarterback Mike Winchell and Boobies back up Chris Comer. Sure enough the first game without him they lost. But then the panthers figured it all out and started winning game after game until losing to their rival Midland Lee in the second to last game of the season but their record was still good enough for a three way tie between Midland High, Midland Lee, and the Panthers. Now all it came down to is a coin toss to determine which two of the three teams will go on to the playoffs. It ends up that the Panthers and Midland Lee get to move on. They then win the first 4 games of the playoffs but then lose a well fought battle to Dallas Carter 14-9. “The season had ended but another one had begun. People everywhere, young and old were already dreaming of heroes.” I feel the theme of the book is that hard work and determination pay off. I think that, because in the book the team works hard to get better as a team and even without Boobie and they end up succeeding.
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My favorite character is Mike Winchell. He is my favorite character because he is hard working when it comes to football and school and will do what it takes to get himself or the team to be better. Mike is the quarter back of the team, he is very level headed and plays great but feels a lot of pressure from the town and his friends. Another reason I like Mike is because of how responsible he is and how much he cares about his team. For example when Don asks him if he wants to go out and party and Mike says “I’m not going out and foolin.” He says this because he does not want him or his teammates getting in trouble and risk them not playing in the opening game. All in all, Mike is my favorite character for many reasons.
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My thoughts on this book are that I really like it for many reasons. I like it because it is about football and I love football. Also I feel it is an inspirational book that shows that although you’re not the best, you can be the best with hard work and effort to get better. To conclude I really liked this book in many ways.

I had a very hard time getting through this book, although I have deep interest in both football and sociological study. At times, the writing seemed sensational with heavy-handed similes and play-by-play descriptions. At other times, it was quite technical, citing statistics of oil production and population densities. The book really shone when highlighting the people involved: players, coaches, other townspeople; the reader could tell Bissinger cared quite a bit for his subjects and was pained when he had to display their less endearing characteristics.
At first, the completely backwards priorities of the town of Odessa made me extremely angry, but over the course of the book, I began to see how football came to be the ultimate (and only) worthwhile pursuit. I guess 1988 was a different era, but the blatant racism of the townspeople was also quite distasteful to me.
The afterword in my edition, written 10 years after the first publication, described some of the ways the book changed the people of Odessa, and that was good to hear.
I have not seen either the movie or the television show based on this book, so cannot comment on how either compares. I do intend to watch the movie, and will put in an update to this review after doing so.
Update: The movie is much more fast paced, and centered on the games themselves which seems obvious because of how that translates so much better in a visual medium. However, I was disappointed by how the movie glossed over and even omitted what I would consider pivotal parts of the book. For instance, the film did not even mention the grade-fixing scandal that plagued the Carter Cowboys, Permian's eventual rival in the state semi-finals (not the state championship that is depicted). I can understand changing details like that to make the action more exciting or the characters more dynamic, but some of the omissions were egregious. That said, the movie was much, much more entertaining and much, much less infuriating.

I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. I enjoyed the movie, but the TV show quickly became one of my all time favorites even if it doesn’t really share many similarities with this book other than the school/town, football, and small town Texas issues. There were multiple parts of this book that actively made me uncomfortable.

More specifically, the language and the cultural aspects of this small town in Texas. The racism that permeates throughout this town and school along with the rejection of the civil rights act that is still affecting this town throughout 1988. This town is complex and deals with a lot of issues along with the constant lack of support for anything concerning education for these athletes.

I’d highly recommend this book. It’s a difficult read, specifically concerning the topics it deals with outside of the football itself, but it’s definitely worth it.