I really enjoyed the second third of the book. It further discusses the 'need' for a state championship and the complete societal support Odessa, Texas has within its 'Mojo' Panthers football team. Permian High School is regarded as one of the best football schools in all of Texas, and with the expectations of a championship, their was great dissapiontment and doubt aftyer the injury to James 'Boobie' Miles. Motivation and leadership mainly from Mike Winchell (QB) helped get the Permian Panthers off to a good season opener. Freshmen also stepped up and made a huge impact on the team. Boobie, of course, continues hollering on the side-line waiting for his shot to get back into the game he loves.
This middle part of the book focused a lot on the issue of racism. Racism in public facilities and events, and especially in school. Some players on the team had a difficult time with their personal security while amongst the town. Bissinger certainly does a good job with incorporating the cultural aspect of Texas. Not only are they living for football, but they are generalized as fairly stubborn people with an outlook on African Americans as being subordinates. This serves as a road-block for the team but at the point where I stopped reading they began to push through and rebel such segregation. I hope the book continues to interest me and the ending better not let me down or I will not be a happy camper.

Have been pecking away at this book for a while now, but won't finish it. I discovered that it's more fun (and addictive) to watch Friday Night Lights (both movie and TV show) than it is to read about them. May come back to this some day and give it another shot.

Just a well-written, easy-to-read, fun book! He covers a lot of topics other than just the Permian football season, too, like Midland/Odessa history, oil, politics, racial issues, etc. I thought it was all really interesting.

I’ve been trying to start reading books intentionally throughout the year that correspond to certain seasons, so this was my “get pumped for football season” book. It got the job done.