Friday Night Lights

The book Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger is about a high school football team from a small town in Odessa, Texas. The citizens of Odessa are football-crazed fanatics which thrive off the highschool football team, the Permian Panthers. For them, football is the most important aspect in their lives that they even value the teams winning record over grades. There is very little regard given to education among the highschool. Much of the town’s businesses are in dismal condition because oil, its main asset, is going through a boom and bust cycle. Bissinger follows around the Permian Panthers for a year with the intent of learning the effects and values football has on the small town of Odessa and why they put so much emphasis on football rather than other priorities and core American values.
Living in Odessa was very difficult due to that fact that it was sitting on a large amount of oil, which brought in people who believed they could make a lot of money. Odessa was suffering from overcrowding, and once the boom was over, everyone left during the bust. Life was very tough for its citizens. There was lack of grazing land due to droughts and a flu epidemic that wiped out many people. Even after all the hardships that the people of Odessa went through, they didn’t leave the town because it was home to them. The only thing that kept the town from crumbling and resulting in a revolt was football. Football kept social control in Odessa during the tough economic times and kept its citizens pride in their community.
The book illustrates the structural functionalist theory of how strong political influence is in sport. For example, the people of Odessa loved George Bush because he was native to the area. Bush came to visit for a campaign stop, but no one cared about his speech. They valued that he was from Texas, and would protect their interests. Bush states that he believes he is, “on the side of the American people and the state of Texas in terms of values.” They