Remember The Titans: High School Football

In the film Remember the Titans, a small town in Alexandria, Virginia integrates its schools in the 1970s. Challenges arose including academics, hope, and racism, but the the football team united the town and revived their innocence because the townspeople had something to hope for and put all of their energies into. The weekly football games were also a place to forget about all of life’s problems and believe that light will shine through. When attending these football games, all problems seemed to have disappeared. Many southern towns create a lifestyle revolving around high school football that revives hope, and hides all of the town’s dirty secrets. H.G. Bissinger followed up in the blue collar, Protestant, republican town of Odessa, Texas
in 1988 to observe how football affects the lives of the town. He realized that football was their center of life, and everything else revolved around it. After studying how sports affect the country, Lewis Lapham gave his opinion on the false promises and problems sports create for the American people, and how it engulfs their entire lifestyles. Lapham’s comments exactly cover all of the problems and chaos football created in Odessa. Lapham’s comments prove to be accurate when describing Odessa because he claims that football is more than just a game to Odessans. There is so much more to the sport than just having a winner or loser at the end of the night. In addition, sports offer “innocence”, “hope”, and light covering the dark. Lastly, sports have the power to revive child-like expectations and are illusions for false hope.