Friday Night Lights Sociology

The movie I decided to write my research paper about is my all-time favorite football movie which is called Friday Night Lights and it is the true story of the Permian Panthers high school football team. The state of Texas is known for its size and even has its own sayings such as “Everything is bigger in Texas” and “Don’t mess with Texas. Well football is very well known in Texas and people really care about the sport. Every Friday night the small town of Odessa, Texas would be empty simply because everyone was at Ratliff Stadium watching their Permian Panthers. Ratliff Stadium is where a the Permian Panthers play their home games. The stadium is known as the monument of Odessa for its beauty,size, and cost. The school was cut short of funding …show more content…
Coach Gaines has a salary of $60,000 a year with the high expectation of winning state. The fans and booster club members are seen and heard of encouraging Coach Gaines when they are doing well and doing the totally opposite when they aren’t. The booster club members who were portrayed in the movie as prominent people in the oil industry were seen constantly speaking with and asking Coach Gaines if the were going to win the state title. Once Coach Gaines lost his star running back Boobie Miles the pressure began to really build up in Coach Gaines and his job security was in question. The book talks a lot about the excessive pressures to win in interscholastic sport in regards to the coaches who are the authoritarian over his players. After taking a good look at this situation in depth it had a lot to do with why Boobie ended up tearing his ACL the first time and definetly with reinjuring it the second time. Coach Gaines was under so much pressure that even though he had a good team to begin with he was pressured to continually put the ball his best player’s hands which led to him getting injured. Once the team was able to win enough games to line them up for a playoff berth they faced a team that was just as good or better. Coach Gaines in his mind knew that Boobie was not ready to play but with being under so much pressure and the fans and boosters telling him to put Boobie in the game he was forced to do it. All the pressure built around winning was not healthy for the team, players, and organization and it ultimately ruined a young man’s future of football. This is not uncommon in sports today at all different levels of sports. Every year it seems like in college football or basketball a coach is on the hot seat for losing their job. This leaves coaches willing to do anything to win in all aspects of the game. In some cases cheating