Episode 12:Best football movie ever? Friday Night Lights: Part 1.

Welcome to a special GenX Classic Sports Movie episode. Shon, David, and Mark take a trip under the bright lights of small-town Texas to explore Friday Night Lights, the iconic 2004 film that captured the intensity, heartbreak, and unyielding passion of high school football. From the unforgettable performances to the themes of community, ambition, and sacrifice, we’ll unpack what makes this film more than just a sports movie. So, grab your oversized shoulder pads, your neck roll, and your helmet and get ready to relive the drama, triumphs, and struggles of the 1988 Odessa Permian Panthers—MOJO!

Credits:
Haylee Wolf: narration.
Mason Enis: theme music.

Copyright @ PineStreetProductions 2024. Any illegal reproduction of this content will result in immediate legal action.

Transcript

welcome sports fans to Gen X classic Sports where we bring the Nostalgia of our Sports filled youth into the present

day grab your favorite retro jersey grab open a cold one and let's stroll down memory lane together we're here to

discuss iconic Sports moments teams and athletes from our generation this is Gen

X classic sports sports talk for Gen xers by gen xers hello everyone and

welcome again to the Gen X classic Sports podcast I can't tell you enough how much we appreciate you listening and

your support we're doing something special every few months and that's discussing a Gen X classic sports movie

our very first one is in honor of high school football which we are in the middle of right now here in the state of

Arkansas founding fathers David and Mark and I are going to talk about Friday Night Lights yes that Friday Night

Lights we hope you enjoy this nostalgic trip back to high school football in the

state of Texas in 1988 thank you for joining

us to be uh this will actually be episode 12 I know what number I'm doing for once

because I never know the number this is episode 12 and this is kind of a special I dreamed up to do where we're going to

talk about a movie and then we'll talk about what's behind the movie and some

things like that too with it but I took a executive decision and I pick Friday Night Lights to be our first one in

honor of the fact that um we're in the middle middle of the state championships for high school football in Arkansas

that's why I picked that and um so Friday Night Lights guys uh it's on

Netflix right now I told y'all that we could do a little research by watching it on Netflix we've all seen the movie I

will definitely talk movie let's talk movie first and then we'll go back and we'll fill in things that are

interesting about where the book and the movie may be differ is that cool that that that makes

sense all right let me set it up real quickly in case y'all don't remember and

the people listening don't remember the the three people listening that um up to 39 the season in question yeah we're up

to three we got three listeners uh the season that was the book is the book was written in 19 was written in 1988 it

follows the the peran Odessa peran Panthers from 1988 the book actually

came out in 1990 so the movie which we're going to spend most of our time on

wasn't made until 20 or 2004 and so just by way of introducing

it uh the movie was based on the book uh there were two screenwriters who wrote

the script beyond the the book the director is a dude named Peter Berg and y'all seen him in a ton of movies he's a

character actor he's usually a a guy in the background as a cop or a bad guy you never know which but he became a

director and he and Marky Mark worked together a lot uh Peter Berg directed long Survivor the Marcus Latrell story

yeah he directed Patriots Patriots Day about the bombing in Boston during the marathon and The Manhunt and he directed

deep waterer Horizon which was yet another Mark Wahlberg movie about the explosion on the old uh old Derek out in

the Gulf of Mexico so I think it was in Mex Gulf of Mexico anyway so he he he

specializes in action movies is what I would basically say so he's a good director and then the cast just for the

people who don't know Billy Bob Thornton plays the head coach and the first thing I thought of when this movie came out

back in 2004 was awesome Billy Bob Thornton and the kid from sling BL blade

are going to be in it together and the quarterback his name is Mike Winchell is

played by Lucas Black who's the kid from Sling Blade so he and Billy Bob yeah he

and Billy Bob had got back together for this movie which I always thought was awesome and then there's a long list of

other people the biggest name on the list uh right now would be Tim McGraw

who plays one of the characters fathers and we'll talk about that so there's a lot of familiar names on the cast list

because it was young people and now there are people in their 30s and 40s doing stuff around Hollywood we'll talk about some of them later but but that's

the backdrop Odessa Texas 1988 and another reason I connect

with this is because that was my senior year of playing High School football as well so when this book came out in 1990

it look uh by the way still have it still have the hard cover book yep I have it somewhere I

bought it in 91 in college so um anyway I was very much into this I

think Sports Illustrated did a thing on it so 1988 Odessa peran all right so

that's the setting so what do you guys whenever you first remember kind of hearing about it

did you have any thoughts initially about any anything about the movie oh just another football movie or what just

another football movie to me I liked it because Billy Bob was in it that was my

one of my things that kind of and it is a little hist I guess far as Texas

football you know you hear about them and that give you a little insight of you know how religious it is out there

and espe in West right right and to me David that

that was it too I mean we we were out of high school few years couple years three

I'm not going to age ourselves here too late too late too late but uh

anyway you know it was a big thing and with the west Texas high school it being

like you said almost a religion we didn't really see that here

as much in our area but it was still you know just really interesting interesting to never seen a movie on high school

football so it was it was you know well anticipated so does that mean both of

y'all had read the book when the movie came out or not probably 20 years later I

read yeah Okay so we've all read the book all right that that that was my point is so

David hadn't read the book yet but he thought it's another football movie I had read the book and was anticipating

the movie Just because I wanted to see how well they you know they did it and I guess Mark you had read it before then

yeah yeah I read it before the movie came out yeah I mean I was totally excited

that Billy Bob was gonna play the coach because he kind of looks like him and I just know that Billy Bob's such a great

actor and he kind of has that southern thing that that translates to Texas that

that twang so well when he needs it and um so yeah I was excited um let's talk

about how big football is in Texas then I will jump out of the movie quickly and remind y'all that the writer picked this

part of the country for a reason he he lived in Philadelphia and he asked around where is football really

important what part of the country and he found out it probably didn't get any bigger than Texas and so then he got to

looking at who had the best programs and who might have a successful season coming up and all roads led to Odessa is

what he said so I just reread the book and finished it today so um he picked Odessa

because of tradition is what I'm trying to say and and uh I guess achievement

and then the forecast that they might let me interrupt there's a lot of tradition in a lot of Texas how did how

did no I'm through why why was Odessa so special CU you look at this like in the

movies they one state what three times before the movie came out I think or before the year of the movie yeah I mean

yeah yeah looks like there would be more well there was another facet to it yeah

he didn't want just a successful football team he wanted a team that was in that position for sure that had

tradition and all but he also was interested in the town what was going on in the town at the same time so all the

and he anticipated a lot of it and then a lot of it surprised him but the economic the way that that Texas and oil

money went up and down over the decades and Odessa was one of those towns that

would be boom in one minute and in the next and so he wanted to capture that EB

and flow of how the community is prosperous and then it's not so much and prosperous and just sort of how because

of that uh how the the football team become so important to people right how

how it becomes actually more important than anything else in that community at that time yeah so David it was twofold

it wasn't just football it was also about having a a setting for that that

would be interesting as well I think and that is an interesting backstory in that movie The Town yeah yeah the book the

book goes into that for a lot of pages and of course and so back to the movie

um you don't get it to hear a ton about that which is unfortunate but if I could

describe the movie I would say it's just a very tight window about their season

and then they squeezed in what they could you know about everything else it it was a pretty good sense of the

characters but I didn't get all that history about Odessa as much out of it out of the movie I mean it was a rough

looking place kind of you know yeah and mean you could tell just I

don't know where they hung out they did the coin you know not to ruin the movie they met at the end in that truck stop

so an important coin flip is in the truck stop you know it's just you can tell it's just

a little you rough there there's not a tree in the movie

no you you can't get any closer to BFE than Odessa

Texas yeah I think you take a l there and that takes you to be but anyway yeah and I'll I'll I'll give a little more

history later when we talk about things that are different about the book and stuff but but that's the background for

people who you know it's it's like the actors say when they're doing interviews 25 years later hey if you haven't seen

it by now I'm spoiling it for you I'm sorry so for those who haven't seen it it's a Odessa Texas okay that's what it

is Mark do you have what what's the saying about Odessa and Midland I think

if you want to go raise hell go to Odessa if you want to raise a family right think I've heard that I think it

was something I read that something like that okay so having said all that the

movie basically covers this team's 1988 season and it and it

starts the movie starts out with h basically their star running back booby booby miles and booby is literally

jogging to practice I don't know if y'all remember that but it it looks hot as hell and he's out there jogging to the school

yeah oh a little something else about background that's that just so people understand the movie

itself um the movie is shot at the actual Stadium where they play in

Odessa okay and that Stadium holds 19,000 people

didn't it cost like $6 million to build almost $6 million in 1980 that's the one

Ross one of the ones Ross perau got fired up about in Texas about they're building stadiums and not libraries and

Laboratories and stuff at these schools and and actually Odessa shared that uh peran peran shared that stadium with

Odessa High School because they had a sister School in the city and so Odessa peran and Odessa High School shared rat

it's called Ratliff state Stadium it holds 19,000 people and um in the movie

it starts out with booby jogging to the stadium so for practice in the summer

and the date they show when it starts is August 6th 1988 and I would almost bet

that was the first Monday that they were allowed to to practice right they do

show a scene quickly uh did they have restrictions back then uh about what

restrictions oh practice stes oh yeah I don't know Texas I know

Texas had Spring football way before our rest oh that's first day they were allowed to practice okay yeah I bet I

bet it was the first I bet it was the first day of allowed two a days and contact or whatever they you know you y'all remember you can work out all

summer if you want but coaches being there and pads and all that is a certain date so right they show a sign with

their state titles on it early in the movie and it says 1984 was their last date title

so this is four years later so apparently for perian people that was a drought they weren't willing to suffer

through much longer right right yes y'all remember what

happens when they have PR the very first at the beginning of the movie they have some scenes at practice y'all remember

anything about those that was interesting where they're showing them down on the field practicing in August

or maybe what was happen yeah the dad come down there Yeah Tim McGraw's character no way I

wouldn't think a coach would allow that well and the real Coach said uh he wouldn't have I mean that was strictly

for the movie that never happened in real life but um Tim McGraw's character

is named um I believe Charlie Billingsley and he comes down out of the

stands at practice and pushes his son down and yells at him for fumbling a ball and practice while the head coach

just watches the head coach said he'd never let that happen for real so that was for

Hollywood yeah and they obviously had cameras at

Stadium uh in the movie I'm not sure if that was true

and didn't the quarterback uh Winchell

wasn't he lik signing autographs at one time in the movie uh the way it starts

is they're having their first practice and they they intercut the practices with like a

montage of all the different players that were talking to the media after practice so it's pra okay running a

drill and then the quarterbacks talking to the media running a drill the running backs and so uh it was it was actually

more of what was going on with them uh answering questions with the media but

when Winchell and several of the stars that they focus on in the there's like five players they really focus on

uh in the movie but I know you've seen it uh you you saw it longer ago than

David and I did we just seen the movie lately so uh that but you're right they they

imply through that practice with the media stuff that these guys are superstars that's if that if that's what

you were driving at you're correct that's that's exctly yeah what I'm talking about is yeah that they were

basically superstars in the in the town at self and in the area right I mean they're showing giving press conferences

to like 10 or 12 reporters standing around I mean that's not normal right no so not for high and so they

also show what I was trying to get at with David and he he he got

uh he jumped over to the Tim McGraw character there was another character that was a that was booby's Uncle that

was sitting in the stands and the point was you could see a lot of people in the bleachers watching practice I mean a lot

and so so a lot of parents were there watching and booby's uncle that he lived with

definitely had reasons to be there because he was trying to get him into college the Tim mcgr character's name is

Char uh Charlie Billingsley and he goes down and chews

out his son whose name is Don Billingsley he's a running back and he

fumbles you they're implying in the movie over the the course of two hours

that Tim McGraw must have been his character must have been a really good player at peran

also because he's wearing a state champing he flashes it several times to his son and tells him kind of I'm just

saying basically saying you'll never have one of these if you don't quit fumbling that kind of

crap right so he's he's abusive in that way and he's he's drunk most of the time

in the movie and his name is his character is Charlie Billingsley who played at peran before and now he had a

son Don playing on the team so yeah that's the guy that comes

out of the bleachers and gets on to his son and pushes him down and you pretty much get the idea that that he was drunk

when he did that I mean it made Tim Tim McGraw's character was not a nice guy I mean he's

a he's a he's bad to his son 99% of the movie honestly so

right but yeah he pushes him down no coach would ever allow that but anyway so speaking of his son uh they they then

jump to some scenes where they imply that his son the kid named Don

Billingsley is quite the parier they sh they cut to some scenes of

parties Billingsley is he's just getting trashed in a at a party so they show him

acting like Dad basically it was a pretty big party they were at too oh yeah yeah they were they were having an

end of the summer beginning of the school year party it looked like uh I don't know if you remember this Mark

David does there's a scene where they're at like a almost like a Sonic Drive-In except it's a local mom and pop place

after practice one night right right do y'all remember what happens there yeah yeah what happens

there uh that's where uh family hands him their baby and he takes a picture

with quarterback yeah yeah yeah the quarterback takes a picture with the

baby I think maybe that's where I was thinking he was outs signing all I kind of thought that's where you were going

but yeah so I mean you're 10 minutes into the movie and it's implied very

heavily that these guys are heroes because they can't get through their meal without somebody handing them a

baby on a Friday night and if you'll remember which you may not but the guy that hands him the

baby he's got a state champ ring on and he right he flat by the way he's

he's got his trucker hat on backwards you know with his young wife and his baby and he flashes that ring and tells

them this is what you're after boys kind of thing right so lots of pressure on

these young guys from Generations before them that were successful to keep the program

going yeah yeah and it's not said in the movie I don't think but what I know now

is that they started winning state titles in the 60s and so they were they were active in every decade winning

state titles and I'll talk about that later so there was a lot of pressure on these kids a lot I think the sign

outside their stadium in the movie said they won state in 65 72 and 84 I believe uh I missed one

year 65 72 1980 and 1984 they'd already won States they won they won they'd won

in every decade what's crazy if you're into Buffalo

Bills type trivia is that they were Runners up and 68 70 75 885 up until

that point they had been in eight State title games in 20 years that's pretty

good yeah that is pretty good so especially in Texas yeah yeah especially

in Texas so what okay so I'm curious I'm going to draw a line in my notes and I'm going to stop right there so what we

know about the kids so far is that uh is Winchell I mean uh Billingsley is

portrayed as a parier his dad is an abusive alcoholic uh somewhere in there there's

a little bit about uh oh say so Winchell is the Superstar quarterback because

he's taking pictures with the kid uh what do y'all what was y'all's

first impression of booby in the movie or from what you remember what about booby

arrogant very arrogant yeah booby was a loud kind of a

loud mouth character right yes all it seemed like he was all

about him and maybe so maybe he was that good maybe he knew that you know the road to

State title ran through him or he was going to lead him to it I don't know Mark do you remember the running back booby booby miles yeah yeah live with

his uncle LV or LC I can't remember yeah um my impression of him just like

David he he was arrogant but I mean there was a lot of pressure on him

too uh he had the talent and he had been told that from what I can tell from the

movie that he would lead them to the state championship so and he was being highly recruited as far as I

remember and pro probably had a lot of offers too at that point so yeah I mean

he I think there's a scene in the movie where it shows him just opening up letters after letters after letters yeah

and and there was a there was a real subtle thing that happens in that scene and I didn't notice it till I rewatched

the movie he's going through a bunch of letters in the wait room and and there's two subtle things that happen number one

is he's not lifting weights w w called out w w called him

out W called him out cuz he goes he goes he goes through his letters and then he leaves and Winchell says Hey booby you

didn't work out he said I don't have to it's god-given man number two number two

that was very subtle but he can't pronounce some of the words on his offer letters from some

of the colleges and so he has to ask a teammate how to pronounce I think it was distinguished or something like that

distinguished yes and so you know this is what you have to do in movie writing you you don't have a chapter to go into

booby's academic career you have to say it in a line or two or show it visually

you know what what's going on with booby behind the scenes and that tells you what you need to know he can't read his

offer letter uh you know or pronounce all or understand all the words in his offer

letter so there's an implication there that he's not the best student which sets up the drama behind his story by

the way so yeah booby we okay so he's a loud mouth he doesn't work out and the

kid in the movie is actually 30 years old that plays booby he doesn't look like it by the way that's a big thing of

mine with movies cast teenagers as teenagers and don't put 40 year olds I hate that this is one of the few movies

where the characters look like they're they were age appropriate I thought all these guys look look like Teena

teenagers to me even the running back yeah except for except for at the end

yeah yeah that's a whole other topic but and we'll get to that no you're

right booby's played by a 30-year-old and from what I've seen of Boo booby on film on YouTube booby was bigger and

more muscular and certainly fast and so y'all were talking about him being arrogant and everything that's because

the year before as a junior and this is not in the movie the expectations are in the movie but booby had 1300 yards

rushing the year before and had kind of had come out of nowhere to lead them and

he was about uh 200 plus pounds and was the fastest thing on the field apparently so that's a good combination

and I always say this all loads all roads lead through Arkansas guess who was recruiting booby as active as

anybody else was University of Arkansas he was right he was he was on he was he

had kind of narrowed his choices down to Oklahoma Arkansas Texas and Nebraska

from what the book says just that's funny because the movie

the movie always talk about USC and UCLA what he mostly talk about on his

recruiting letters right so um let me interrupt here real quick so

he from what from what I know I mean he he had 1300 yards he was not the only

back in the back field either this was not a spread offense that these guys ran nope so so uh in fact I think I read

where he was a fullback actually you're correct in the formation whatever the heck offense they ran it always had two

backs on the field field and they called their main rusher the fullback normally so he was listed as fullback and I don't

know what the heck they were running but it was some you know it was a quarterback under Center and it was

always a fullback and a tailback together on the field is what it appeared to be so which is totally

indicative of the 80s so you're right Mark he was their

fullback technically and so by the way so we're in the point of the movie where

we've established who these people are we know the dad's a drunk we know his son's uh is on that road we know booby

is a is kind of a showoff who's trying to get into college do you remember the scene where

all the kids are partying there's a scene where the coach and his wife are dressed up and and they go have a dinner

party and what happens at the dinner party this is all to establish the background of the story what what's happening at that dinner

party the coach is being told out a coach basically on giv you know we'll

say suggestions on what kind of defenses and stuff not not def the defense thing come in later but he was giv suggestions

on how to coach his team at that dinner party by not just by by couples not just the man the wife was doing they were

chiming in with their you know their opinions too which was you know kind of

I don't know kind of odd I guess that's what made it hilarious yeah that's what made it hilarious they're obviously in

the home of a well-to-do booster and there's about five couples sitting around the table and the wives are

telling coach gains what kind of Defense to run it's hysterical man yeah it kind

of It kind of reminds you of hooers yeah it does the scene in hoers where they

what kind of Defense are you going to run at the barber shop yeah by the way spoiler alert

that's going to be our basketball movie that we talk about this winter so good job

Mark okay so we know that the coach is getting input from the community

uh we know pretty much who these players are and there's a scene where the DJs From the local radio station this is

just a throwin thing that they're talking about how much The Stadium cost and um somebody calls in and suggests

that money could have gone to some other things and it was not well received I mean that money should have

been spent on football the way 99% of the people in that town believ okay so David alluded to this

real quick they're getting close to playing their first practice or their first game of the season and the coach

actually gets a a room full of boosters telling him specifically what kind of off or what kind of Defense to run and

specifically which players need to play where they come to his office on that

scene yes at the stadium and was that that main booster character came in

there with several others and yes telling them what defenses to

run yeah and there's totally specific about it they're like you need to put Ivory Christian at middle linebacker and

you need put this guy at defensive I mean it's and and Billy Bob Thornton character just sitting there going okay

okay okay yeah that was pretty funny to me because that's that's twice in the

first 10 minutes of the movie we've seen the the fans telling the coach what to do I would have loved to actually heard

the real conversations on that and what the coach had said and actually said and

what have you the thing is we know even from where we grew up that that happens of course it does oh yeah

yeah yeah and you know like what Mark talked about earlier we're not used to football being a religion around here

but it was important to our small town we just didn't we thought it was

really important but compared to way it is in Texas it's no it's not not that

important yeah I would or people don't take it that people don't take it that serious I think when Mark was talking

about that I think the difference is we focused on the entire sports program overall like just all of it how

important it was and then these things we're talking about were specific Sports and specific towns but but but Athletics

as a unifying thing is a huge deal in any small town of course it is and maybe

may maybe no less important but we we can't just say well it was our basketball team or it was our football

it was all of it really and they just had they they didn't give they didn't give a hoot about any other sports this

is we're talking football so okay so in the movie what happens in the

first game of the season with booby booby gets hurts his

knee because backup running back couldn't find his helmet I it was a

blowout right he couldn't find it because because booby hid it from

him so he couldn't that yeah yeah I wondered about that he put it on the B

yep I wondered about that too because yeah the the the kid's name we're talking about was Chris comr he was

booby's backup and they're blowing out the first opponent like 42 to7 and comr is

supposed to go in and he suddenly can't find his helmet and booby is laughing about it and then booby gets up and runs

to gains and says I'll go in or gain says booby you're gonna have to go back in or whatever and Mark I wondered if

booby hit his helmet I I wondered the same thing I think he did um seemed like I remember that but it

may not I may be confusing that but for some reason I I had that picture of him

in the movie hiding could be so he can't go in yeah and so because of that booby

goes in and the very first play he goes in he plants his leg and as he plants it he gets plowed from the side and they

show him land in a heap with a bad knee they win the game but on the way home the fans are just ripping coach gains

for playing boo booby and a blowout and of course that's one of those things where we as fans understand what we see

and hear but we don't know the whole story so nobody knew that comr was supposed to be in there and just couldn't find his you know he Therman

thomased his helmet right before he was supposed to go in okay so booby gets hurt at some point

in there is when they uh they they play their second game and they blow out that

opponent without booby oh no I'm sorry and they got blown out my my mistake the

second game in the in the movie they play abalene and abalene beat them 42-6

but because they didn't have booby my mistake that's they are one and one after two games non-conference and the

Callin fans on the call-in shows are ripping the coach for being so onedimensional in this offense for

relying on one player to run the offense and of course yeah they ripped

it pretty hard well you know according to the movie yeah and in the midst of all that there's a little bit of stuff

going on about Winchell the quarterback Winchell apparently had played the year before and had a lot of interceptions

and you know this is the 80s and I I got to looking in what I could in his numbers and to be balanced back then um

meant he you got over a thousand yards passing that was balance and um so

Winchell the year before I think he was around a th000 yards passing or something so he was he was the clear-cut

quarterback but you notice in the movie gains sure does talk to him a lot and checks on him

a lot mentally right Winchell because what's going on right yeah and yall remember what's going on at home with

Winchell his his mom's sick I don't really know what the deal was but she

she was well that the girl at the party asked him if his mom was crazy so maybe

his mom had some mental issues or something CU yes she was sick and you know that's weighing heavily on his mind

and you learn in the when he makes a phone call a little bit later on he has a sibling and he's wanting them to come

home to to sit with you know be with her mom cuz he says you know she's your mom too I don't know who the sibling I don't

know if it's a brother or sister or what the story is there that may have been in the book but yeah his mom's pretty bad

off apparently but open scen she's going over to play at The Breakfast Table she

had her moments yeah the reason I bring that up is cuz it's I think it's a planted kind of thought that game number

two when they get blown out without booby the implication is that Winchell

they they didn't have faith enough in Winchell to throw the ball and kind of throw their way out of their uh injured

running back situation that was what I took out of it with all the fans ripping them right for being onedimensional

I think that's right and and I kind of got it out of the movie too that that

Winchell he had a little confidence problem himself yeah know he wasn't the

biggest guy no he wasn't the most athletic guy um so he had a lot you know he had

the town riding on his shoulders he had uh you know he basically was the man of

the house at home lot of pressure U lots of pressure for probably a 16 17 18 year

old guy and and five times he plays in front of 19,000 people and probably the

other five it's seven to 10,000 at least yeah I mean you know that's the

size of some College Station uh stadiums I don't know what like UCA would hold

but it's every yeah that's what I thought I thought every every bit of that I thought other than ASU and fatal

those that their High School stadium is probably bigger than anyone in Arkansas okay and I and abalene in the

movie when they get blown out by abalene with no booby that's where they're driving home and some of the players are

in cars with people and Billingsley is in there with Tim McGraw his dad and what happens

then that's where uh his dad just loses it doesn't he kick the window out of the

back and kick both of them out yeah U one on the side yeah the the son

is driving the car right yes that's what I remember and he's laying in the back seat drunk yeah because the because the

dad's drunk yeah and he throws his ring out what's interesting about that is how

many kids uh I don't know how far abalene is but they make it clear in the book at least that a lot of these road

trips are three plus hours uh what it has to be what kid you're in the middle

of no what kid wants to then drive his drunk Dad home after the game I'm sure he'd much rather be passed out on the

bus sleeping but he's got to drive his drunk Dad home that was never mention to me that was a big implication of the

responsibility that this kid kind of has yeah I I didn't I didn't pick up on that

in fact he wasn't on a on the bus with the kids other kids he was driving his dad back and his and his drunk Dad

throws his his own State champing out the window going down the

highway and so they have this yeah this is after B berting his kid on telling

him you know you I was supposed to raise a man and I didn't and all this and he

you know he's given this kid a hard time yeah I mean over a uh kudos to to Tim McGraw for being

great at being a mean drunk because he got he was just so cruel to the kid after after he'd fumble or they'd lose

he was just so cruel to him man I mean it was awful so I don't I don't know I'm

I'm just kind of picking through the plot here because I don't know any other way to talk about it so what happens

with booby's in booby's injury basically in the movie y'all want to talk about that for a minute or how did how did

that kind of proceed with the with the knee

well he well he hit it hit it from the coach he didn't actually yeah yeah y'all are right go

ahead well he claimed after two or three weeks that he's fine or after a couple weeks that it's fine he's

fine and he's going to his personal Doctor Who is not a specialist

apparently and I I can just only picture the personal doctor we grew up with you

know down in ber you know I mean just a little out of clinics what I'm guessing I don't know really but uh personal

doctor says his knees fine and I think doesn't coach gain want him to go get it

scoped or not scoped but MRI on it and he he doesn't want to do it and his uncles all four not doing it too

right and then it gets reinjured almost the first play he played wasn't it on

after couple after sitting out they lost two weeks in a row didn't yeah jumping forward yeah well no let's

jump forward a little bit uh in the plot so uh or catch up on the plot so the

next game um Chris comr finally figures out how to play football he scores an 85

yard touchdown in that game and they roll they they roll and they get on a run so then there's a montage of uh comr

going crazy against people of course the the entire time boobies hurt and so when

the Montage ends it's it says they're five- one for the season so then booby

goes to the specialist in Midland and then what y'all take it from there what happens when he finally goes to an

actual bone uh bone specialist Mark I'll let you do if you want to remember it from what I remember um I mean he

finds out that it it is a complete tear at that point

and um I I assume surgery's needed uh now this is the 880s

probably not a easy an easier surgery that it is

today yeah you know they that I don't think they they did it arthroscopically back then I David

that's why I wanted Mark to talk about the ACL injury from 1988 if any anybody knows about knee injuries from the 80s

it would be Mark yeah he would know um yeah so uh you know

it yeah complete tear but he wants to try anywhere any anyway because he knows

he's not going to come back from that Comer's out there taking his Spotlight so he's going to try booby

feel booby feels it slipping away that that's that's that's that's what's going on for sure and then the in the movie

they show he they show booby going off on the doctor because the doctor's at Midland Midland Le rival of peran and

the Bo going off on the doctor saying you're from Midland you just don't want me to play and who's paying you and all

he he just goes off mad I forgot that I forgot about that bab yeah what yeah I

wouldn't know that if I recently watch yeah what I didn't mention and it was kind of subtle but the next opponent is

Midland Lee and so booby is trying to get ready to play Midland Lee he goes to

a Midland specialist who tells him he can't play and he goes off on him and says you just don't want me playing

against Midland Lee this week right so that and which is their huge rival line

yeah and but but keep in mind on the way to Midland Hospital his uncle booby's

uncle's telling him that this hospital is the best hospital in Texas but but that's not what booby focuses on that's

not what he no bo booby does not focus and his uncle changes his tune too he he goes along with booby during the

argument really he didn't really say you know I would think the uncle would say no booy this doctor's looking out for

you you know stuff like that but in the movie he didn't I don't know what happened in real life well yeah we'll

we'll talk about some of that it's basically the same um so in the movie

they need to beat Midland Lee to make the playoffs that I don't know if that Scrolls by on the screen or if that's a

piece of dialogue but basically uh peran needs to beat Midland Lee to be guaranteed a playoff spot and um they

somehow in all of that you hear that if they don't it'll come down to possibly a coin toss and we'll get to that in a

minute minute right so booby and his uncle leave Midland they go back to gains and

they tell coach gains that that booby's ready to suit up nothing's been done to his knee whatsoever nothing they he's

been told he needs surgery he went crazy so he suits up with a brace on his

uncle agrees to let that happen gains you can tell by looking at Billy Bob Thornton gains doesn't believe a word of

it and I no you're right it the conversation you can tell he doesn't start him and

and I think that he knows he's fine with comr regardless and Booby at worst is a

decent insurance policy but even if he never plays again they've got who they need and and I think some part of Billy

Bob's character is like not wanting to put him out there basically for his own

sake so they're playing Midland Lee who's a great opponent and they get

behind at the half and when they come back out what happens

with comr and booby y'all remember oh he by the way he's been on

the bench yelling he needs to play this entire time he's wanting in there he's bugging everybody about yeah that that's

right oh yeah he's he's making Rhymes you want to win put booby in so comr is not getting it done the team's not

getting it done so after the half when they're behind they come back out and what do they do they put play he crumples

they put him first play he goes down um he gets up he runs the ball one

more time and he's done for good he crumples he gets up tries it again and he's down and he's out after

that right he can't cut on that knee he can't cut at all he can't cut at all on

that leg right no and yeah I know how that feels

yeah all right so I'm gonna kill the recording right about here here okay

folks we're going to stop right there for this uh first episode of Friday Night Lights and we'll pick back up in a

couple of weeks with the conclusion to our Friday Night Lights Gen X classic

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