'Friday Night Lights,' 25 Years After
Philadelphia-based journalist H.G. Bissinger took his family to west Texas in 1988 to write about the exploits of a high school football team and a town obsessed over it.
He knew his story was a compelling one, but the saga of "Friday Night Lights" -- the book, the movie, the television series and more -- has taken even him by surprise. It tops, or comes close to the top, of various "best" sports book lists, although some folks in Odessa were so upset by Bissinger's portrayal that he received death threats.
On Tuesday, Da Capo Press will issue a 25th anniversary edition of "Friday Night Lights," and Bissinger -- known as "Buzz" -- will return to Odessa and other parts of Texas in September, as another football season kicks off, to promote it. As he told the New York Post:
"I think it resonated with people everywhere because they all went to high school and they said it reminded them of their own high school. I still get three or four inquiries or emails a week about it."
Bissinger's success has spawned a number of similar chronicles by writers using the prism of high school sports to cast a broader look at left-behind communities. The smaller and more remote, the better.
Drew Jubera, a former colleague of mine at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, etched out a vivid portrait of football-mad Valdosta, Ga., in his 2012 book, "Must Win," exploring issues of race, economic decline, drugs and a seemingly impermeable power structure.
In an age in which urban and suburban existence is extolled, these accounts depict a way of life that seems out of bygone times but remains essentially unchanged.
Three years ago, Bissinger updated his story with an e-book, "After Friday Night Lights," catching up with the star player of the Permian Panthers, Boobie Miles. Once a major college prospect, Miles got hurt, his NFL dreams were shattered and he has led a chaotic life, haunted by job, money, family and legal issues (Grantland excerpt here).
Bissinger occasionally loaned him money, fretted over having done so, and unhappily concluded:
"He became the country's ultimate cautionary tale of what happens when a young athlete puts all his hopes in the false god of football."
Boobie Miles is one of six former Permian players profiled in the current issue of Sports Illustrated to coincide with the 25th anniversary edition. Bissinger met with him in a Beaumont prison, where Miles is serving a 10-year sentence for a probation violation.
NPR's "Fresh Air" program interviewed Bissinger for the anniversary, and in a strange twist, delved into the author's recent admission that he's gone into rehab for his obession for buying leather clothing. He says it was really a sexual addiction that cost him more than $500,000.
There's a bit of a segue there into gender identity-related observations stemming from his recent profile of Caitlyn Jenner for Vanity Fair magazine and that venture far, far from the dusty gridirons of Odessa, Texas.
Really not ready for some football, but . . .
It's August, which ought to be the end of summer. But where I live school is back in session just as the temperatures reach the hottest they've been all year, and as football teams gather for pre-season practice.
On Saturday, six former players -- Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Charles Haley, the late Junior Seau, Will Shields and Mick Tingelhoff -- were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, along with former general managers Bill Polian and Ron Wolf.
Another Hall of Famer is the latest subject of the NFL Network's excellent "A Football Life" series. Alan Page earned fame as a member of the Minnesota Vikings "Purple People Eater" defensive line. After football, he embarked on a legal career, and recently announced he was retiring as a justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Reviewing Rozelle
At the Sport in American History blog, Adrian College professor Andrew Linden digs into last fall's release of "Rozelle: A Biography," by noted sportswriter Jerry Izenberg, and published by the University of Nebraska Press.
Passings
Louise Suggs, 91, a co-founder of the Ladies Professional Golf Association and a member of its Hall of Fame. The daughter of an Atlanta Crackers pitcher, she won 61 tournaments and was one of the venerable, if occasionally overshadowed, figures among women's golfing pioneers of the mid-20th century. Her nemesis was the audacious Babe Didrikson Zaharias, and their rivalry got some attention in Don Van Natta's 2014 "Wonder Girl." Last year, Suggs published a memoir, "And That's That!," written with Elaine Scott. The foreward is by former First Lady Barbara Bush. She and former President George H.W. Bush got to know Suggs on their many visits to Georgia's Sea Island, Suggs' longtime home.
Mel Farr, 70, former Detroit Lions running back. After football he became the owner of several lucrative, successful car dealerships, but eventually defaulted on $50 million in debt.