Friday Night Lights (25th Anniversary Edition): A Town, a Team, and a Dream

by H. G. Bissinger

Kindle Edition

Published August 11, 2015

Reviews

[Bella Notarangelo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was painful to get through. I don’t understand how football works tbh so it might be a me issue

[Clifton Rankin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1990, H. G. Bissinger released his classic, “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream,” and last week I ordered a copy and began to read. I have spent the last week reliving all the emotions of my high school football days, as I read about Odessa Permian’s 1988 trip to the state semi-finals. Bissinger does an excellent job of capturing what football was like back during the 20th century. The book, however, is about more than football. It portrays the life of a West Texas oil town during the “bust days,” along with the racial challenges, academic challenges, and social changes that went along with it. This was the 25th anniversary addition so it also contains a look at what some of the personalities are doing today (some really sad stories and some good ones, also).” (434 pages)

[Wayne Linhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can look at this book many different ways. I recommend that you do. It deserves that, and to be passed around and down.

It’s both a preservation of a simpler time and a warning we refused to heed. An exploitation that needed to be documented and an affirmation of the power of hope, dreams and fandom and the cruelty of misplaced stewardship.

FNL is impossible not to be moved. You could argue it’s a text deserving of all 8th grade students, but I’d say it’s required reading of anyone associated with youth sports and education.

Wow.