“Good morning West Texas. Slammin’ Sammy Meade coming at you with Panther Football Radio -- 470 AM on your dial," says an announcer at the start of the popular TV series Friday Night Lights. "It’s Monday morning, and we all know what that means: only four days until Friday night – the night that our Dillon Panthers bring the hammer down on the Westerby Mustangs.”
Friday Night Lights was first a best-selling book, then a film and TV series about a high school football team in Odessa, Texas. It caught the eye of UVA media studies professor Anna Katherine Clay who says the drama is not really on the field.
“I worked at ESPN for many years, and I always challenged my students in my sports journalism class to understand – it’s not just sports. It’s not who won and who lost. It’s everything else,” she explains.
Coming of age, expectations, education and power, politics, money, class and race in America.
“Let’s switch gears for a minute.," says a TV reporter in Friday Night Lights. "There’s been talk of racism around this squad. Have you experienced anything like that?"
"I don’t let that phase me. I just keep my blinders on and keep moving. I’ve got things to do," says a player.
"That’s not racism, man. I just don’t like him," says another. "He could be from Saudi Arabia or Sweden or Czech. That dude could be Santa Claus, and I still wouldn’t like him.”
So Professor Clay decided to offer a class built around Friday Night Lights. Students would have to see the film and the TV series beforehand and read the book. Clay had space for thirty, but more than twice that number applied. Among them, Delores Cyrus, Miyanna Bell and Chesney Whitmore, who told RadioIQ:
“I watched the show as an adolescent. I was like 12 or 13, and I absolutely loved the show."
“A lot of students want to become story-tellers or get into script writing or filmmaking – to become better writers honestly."
“I feel like small town America, middle America isn’t really represented in TV. It’s like shows set in Los Angeles or New York, but I really liked this show and how it represented that kind of life.”
“The whole point of coming to college is learning about the world you live in, and I think this show does a really good job of that.”
“You know television is such a big part of people’s lives, and I think it’s very important to incorporate modern topics and ways that we live our daily lives into our college curriculum, because college shouldn’t just be about things kids might see as boring and stuffy but related to the real world.”
And while watching a TV show might seem like an easy A, Clay demands much more.
“I have supplemental reading tied to the show, but it’s rarely a reading about the show. It’s about the themes that we’re discussing. When we talked about football as religion, they read this great piece from the Atlantic that talked about the communal aspect of particularly football. It’s played on Sunday. We might worship our professional football -- this fandom and almost religious fervor for a team.”
Classroom discussions are exciting, Clay says, with students learning about themselves, drawing from their own experiences in analyzing themes from the show.
“So many of the students said to me, ‘Gosh, I never thought about why + I connect with my grandfather through Sunday football, but now I understand this communal aspect and this idea of football as religion.
And she hopes they find important life lessons in Friday Night Lights – understanding, for example, that everyone is flawed, and winning isn’t everything.
“It’s great for the students to be able to analyze that – especially at this point in their lives.”
But, as coach Eric Taylor likes to tell his team – clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.
“Every man at some point in his life is going to lose a battle, but what makes him a man is that in the midst of that battle he does not lose himself! So let’s hear it one more time – together. Clear eyes, full hearts – Can’t Lose! Let’s go!"
