In a fascinating twist of fate, the author of Friday Night Lights will return to Midland-Odessa, Texas at a time when the football-obsessed state is dealing with the latest, and most lurid, example of how young lives can almost by ruined by the passion to win games and championships at any cost.
Indeed, the ugly scenario that played out last Friday in the game between John Jay High School and Marble Falls could have come straight out of author H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger’s 1988 classic about the Permian High Panthers, one of the most storied programs in Texas high school history.
The book spawned a hit movie starring Billy Bob Thornton and an equally popular TV series that, said Bissinger on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, dwarfed the book. “I’ll probably go on this book tour,” said Bissinger, laughing, “and people will say, ‘Book, what book?’”
The Permian story hit a nerve in communities, big and small, across the nation. We are already were familiar with the characters: The coach and uncle who let a star play despite an injury, ruining his career…the tyrannical father who humiliates his son because he has trouble holding onto the ball…the fan base who cares only about winning.
Now Bissinger and his publisher are coming out with a 25th anniversary edition of the book that will include an update about how all the characters fared after the ’88 season. An excerpt of the update appeared recently in Sports Illustrated magazine. All agree that the book, followed by the movie and TV series, changed their lives in significant ways.
The incident in the John Jay-Marble Falls last week leads to the inescapable conclusion that not much has changed in Texas during the last 25 years. The story is still unfolding, but here is the Cliffs Notes version:
With time running out, Marble Falls had a 15-9 lead and was running out the clock. When the ball was snapped on the play in question, a John Jay defensive back took dead aim on back judge Robert Watts and blind-sided him from the rear, knocking him to the ground. Then, making a bad situation even worse, another defensive back lunged at the figure on the ground and tried to spear him with his helmet.
It was a shocking display of cowardice and violence. Almost immediately, a tape of the incident went viral on social media, leading school and law-enforcement authorities to launch multiple investigations. Both players were kicked off the team and out of school.
As the investigations unfolded, it was reported that the players had claimed that the official had directed insulting remarks at them, including racial epithets. But, through his attorney, Watts characterized those remarks as “slanderous” and categorically denied the charges.
Then Mack Breed, a 29-year-old assistant coach at John Jay, was put on leave for allegedly inciting the players to act. Before the incident, two John Jay players had been kicked out of the game for unspecified violations. Breed allegedly told the players that somebody must make the officials pay for costing John Jay the game.
That such a thing could happen in Texas would surprise Buzz Bissinger least of all. At the time his book was originally published, Bissinger did not come to Midland-Odessa for a signing because of threats against his health and well-being. To his credit, Bissinger took the threats seriously because he knew how deep the football passions ran.
Almost everybody involved with the Permian program was convinced the book made the entire community look bad. Down deep, however, they had to know that Bissinger had just held up a mirror so they could see themselves for what they were. They didn’t like it, of course. Who would?
Unfortunately, bad behavior in high school sports is hardly limited to Texas. What happened in the John Jay-Marble Falls game could have happened in Kentucky or Ohio or any other place where a community – or even an entire state – allows itself to be defined by the success of a sports team.
As the Kentucky-based Blanton Collier Sportsmanship Group and similar organizations argue, every state needs to have a certification program for coaches. There’s no university or college that teaches individuals how to master all the aspects of being a coach. Usually, it’s simply a matter of hiring somebody who knows the game and then hoping he, or she, gets the other stuff right.
It is a flawed system that needs to be fixed.
Bissinger says he’s not sure how he will be greeted next week in Midland-Odessa, but he joked that “I’m taking my son along to protect me.” He can bet that he’ll be asked about the John Jay-Marble Hills mess. Has Texas not changed in 25 years? Has the desire to win at any cost gotten worse? What can be done to assure that coaches are every bit as well-trained as classroom teachers?
These are questions that shouldn’t only be asked in Texas. The characters in Friday Night Lights still exist around every high school program where winning is an obsession. Just ask the folks at John Jay High, where football never again will be the same.
Billy Reed is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame and the Transylvania University Hall of Fame. He has been named Kentucky Sports Writer of the Year eight times and has won the Eclipse Award twice. Reed has written about a multitude of sports events for over four decades, but he is perhaps one of media’s most knowledgeable writers on the Kentucky Derby.