Re: The religion of football

Posted by Gee LP (A) on February 16, 2005 at 22:55:09

In Reply to: Friday Night Lights posted by jamesgarvin on February 16, 2005 at 08:23:15:

I am from Northwest Louisiana and have relatives in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Dallas is a few hours away. It is weird driving past small towns and you see the brand-new large football stadium...big enough to hold the entire town's population.

At the university that I attend, I was walking past a kid in a wheelchair talking to someone. I overheard him say, "They were great to me after the injury. I get tutoring, everything." Then he paused and added, "I never realized before how much schooling I DIDN'T get. When I could play I could coast through and it was okay. Now I'm really getting an education and all it costs me is this chair. I'll never get out of it."

In one of my classes, I am supposed to tutor kids individually and in small groups. Monday I reviewed basic economics with a student. His teacher told me that the kid was not a bad student, he was just behind. He had been a good athlete in elementary and middle school and everyone had just passed him through. But in high school the kid turned out to not be such a good athlete. Suddenly, no one was "just passing him through" anymore. The student was taking his situation with more grace than you would expect, but he was way, way behind his peers in everything and was aware of it and his complicity in it.

The book is better than the movie, but the movie isn't bad. It is strange, though, to read the previous posts in this thread. It's one thing to live in this part of the country where football is so important, another to read others talk about our obsessions here. It's like what one sports writer here wrote: "LSU could win a dozen national titles in baseball and it wouldn't mean anything compared to the championship Saban won in football."

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Friday Night Lights - jamesgarvin 08:23:15 02/16/05 (13)

In reading all of the posts on this topic, . . . - townsend 16:17:04 02/17/05 (1)

Re: In reading all of the posts on this topic, . . . - jamesgarvin 05:34:27 02/18/05 (0)

Re: The religion of football - Gee LP 22:55:09 02/16/05 (3)

Your comments remind me of "Coach Carter"... - mkuller 19:47:16 02/18/05 (0)

Re: The religion of football - PdL 05:22:12 02/17/05 (1)

Re: Huge shock - Gee LP 14:24:38 02/17/05 (0)

The book is much better and there are significant differences between the real story and the movie. - sjb 11:28:16 02/16/05 (5)

Well, one shouldn't compare apples and oranges. How - tinear 17:03:12 02/16/05 (2)

Re: Well, one shouldn't compare apples and oranges. How - sjb 07:38:54 02/17/05 (0)

Re: Well, one shouldn't compare apples and oranges. How - jamesgarvin 06:26:19 02/17/05 (0)

Re: The book is much better and there are significant differences between the real story and the movie. - jamesgarvin 14:58:19 02/16/05 (1)

Re: The book is much better and there are significant differences between the real story and the movie. - sjb 07:37:12 02/17/05 (0)

Re: Friday Night Lights - rico 10:41:45 02/16/05 (0)

Follow Ups

Re: The religion of football - Gee LP 22:55:09 02/16/05 (3)

Your comments remind me of "Coach Carter"... - mkuller 19:47:16 02/18/05 (0)

Re: The religion of football - PdL 05:22:12 02/17/05 (1)

Re: Huge shock - Gee LP 14:24:38 02/17/05 (0)

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