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The bestselling story of life in the football-driven town of Odessa, Texas, explores how the town's passion for the team inspires--and sometimes shatters--the young men who wear the Panther uniform. Soon to be a major motion picture from Universal Pictures, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Tim McGraw, Derek Luke, and Jay Hernandez.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface(p. xi)
• Prologue(p. 1)
• Pre-Season
• 1. Odessa(p. 23)
• 2. The Watermelon Feed(p. 38)
• 3. Boobie(p. 53)
• The Season
• 4. Dreaming of Heroes(p. 73)
• 5. Black and White(p. 89)
• 6. The Ambivalence of Ivory(p. 111)
• 7. School Days(p. 128)
• 8. East Versus West(p. 153)
• 9. Friday Night Politics(p. 173)
• 10. Boobie Who?(p. 194)
• Push for the Playoffs
• 11. Sisters(p. 211)
• 12. Civil War(p. 233)
• 13. Heads or Tails(p. 251)
• Post-Season
• 14. Friday Night Addiction(p. 267)
• 15. The Algebraic Equation(p. 291)
• 16. Field of Dreams(p. 313)
• Epilogue(p. 339)
• Afterword(p. 357)
• Acknowledgments(p. 364)
• List of Illustrations(p. 365)

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Library Journal Review

In 1988, Bissinger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Philadelphia Inquirer editor, left his job to spend a year with a high school sports team. The sport he picked was football, the location, the depressed West Texas oil town of Odessa, called by Larry McMurtry ``the worst town on earth.'' Here 20,000 fans turn out regularly to watch their Permian Panthers win. Here there is no high-blown talk of playing the game well; just the raw need to win at all costs. In this atmosphere, players vomit from nervousness before each game and often play with injuries. On the few occasions when the team suffers a loss, the coach's front lawn sprouts ``For Sale'' signs. Bissinger makes you feel the tensions of the kids, who are not just playing a game, but literally fighting for the honor of their town. He also accomplishes the more difficult feat of making the team's rabid fans sympathetic. His language sometimes verges on the overblown, but it does echo the mythical proportions of the game and a season that will render the rest of the players' lives a dull denouement. Fascinating even for those, or maybe especially for those, with no interest in football.-- Nora Rawlinson, ``Library Journal'' (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bissinger spent 1988 with his wife and children in Odessa, Tex., principally following the high-school football team, but also observing life in this dusty, unsophisticated town. This is his superb, if disquieting, portrait of heartland America as he found it. For Odessa residents, the Permian Panthers, consistently contenders--and sometimes victors--in the state championship tournament for 30 years have become a virtual religion, although most of the townspeople are also bona fide churchgoers. After graduation, the teenagers on the team, most of whom are not well enough endowed to go on to college or pro ball, take their place among the other good ole boys at the Boosters Club, where they can recall their glory days together. 75,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Pulitzer Prize winner Bissinger left his job with the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1988 and moved to Odessa, Texas. There he began to shadow the Permian Panthers football team. To characterize his book as a study of high school football in football-crazy Texas is misleading and limiting. Is All the President's Men about robbery? Bissinger's memorable account is about people: players, coaches, teachers, parents, cheerleaders, and fans. For example, star player Brian Chavez developed an interest in senior English that delighted his teacher and his parents, and added depth to an already admirable young man. Bissinger also explores the generally sorry state of education, the boom-bust economy of Texas, and the curious politics of blue-collar conservatism. High school football is probably too important in Odessa, at least to those of us looking in from the outside. From the insider's view Bissinger so carefully provides, Friday night and football makes perfect sense. No index. ~--Wes Lukowsky

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

H. G. "Buzz" Bissinger graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. He has worked for many newspapers, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, and he shared a Pulitzer Prize for reporting in 1987 for a series on the Philadelphia Court System. He has written for magazines including Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Magazine, and Vanity Fair, for which he has been a contributing editor since 1996. Bissinger also co-produced and wrote for the ABC television drama NYPD Blue and published the nonfiction books Friday Night Lights, A Prayer for the City and Three Nights in August.

(Bowker Author Biography)