I finished Friday Night Lights, a book I have been meaning to read for more than two decades, as part of my goal to read 40 books from my own bookcase. Thanks to the recent 25 year anniversary, my experience was not as outdated as I initially feared.

I expected to read about high school football as the center of the community and how this was/is a great thing. However, what I read was both exciting and horrifying.

In Odessa, Texas, at 16-18 years old, these boys were treated as heroes, flying to games on chartered jets, and playing in venues like the Sun Bowl. What most of them were not doing was regular schoolwork or concerning themselves with life after football or high school. This was not their fault because this town condoned the “football above all” mentality  from early childhood.

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