In the beginning of the movie, it seems like everything is going perfect for star running back Boobie Miles. He is looked at to be one of the greatest running backs in the country with offers being sent to him by all the big time division 1 colleges around the country. It seems like his entire life is about football and always will be. In the first game of the season, Boobie seems to be dominating the game rushing for five touchdowns and putting the Panthers in a serious lead. In a quick second of playing time though, Boobie gets hit right in the knee and that's all it takes: a torn ACL. His chances of ever making it to a big time division 1 football college to then the pros is past him. It is a conflict he has to go through throughout the entire season watching his team make it all the way to the state championship game and losing. He knows he could have made a drastic difference in the season and having to live through that must have been one hell of situation.
Mike Winchell is the teams starting quarterback. His love for the game of football is tremendous, but the love for his mother is even bigger. Growing up, Winchell was the man of the house with just him and his mom at home. He takes care of her and is always there for her so by senior year, he is lost and doesn't know what to do for the next year about college. He wants to continue playing football because he loves the sport, but he doesn't want to leave his mother behind for her to take care of herself. Schools that are 10-12 hour drives away are interested in him but he is hesitant on whether to accept the recruit or not. He is the type of kid who is very serious and almost never smiles, and on top of that he has to take control of the team being one of the captains and the starting quarterback: the player who controls the game.
The party animal of the team is Don Billingsley. He is the popular one who likes to drink, go to parties, and not worry about anything besides having fun and playing football. His father is a former football start at Permian and is now a town drunk. You notice in the movie that the relationship between him and his father is not the best relationship at all. Don is more of a man and more mature acting than his father is. This affects Billingsley's play and attitude in the game of football. His aggression comes from his home and his never quit attitude comes from his father who keeps beating down on him to try his best. The father is embarrassed watching practice or games because Don tends to fumble the ball a lot. This puts the father in a position where all he wants to do is have his son hold the ball. He literally beats him because of it. Billingsley goes through this everyday of his life and is probably the reason why he is such a partier: because he doesn't want to go home to his drunk dad. You notice these problems he goes through throughout the entire movie that by the end when you see them two hug after a tough lose against the Dallas Carter in the state championship, you can't do much besides tear up just a little bit.
I can relate to this movie in many ways. Being a former high school football player, I know what it feels like to go through the thrill of a game and season. I went through all the ups and downs a season and team can have and I have experienced a whole lot. My junior year in high school, our team was projected to do very good. Our goal from the beginning of the season was to win state and we did everything we possibly could have done to do it. We had a star running back named Valentino Perrina, who is a very good friend of mine. He was looked at the be one of the best running backs ever to play out of Massachusetts with 25 touchdowns in only the first 6 games out of the season. We were absolutely blowing teams out every single game having almost no competition in the beginning of the season. It got to point where if the other team even scored, it would be a negative even if we up by over 40 points. The seventh game of the season was against the town of Belmont. Valentino was playing a hell of game, as usual, and we were beating them by over 20 points in just the first quarter. Valentino takes the ball for a run, takes a juke and gets tackled. Seconds later, he is on the ground screaming and the entire stadium went silent. We figured he was such a strong kid that he would get up and shake it off, but no. We had to send two of our players to pick him up and carry him off the field. He couldn't walk. A few days later we find out it's a torn ACL and that he was not going to be able to play for the rest of the season. All of his division 1 college looks all disappeared. Our team was hurt and the entire community did not know what we would do without Perrina. Throughout the season, we started building up as a team. We had a tough time playing teams after the lose of our running back, but by the end of the season we were blowing teams out again. We won the league, made it to playoffs and beat Dracut 20-6 to exceed into the Massachusetts Division 2 State Championship held at Gillette Stadium. With our ups and downs of the season, we learned to work together as one and we ended up winning the state championship 26-0 against Natick: a team that was ranked overall 4th in the entire state. It was an absolute underdog story and just thinking about it now gives me the chills. I have lived through a life very much similar to the characters in "Friday Night Lights" and it all has to do with the lifestyle of a high school football player.
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