Friday Night Lights

Coach Gary Gaines: Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It's not about winning. It's about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didnt let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is you did everything you could. There wasnt one more thing you could've done. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, with joy in your heart? If you can do that gentleman - you're perfect!

 

I love this movie. It's life on a high school football team. The only time I've seen athletes cry is on the football field. I'll never forget the feeling I had going into the MIddleboro game Junior year. Justin and I were made captains as juniors and that night was homecoming. The moon was orange and the air had that crisp New England feel to it. It smelt like burnt leaves and hot dogs. We came onto that field pumped up. All that testosterone and energy just came bursting out. The crowd is chanting your name and everything just makes sense. Beat Middleboro.

 

At this point in the season we hadn't lost a game yet and I think Middleboro had lost one. They weren't suppose to be that good, but they had a good quarterback.

 

We were the Blue Devils. We were a family. I worked out, played, partied, practiced and went to school with these 30 guys seven days a week for four months - four days of practice, game day, go out saturday and watch films sunday. We are pushed to the limit at practice, hit hard during camp, and they made sure we threw up during double session in the 100 degree heat and humidity of August. They made us work too hard to lose.

 

Our offense drove down the field and scored. Our team was small, I had to start three ways - playing special teams, defense and offense. I remember one distinct play where I rushed in, smelled out the screen and as the runner caught the ball along the sideline, I grabbed his jersey for and took him down for a five yard loss. I remember running down on kickoff, knocking out a blocker and hitting the ball carrier with Justin, so hard the ball carrier yelped. I remember the glare of the lights off our varsity blue jerseys and white helmets when we huddled together and held hands. The football team across the line of scrimmage from us were not people. They were evil. They were monsters who wanted to take our pride away from us. We made sure Middleboro knew where they were that night.  We were unstoppable that night.