69 pages • 2 hours read
Buzz BissingerFriday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1990A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
PREFACE-CHAPTER 1
Reading Check
1. What industry changed the fortune of Odessa in the 1920s?
2. Who quits the team in despair after losing to the Rebels?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Bissinger choose to live in Odessa while writing Friday Night Lights?
2. How does the loss to the Rebels impact Coach Gaines?
3. Which colleges are interested in Mike Winchell, and what is his attitude about their interest?
Paired Resource
“College Football Coaches Dominate as Highest-Paid State Employees In 31 States”
- This article from The Sports Daily explains how year after year, the highest-paid public employees in the US are college football or basketball coaches, most of whom are male.
- This source connects to the themes Devotion to Sports, Football: Opportunity or Exploitation?, and Paternal Relationships.
- What does this information tell you about the priorities of the US government and society? How does this spending impact the rest of a state’s budget?
CHAPTERS 2-3
Reading Check
1. What did Ross Perot criticize about Odessa High School, angering the townspeople?
2. Who adopted Boobie from the Texas foster system?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What makes Boobie an important part of the team?
2. How does the team quickly raise $20,000?
3. What mishap knocks Boobie out of the scrimmage against the Palo Duro Dons, and what does the team doctor tell him about how it will affect him?
CHAPTERS 4-6
Reading Check
1. Which of Mike’s family members died when Mike was 13?
2. Between Odessa High and Permian High, which school has the stronger reputation for exploiting Black athletes?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Don Billingsley perform in the “New Year’s Day” game, and what are the consequences of his performance?
2. In the immediate aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, how did the schools in Odessa change?
3. How does Ivory’s dedication to football compare with his teammates’, and what factors affect this dedication?
Paired Resource
“How Title IX Transformed Women’s Sport”
- This article from History.com explains how the 1972 gender equity law known as Title IX addressed inequality for female athletes in US high schools and how its implementation has changed the lives of female athletes.
- This connects to the theme Devotion to Sports.
- How would life for girls at the schools in Friday Night Lights have been different if Title IX was enforced at their school? Has Title IX had any impact on your educational experience?
CHAPTERS 7-9
Reading Check
1. Which national political figure pays a visit to Midland-Odessa, prompting the author to summarize the political views of the local people?
2. Which team is the arch-rival of the Permian Panthers?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is it about Brian’s behavior in class that sets him apart from his teammates and makes one teacher comment that he has a “split personality”?
2. What are the expectations for girls at Permian High, and which group of female students there enjoys the highest social status?
3. How do the academic standards of Permian High compare to its athletic standards?
CHAPTERS 10-12
Reading Check
1. What “sister city” of Odessa fields has a football team called the Rebels?
2. Who does the community blame for Permian High’s failure to win the district championship the previous year?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why is Boobie kept off the field during important regular-season games, and what long-term effects could it have on his football career?
2. In which city did many corporate members of the oil industry choose to live, and how did that affect class differences between neighboring communities in this part of Texas?
Paired Resource
“Friday Night Lights—25 Years Later”
- This video from Sports Illustrated reunites players from the 1988 Permian Panthers and the photographer, Robert Clark, for a retrospective.
- This connects to the themes Devotion to Sports and Football: Opportunity or Exploitation?
- How has time changed these players’ views of their football careers? In hindsight, do you think they feel exploited by football? Why or why not?
Trailer, Friday Night Lights (2004)
- This trailer is for the 2004 film directed by Peter Berg, which is based on the book.
- This connects to all of the book’s themes including Devotion to Sports, Football: Opportunity or Exploitation?, and Paternal Relationships.
- Does this trailer capture the tone of Bissinger’s book? Are there any major thematic elements from the book that are underrepresented in the trailer?
CHAPTERS 13-15
Reading Check
1. What method is used to resolve the district tiebreaker among the three teams at the end of the season?
2. What treatment does Ivory Christian receive in the trainer’s room during halftime of the game against the Lamar Vikings that he does not enjoy?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does the doctor tell Boobie after his knee surgery?
2. What do members of the Permian Panthers find in their lockers after a victory against a rival, and how do the players interpret them?
3. Why does the Algebra II grade of a player named Gary Edwards become important?
CHAPTER 16-EPILOGUE
Reading Check
1. Who wins the semifinal playoff game between the Permian Panthers and the Carter Cowboys?
2. What crime do members of the Carter Cowboys team begin getting arrested for after the football season?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How do college recruiters and officials treat the players from the championship team to lure them to play for their school?
2. Why don’t Derrick and Gary ever have the chance to play college football?
3. How does Boobie fare in the game he plays for Junior College Rangers that the author sees?
Recommended Next Reads
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
- This award-winning first book by Nick Hornby explores the author’s lifelong, consuming love for football of a different type—English British Premiere League Football.
- Shared themes include Devotion to Sports and Paternal Relations.
- Shared topics include sport, fanhood, and disappointment.
- Fever Pitch on SuperSummary
League of Denial by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru
- This groundbreaking investigation exposed the damage to NFL players’ brains from the collisions that are an integral part of every football game.
- Shared themes include Football: Opportunity or Exploitation? and Devotion to Sports.
- Shared topics include life outside of football, investigative reporting, and the difficulty of life after football.
- League of Denial on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
PREFACE-CHAPTER 1
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Football culture fascinates Bissinger, and he wants to live in a football-obsessed town. (Preface)
2. Coach Gaines is dejected that his intense effort was not enough to beat his rivals; when he returns home, he finds his neighbors have derisively placed more FOR SALE signs in his yard. (Prologue)
3. Brown and Yale both show interest in Winchell, but he does not feel comfortable traveling so far from Texas. (Prologue)
CHAPTERS 2-3
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Boobie is talented, physically gifted, confident, and full of “invincible fire.” (Chapter 3)
2. They sell advertising space in their football yearbook to an eager fanbase. (Chapter 2)
3. Boobie injures his left leg during a run; the doctor tells him he will miss six to eight weeks. (Chapter 3)
CHAPTERS 4-6
Short Answer
Reading Check
1. Don fumbles several times, causing the coaches to remove him. His replacement is a Black player, which fills him with racist rage. (Chapter 4)
2. There is little change at all; the town continues being segregated. (Chapter 5)
3. While a confident member of the team, he prefers basketball to football and is even more interested in his role as a religious leader. (Chapter 6)
CHAPTERS 7-9
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. While aggressive and spirited on the field, Brian also takes his studies seriously and hopes to attend Harvard. (Chapter 7)
2. Female students are not encouraged to show their intelligence, which can be “the end of [one’s] social life,” according to one student. Instead, the members of the Peppettes—the cheerleaders who tend to the football players’ every need—are the most popular girls. (Chapter 7)
3. The author reports that the academic standards of the school are quite low, and that even teachers show little enthusiasm for raising the bar. (Chapter 7)
CHAPTERS 10-12
Reading Check
1. Midland, Texas (Chapter 11)
2. Coach Gaines (Chapter 12)
Short Answer
1. Boobie is kept off the field to keep him from further injuring his knee. However, this loss of playing time reduces his chances of getting a football scholarship to a desired school. (Chapter 10)
2. Corporate executives in the oil industry lived in Midland, and they weathered the oil bust more successfully than lower-paid workers. Consequently, Midland remains more affluent than Odessa. (Chapter 11)
CHAPTERS 13-15
Reading Check
1. A coin toss (Chapter 13)
2. An intravenous solution (Chapter 14)
Short Answer
1. The doctor informs Boobie that his injury is worse than the doctor thought and that Boobie’s anterior cruciate ligament is torn. Boobie will need up to two years to recuperate. (Chapter 13)
2. Players find unsigned notes in their locker accusing them of improper behavior. These notes anger the players, who assume they are from the coaches. (Chapter 14)
3. Gary Edwards’s failing Algebra II grade threatens to disqualify Carter High and leads to a court-ordered rescheduling of games. (Chapter 15)
CHAPTER 16-EPILOGUE
Reading Check
1. The Carter Cowboys (Chapter 16)
2. Robbery (Epilogue)
Short Answer
1. College officials arrange for the players to receive cash, limousine rides, apartments, trips to adult clubs, and other illicit gifts to entice them to enroll. (Epilogue)
2. Both young men are sentenced to prison for 16 or more years for their crimes. (Chapter 16)
3. Though Boobie returns to the field and appears to be the star player he once was, he is unable to perform well and his team loses badly. (Epilogue)
