This isn’t so much a review, but stories about how why this movie means so much to me. It means so much to because I have first hand accounts that happened to me that I can attest to which illustrate how true to life this movie really is. I grew up in a small town in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. I’d rather not say the name because the stories I’m about to tell are not very flattering.
As a high school kid growing up in this town, I could do no wrong. I could do no wrong because I played football and any wrong I did would just get thrown under the rug. I’ve heard people say this movie is ridiculous because no town would act this way. People who say this either aren’t from Texas, or don’t like football. I’ll save a little bit of time and talk about two of the biggest aspects of this movie that did not apply to me or my town. I did not have a teacher who worked as a stripper part time, and I did not have a coach who would threaten anyones future college enrollment on purpose.
Now, I had the fortunate luck to have a father that never played football, so I never faced the kind of pressure any of the kids in the movie. I’ve always been thankful for that. In fact, my favorite sport was always basketball, not high on the list of priorities for sports in the State of Texas, but I played football because I was a big guy and I was good at it. Once I played it and realized I was good at it I loved it, I was all ready to try and play in college if I had gotten the chance, but I got injured my senior year of high school. I had a great head coach in that I never lost his respect because I couldn’t play. I can’t really say the same for some of the assistant coaches who ceased to talk to me because I was no good to them anymore. The way Billy Bob is treated after his injury is true of some coaches not all, and certainly not mine.
The parties were an accurate depiction. There would always be a big “football players only” on Thursdays before games, and then after the game on Fridays, we would gather for a party that was outside the city. Parties that would have an almost unlimited amount of beer that nobody could ever figure how it was paid for cause football players certainly didn’t pay for it. It was usually paid for the former graduates who were old enough to buy beer and would still go to these parties much like the guy who got hit in the nuts with a bat. Yeah, we didn’t respect those guys either, but always thanked them for the beer.
I had a teammate like Tweeder. A guy who was an amazing talent on the football field, didn’t work particularly hard on the practice field, would fuck anything that moved, would frequently run around the locker room naked, and even one day asked another teammate “dude, look at this thing on my dick, I don’t think it’s supposed to be there” You don’t forget a thing like that.
I have a lot more stories about my life as a high school football player but I’m actually worried about people not wanting certain stories to be told. But my time as a high school football player was one of the favorite times in my life and this film is able to remind me of both the good and the bad times of that time in my life.
