American Football At Permian By Lewis Lapham

American football became popular during the Roaring Twenties, an era in American history in which everything seemed to be going in the right direction for the young generation. The economy was soaring, sources of entertainment were expanding, and certain prejudices slowly were fading. The 1920s gave people enough leisure time and money to go to sports events, and the entertainment that sports brought spread like wildfire. Everything seemed to be perfect, but the Great Depression ruined it all. Only a decade later and the entire atmosphere of sports changed; they were now a mechanism to give people a temporary fix to all of their problems. Lewis Lapham asserts that sports must preserve an aura of perfect innocence in order for its business to

In terms of football players at Permian, during games they have a perfect vision that any game has the potential to get them recognized for college, which is the main goal. For fans, football is the one thing that still gives the town a purpose. With all of this riding on every game, the outcome is not necessarily as important as what the game means to the town. Former athletes and parents live vicariously through the players to get the same feeling that they once did when they were in high school. Each game presents them the opportunity to relive their glorious moments of high school when they were the ones being praised and recruited for a better life. Jerry Hix, a former Permian football player, rewatches his football games from high school to relive the fame that just one game brought. The videos show both the good and bad moments from the games, yet even after remembering the things he wanted to forget, Hix claimed, “I’d give anything to go back out there” (277). He continues to go to every Permian football game, chasing the lost feelings from high school. This sensation is what the players get to feel every game, but in some aspects that is the only good thing about football for them. Ivory Christian was one of the star players on the Permian team of 1988, but throughout Friday Night Lights, his relationship with football represents a paradox. He loved it, yet he hated it, and “He liked the games, there was no denying that, but it was hard not to find the rest of it pointless” (112). Football gives the players a chance to get out of Odessa, a town so much like quicksand, and that is the reason many people play the game. People do not play sports because it is fun or because they enjoy the practices, they play because it gives them a chance for a better