Clear Eyes, Full Hearts - An Ode To Friday Night Lights
There was a period of time wherein I would come home from work, or a party, or even lunch to find my best friend and roommate, Alan, crying. Tears weren’t shooting out of his eye sockets, but he was shiny. Nose runny. I’d walk by his room and there’d he’d be, sitting on the edge of his bed with his shirt wrapped up over his face.
“It’s just so good! I have the chills! And I can’t stop crying!” Alan would say, laughing out of embarrassment.
Each and every time this happened, I’d turn to face his television, and without pause, the familiar faces of Friday Night Lights that I’ve grown to love would stare back at me: Tim Riggins, Coach Taylor, Julie, Saracen, “Smash” Williams, Landry, Tyra, Buddy, Jason Street and Lyla. At the time, they were simply faces. To be honest, I didn’t really understand it. I thought Alan was looney tunes. How could a television show, a network television show to be specific, have that much of an impact on someone’s psyche? The only time I’ve ever shed tears for a fictional character was when Carrie and Big got together in the series finale of Sex And The City. (Full disclosure: It was two years after the show originally aired. I watched the entire series on DVD in college with Jason and our ROOR.)
Tonight, I am heading home to watch the series finale of Friday Night Lights, titled, “Always.” I have spent the last four weeks in a K Hole of television that not even my pinky-ring wearing Sopranos infatuated days compare to. Watching The Sopranos was me living out a tough-guy fantasy. Sex And The City was me living vicariously through a writer (albeit a female writer) whose problems in life and love were usually solved by the end credits.
I watch Friday Night Lights with a particular admiration that I’ve never felt. The show and its characters make me want to be a better person. We all want to be better people. To help others. Give good advice. Listen when called upon for a lending ear. I used to think that Tony Soprano had it all figured out because he was a boss, or that acting like Don Draper was a way to talk to girls. I was wrong. I fully understand that you shouldn’t go around mirroring personality traits based on fictional characters. I know that. Take what I’m reading with a grain of salt. But also know that I am dead serious about wanting to be a better friend and human being because of Coach Taylor, Tim Riggins, Tami Taylor, and Matt Saracen. I look up to them. They are role models, even if they’re not real. I want to be the husband Coach is to Tami. I want to be the brother Tim is to Billy. I want to be a better partner, as Saracen is to Julie. Although these characters are fake, I am glowing inside knowing that they came from the hearts and minds of real people: writers, like me.
Life is not a television show, nor is it a movie. I know this. In movies, characters say a lot without saying, and usually, the audience is given information before the characters, which is why we scream at the movie screen in slasher films, or get that shitty feeling when we know a character is cheating on his wife before he can even debate the consequences. In television shows, especially on Friday Night Lights, the characters are forced to face their own conflicts, demons, love interests, and the challenges of life. They have 43 minutes to get to the bottom of the issues that lay ahead. Although most of the characters have phones, they choose to go knock on each other’s doors, to chase what they want, to rise above all obstacles in an effort to accomplish their dreams. We should all be so bold and brave.
Football, while the central focus of Dillon, Texas, is not life. It’s simply a metaphor for life. There’s only one way to get to that end zone: through the defensive line. You’re gonna have to face down your own opposing defense at one point or another, in many different incarnations. Sometimes that defense is going to be a girl you can’t have, a broken bone, a pregnancy you didn’t plan, a test you can’t ace, an ill grandmother, or even addiction. And you’re not always going to score the winning touchdown, or kick the ball directly through the goal posts. You’re going to fail from time to time. What’s important to remember is that win or lose, there are people in your life that will cheer you on from the sidelines, in triumph and in failure, no matter what — I wrote about this last week with regards to Rob and Rosie. These are the people that love you. Everyone has a Tim Riggins, a Tami T., or a Coach Taylor in their lives. I know I do. And I don’t know where I’d be without them.
As I press PLAY tonight on the finale of Friday Night Lights, I know I’m going out with Clear Eyes and Full Hearts. Because that way, you just can’t lose.
