CHAPTER SUMMARY AND NOTES

POST-SEASON

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Friday Night Addiction

I.

Summary

Permian beats Amarillo Tascosa in the first round of the playoffs with ease, 31-7. Then they fly to El Paso by chartered jet to face the Andress Eagles. They play in the gigantic Sun Bowl where their usual contingent of thousands of people looks like little bits of scattered paper in the stands. Gaines prowls the sidelines with fury, because now there is no room for mistakes. His fury extends to the locker room at halftime when the score is only 21-7. He is convinced they cannot win, because of the way they’re playing, but they win easily 41-13. As usual, the boys don’t listen to his exhortations to be better disciplined and go out drinking and partying after the game.

During Thanksgiving vacation, when the team comes in to practice, they find a mysterious note in their lockers. It is entitled, “An Open Letter to the 1988 Permian Panther Football Team,” and sharply criticizes the players for their lack of moral integrity and discipline; it calls them Losers, and insists that their success is nothing more than their feeding off what was done in previous years. It is unsigned, but many of the players believe the coaches wrote it. Jerrod McDougal doesn’t find it funny, because he thinks it is impossible not to feel mentally and physically exhausted at this point in the season. What’s even more important, they are also scared to death. He feels furious that now he has to contend with an unsigned letter accusing him of being a loser after all the hard work and despair they’ve dealt with all season. Ivory Christian and Chad Payne also find jerseys with the numbers of Irving Nimitz High School’s starting running backs on them. Also, there are crude notes attached about how their opponents are going to drive them into the dirt. No one ever knows where these notes came from.

On Saturday at the second game, Gaines gives his players a really positive pep talk, exhorting them to play “balls out,” and telling them how proud he is of them and how after tonight, they will be one of eight teams left in high school football in Texas. Finally, he tells them they need to “light up” Roderick Walker, the star running back of Irving Nimitz. He gathers his players around him, aware that for the first time all season, he has them exactly where he wants them. They are angry, enraged, and humiliated that they have been called losers. They are ready to show the world who the real loser is.

On the first play from scrimmage, the great Roderick Walker takes a pitch and moves to the right side of the line. However, he is unprepared for the mass of black shirts that meet him there. Jerrod McDougal is right - it is like imperial Rome, like the Christians and the lions, fighting it out violently, viscerally, with excitement and craziness. Walker takes the ball again and is hit with a helmet right where he carries the ball, causing a fumble recovered by Permian. Two plays later, Comer takes off on a 49 yard TD run. It is evident with only 22 seconds gone, that the game is over. The final score is 48-7. The note fired them up as intended, but doesn’t stop them from heading for a party after the game.

II.

Summary

This section of the chapter focuses on Jerry Hix, who relives his greatness as a Permian Panther in the State Championship won 8 years before. He re-plays the film of the game over and over and knows every play by heart. He has created a nice life for himself over the last 8 years including ..........

Notes

This chapter reinforces the addiction that football has become for so many people connected to Permian. The notes in the boys’ lockers, no doubt composed by the coaches, does its job in reinforcing the stress the school, the community, and the players place on winning above everything else. However, it........

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