While still waiting for word on what NBC plans to do with Friday Night Lights, the critically acclaimed TV series that has had a tough time in the ratings battles, I thought I'd share with you the original halftime speech Coach Taylor made to the players during the season finale a couple of weeks ago. This is slightly different from the version that actually aired on that episode.
Imagine a locker room full of young, impressionable high school athletes facing the biggest collective challenge of their young lives at that very moment. And imagine the thoughts racing through the mind of a 40-something coach trying to give them the incentive to not give up despite what the scoreboard says.
“Every man’s going to lose a battle in his life. But what makes him a man is in the midst of those battles, he does not lose himself.
“His pride and character cannot be reflected on a scoreboard. When Jason Street went down in the first game of the season, everybody wrote us off. Everybody. We did not quit.
“It happens deep inside the human heart, gentlemen. When you look to the guy next to you, and you realize that no matter how difficult things are going to get out there, that he can trust you and you can trust him -- that there is no quit, that you’re going to fight out there to the bitter end – we call that clear eyes, don’t we?
“When you give everything that you’ve got, and then you realize you gave a little bit more that you didn’t even know you had, that you selflessly sacrificed for that guy next to you, we call that full hearts.
“Y’all are winners. There are no losers on that field today. This battle is not over. So let’s hear it one more time, together.
“Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can’t lose!”
Imagine a locker room full of young, impressionable high school athletes facing the biggest collective challenge of their young lives at that very moment. And imagine the thoughts racing through the mind of a 40-something coach trying to give them the incentive to not give up despite what the scoreboard says.
“Every man’s going to lose a battle in his life. But what makes him a man is in the midst of those battles, he does not lose himself.
“His pride and character cannot be reflected on a scoreboard. When Jason Street went down in the first game of the season, everybody wrote us off. Everybody. We did not quit.
“It happens deep inside the human heart, gentlemen. When you look to the guy next to you, and you realize that no matter how difficult things are going to get out there, that he can trust you and you can trust him -- that there is no quit, that you’re going to fight out there to the bitter end – we call that clear eyes, don’t we?
“When you give everything that you’ve got, and then you realize you gave a little bit more that you didn’t even know you had, that you selflessly sacrificed for that guy next to you, we call that full hearts.
“Y’all are winners. There are no losers on that field today. This battle is not over. So let’s hear it one more time, together.
“Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can’t lose!”
NBC is expected to make an announcement concerning the future of this show within the next few weeks. In a television world populated with one lowest-common-denominator show after another, there has to be a place for a program as well done as Friday Night Lights.
1 comment:
Good news! NBC announced on Thursday May 10 that Friday Night Lights is being renewed. Score one for the good guys, and one for great television!
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