Clear Eyes...Full Hearts...Can't Lose!

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!”

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.

Friday Night Lights - Television's Best Show - Are You Watching It?

Haven't seen the movie; haven't read the book. But I am totally enthralled with NBC's "Friday Night Lights" which airs on Wednesday evenings.

I initially got into the show because during the first couple of episodes I saw, I was able to relate to the character of Coach Taylor who not only has to deal with his players, but also the pressure that comes from the parents and team boosters. I have coached baseball at every level from T-ball through high school and if you've ever coached a team that has any kind of competitive edge to it, you know what some parents can be like.

However, the more I watched the show the more I realized that it's the character development that really makes "FNL" shine. The actors playing the high school students (and yes, I realize that only one main character is actually played by a teenager - all the others are in their 20's) bring a sensitivity to their characters that allows these fictional teens to almost come to life, and actually treats teenagers with a sense of respect. And the interaction between Kyle Chandler (Coach Taylor) and Connie Britton (Mrs. Coach as some of the kids call her) is one of the best husband-wife portrayals on television these days. One TV columnist offered that the show could easily be subtitled "Scenes From Inside A Marriage." Britton, in fact, may be the best thing about the program. The dialogue between her character and both her on-screen daughter and husband are funny, poignant, realistic and emotional. A recent episode dealing with 15-year old Julie wrestling with the decision of whether to have sex with her football-player boyfriend contained a scene in which Britton gave an Emmy-winning performance.

You don't have to like football to appreciate "Friday Night Lights." You just have to like intelligent television.