“Friday Night Writes”: Meeting the Dillon Panthers

School districts across the state delayed the start of high school football season after Hurricane Harvey devastated large parts of Texas. Sports, of course, come second to the safety and well-being of thousands of Texas who have been affected by this historic storm. But with the first Friday nights of the season beginning with flooded fields instead of packed crowds in many places, we decided to continue with our previously scheduled series, “Friday Night Writes.” Because, now, more than ever, Tim Riggins’s words ring true: “Texas forever.”

This series, which will continue weekly through the month of September, follows four of our writers as they watch the first season of the classic TV series, Friday Night Lights. Two of them have never seen it—the other two are fanatics. In this first installment, they discuss the first four episodes of the season, weighing in on Jason Street’s injury, the Katrina evacuee who makes his way to Dillon, and first impressions (or second evaluations) of the characters. Check the schedule here to watch along with us.

Initial thoughts from the clear-eyed newcomers:

Doyin Oyeniyi: I think a good place for me to start is with the list of predictions I laid out in the introduction post. Just a few minutes into episode one, there’s Tim Riggins asleep on a couch surrounded by empty beer bottles. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but then a person doing a pre-season interview with him straight up asked if Tim had been drinking because he could smell alcohol on his breath. So, budding alcoholism: check. Tim also helped us start the conversation about racism (whether casual or overt). Apparently, it doesn’t matter what Smash Williams’s race is, Tim would still hate him. And I will admit that even I find Smash annoying as hell, but I noticed that the only other person Tim said he hated was Voodoo Tatum, the evacuee from Hurricane Katrina (I’ll get back to him later).