My first real beef with Friday Night Lights

[hondo]

Concerning the episode about the road trip:

Let me see if I have this straight: the team's stars escape the motel, find a party and swill moonshine out of Mason jars until 5 a.m. While this is going on, the coaching staff is in a room, shooting whiskey and playing poker.

Like that would happen in real life. A coaching staff would have some kind of safeguards on kids leaving motels on road trips. A coaching staff boozing on the road trip would get fired.

I always liked this show for its realism. That episode was not realistic.

 

[Beef03]

Concerning the episode about the road trip:

Let me see if I have this straight: the team's stars escape the motel, find a party and swill moonshine out of Mason jars until 5 a.m. While this is going on, the coaching staff is in a room, shooting whiskey and playing poker.

Like that would happen in real life. A coaching staff would have some kind of safeguards on kids leaving motels on road trips. A coaching staff boozing on the road trip would get fired.

I always liked this show for its realism. That episode was not realistic.

Haven't seen the episode yet, but that sounds an awful lot like the year my hockey team went to provincials in bantam -- I was in Grade 10. Coaches started drinking at 9 a.m. on the bus ride down, didn't stop until four days later when we arrived back home. Hell the team captain was their bartender. It was one hell of a party, team didn't play for **** though -- obviously. And before the outrage starts up "where were the parents?" they were drinking right along with the coaches. Small town. Big issues. Especially with booze.

 

[hondo]

Concerning the episode about the road trip:

Let me see if I have this straight: the team's stars escape the motel, find a party and swill moonshine out of Mason jars until 5 a.m. While this is going on, the coaching staff is in a room, shooting whiskey and playing poker.

Like that would happen in real life. A coaching staff would have some kind of safeguards on kids leaving motels on road trips. A coaching staff boozing on the road trip would get fired.

I always liked this show for its realism. That episode was not realistic.

Haven't seen the episode yet, but that sounds an awful lot like the year my hockey team went to provincials in bantam -- I was in Grade 10. Coaches started drinking at 9 a.m. on the bus ride down, didn't stop until four days later when we arrived back home. Hell the team captain was their bartender. It was one hell of a party, team didn't play for **** though -- obviously. And before the outrage starts up "where were the parents?" they were drinking right along with the coaches. Small town. Big issues. Especially with booze.

Must be way different in Canada. We had a football coach fired here a few years ago because the younger brother of his assistant coach, who was on the team, was seen drinking beer at the coaches' apartment with his brother. Someone snitched, he was canned. Can't do that kind of thing these days.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Rare is the high school football team that stays overnight the night before a game. Staying over a second night after the game is over is unheard of. Totally unrealistic.

Also, no football coach worth a damn would let his kids act like that at a hotel.

That said, as long as Connie Britton is on the show, I'm a fan.

 

[Beef03]

Concerning the episode about the road trip:

Let me see if I have this straight: the team's stars escape the motel, find a party and swill moonshine out of Mason jars until 5 a.m. While this is going on, the coaching staff is in a room, shooting whiskey and playing poker.

Like that would happen in real life. A coaching staff would have some kind of safeguards on kids leaving motels on road trips. A coaching staff boozing on the road trip would get fired.

I always liked this show for its realism. That episode was not realistic.

Haven't seen the episode yet, but that sounds an awful lot like the year my hockey team went to provincials in bantam -- I was in Grade 10. Coaches started drinking at 9 a.m. on the bus ride down, didn't stop until four days later when we arrived back home. Hell the team captain was their bartender. It was one hell of a party, team didn't play for **** though -- obviously. And before the outrage starts up "where were the parents?" they were drinking right along with the coaches. Small town. Big issues. Especially with booze.

Must be way different in Canada. We had a football coach fired here a few years ago because the younger brother of his assistant coach, who was on the team, was seen drinking beer at the coaches' apartment with his brother. Someone snitched, he was canned. Can't do that kind of thing these days.

I totally agree. My story was more of the extreme than the norm. And it was a long time ago. I was more than a little bit shocked when I saw what was going on, and I think in most cases the entire coaching staff would be gone in a heartbeat.
But things can be a little bit different in rural Alberta -- good and bad, this would fall under the bad category. These were volunteer coaches (small town) who were taking full advantage of this being the last weekend of the season and a roadtrip to the otherside of the province with many of the parents being good friends of theirs or at the very least drinking buddies. But saddly this also wasn't the only tournament they drank their way through, they did at a tournament mid-season over Christmas/New Years as well. I think their saving grace was they were actually certified coaches, something that was lacking in the place I lived, so they almost had to keep them around.

 

[mustangj17]

Meh, I've had to stay overnight as a coach before at the track state finals. We drink in the room. Kids are always asleep a few doors down. They have no idea.

And I know some smart ass is going to say "what if the kids left and got drunk?"

Well they don't.

 

[hondo]

Meh, I've had to stay overnight as a coach before at the track state finals. We drink in the room. Kids are always asleep a few doors down. They have no idea.

And I know some smart ass is going to say "what if the kids left and got drunk?"

Well they don't.

Exactly. And I'm sure you had someone making sure it didn't happen.

 

[Smash Williams]

You guys didn't have very adventurous high schools.

When we stayed at hotels on some sort of high school trip, the coaches would put a piece of tape on the top of the door after they did bed check. If that seal was broken overnight, then they knew you'd been out.

The trick was to make friends with the trainers (student and assistants, not head), who did not have their doors taped because they had access to the instant cold packs, advil, tylenol and other things kids weren't allowed to keep. If you were their buddy, you could call for advil, they'd bring it down and retape your door after you left/came back. Heck, sometimes the student trainers would go with you and tape you back in when you got back.

High school was good times.

I haven't seen this particular episode so I can't speak to it, though I know several rural Texas teams that would stay a night before for a noon game or possibly after the game if they were more than 4-5 hours away from their opponent. But both nights would not happen.

 

[JC]

Hondo, what kind of high shchool life did you have? Sneaking out and gettting drunk happens all the time. Another nugget for you, teenagers have sex. I know it's shocking, but really, it does happen.

 

[MonsterLobster]

Concerning the episode about the road trip:

Let me see if I have this straight: the team's stars escape the motel, find a party and swill moonshine out of Mason jars until 5 a.m. While this is going on, the coaching staff is in a room, shooting whiskey and playing poker.

Like that would happen in real life. A coaching staff would have some kind of safeguards on kids leaving motels on road trips. A coaching staff boozing on the road trip would get fired.

I always liked this show for its realism. That episode was not realistic.

Haven't seen the episode yet, but that sounds an awful lot like the year my hockey team went to provincials in bantam -- I was in Grade 10. Coaches started drinking at 9 a.m. on the bus ride down, didn't stop until four days later when we arrived back home. Hell the team captain was their bartender. It was one hell of a party, team didn't play for **** though -- obviously. And before the outrage starts up "where were the parents?" they were drinking right along with the coaches. Small town. Big issues. Especially with booze.

I don't watch FNL, but I wouldn't think twice about this or consider it a plot hole. Me and my friends would sneak out of every hotel we ever stayed at on a field trip or hockey road trip, and my hockey coaches were fun, beer-swilling dudes once we checked into the rooms. Maybe it's a hockey thing.

 

[YGBFKM]

Hondo, what kind of high shchool life did you have? Sneaking out and gettting drunk happens all the time. Another nugget for you, teenagers have sex. I know it's shocking, but really, it does happen.

Someone did not expand their mind in high school.

 

[hondo]

Hondo, what kind of high shchool life did you have? Sneaking out and gettting drunk happens all the time. Another nugget for you, teenagers have sex. I know it's shocking, but really, it does happen.

I know sneaking out and getting drunk and getting laid is a part of life for most teenagers. But I know a bunch of high school coaches and that stuff doesn't happen on their watch, on road trips. If it did, they'd be out of a job quick.

 

[highlander]

I know one head football coach who would only get a drink at dinner if he went to place to eat atleast 30 miles from his school for fear of a player seeing him drink. I know that sounds silly but he wanted to set a good example for his kids.

Same team the night before the state championship game. Most of the coaches and players watched a movie in a meeting room then all went back to their rooms for the night. Flew home after the game.

 

[bydesign77]

Hell, we stayed overnight for state golf tournaments. There was always drinking involved. Golf.

 

[Beef03]

Hondo, what kind of high shchool life did you have? Sneaking out and gettting drunk happens all the time. Another nugget for you, teenagers have sex. I know it's shocking, but really, it does happen.

Someone did not expand their mind in high school.

The best part about this post is the elmo right next to it with his arms flailing.

 

[BYH]

Hondo, what kind of high shchool life did you have? Sneaking out and gettting drunk happens all the time. Another nugget for you, teenagers have sex. I know it's shocking, but really, it does happen.

Someone did not expand their mind in high school.

Or anytime thereafter, when he would have learned there is a running thread for this show that takes place every week in a little box in his living room.

 

[Rhody31]

Wait, so the drinking part of the plot bothers you, but Landry murdering the rapist and not going to jail doesn't?

 

[shockey]

Wait, so the drinking part of the plot bothers you, but Landry murdering the rapist and not going to jail doesn't?

excellent point... whether this scene could happen or not, it's a tv show. let's allow for a little dramatic license on occasion. i haven't seen it but was the point of the scene players in one hotel room drinking right next to the coach's room? or was the point what players were saying and the coach was eavesdropping on, a study in teenage athletes and the stories they have to tell and will remember forever?

ain't that nitpicking...

 

[DanOregon]

After my JV season a bunch of us went with the coaches to one of the coache's Tahoe cabin and drank all the way up and while we were there. Granted it was after the season, and times are different now...

The biggest beef I had with the episode was there is no way a high school is staying at the Crown Plaza for two nights unless ESPN is fronting it.

Reminded me of the White Shadow road trip to Vegas episode.

 

[sportsguydave]

After my JV season a bunch of us went with the coaches to one of the coache's Tahoe cabin and drank all the way up and while we were there. Granted it was after the season, and times are different now...

The biggest beef I had with the episode was there is no way a high school is staying at the Crown Plaza for two nights unless ESPN is fronting it.

Reminded me of the White Shadow road trip to Vegas episode.

Were the show set anywhere else, I'd agree, Dan. But two words: It's Texas.

I spent two years early in my career covering high school football down there, and it's a whole new level - in pretty much everything. I've never gotten a feel for how affluent Dillon is supposed to be... but we all know what a ****hole Odessa is/was, and the way the Permian Panthers rolled. Not really that farfetched at all for the Dillon Panthers to be at the Crown, IMO.