October 17, 2024 • 22 mins
Coach Gary Gaines's speech in Friday Night Lights: Deep Dive and backstory
Best high school football stories from around the country.
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Coach Dooley's List: https://www.coachdooleyslist.com/
The art of pulling guards: https://madison.com/sports/high-school/football/high-school-football-pulling-guards-art-form/article_a842fca8-7a86-11ef-af23-e323184af55d.html
Hick Town, Louisiana: https://x.com/gocoffeetown/status/1844910978003239013
Billy Bob Thornton on Friday Night Lights Speech: https://x.com/LightsCameraPod/status/1442574513384968197
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey all, welcome into Go Fight Win, the show with
all the high school football stories you love. My name's
Wes Blankenship, and on this week's episode, we'll take a
look at some of those stories and storylines in high
school football from around the country, starting with a tip
of the cap to a Wisconsin outlet that celebrated the
art of the pulling guard. How do you not love
that a cannon out of Louisiana high school football game
(00:23):
that caused an uproar at least for one person. And
I'll take a look at how severe that artillery really
was and almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades,
but this almost is one of the most impressive almosts
I've ever seen in high school football history. It'll all
(00:46):
make sense in short order. Plus, we are continuing our
deep dive into Friday Night Lights, the twenty year anniversary
of the film that means so much to so many
out in Odessa. Mojo Permean Panthers. Well, today I'll really
(01:08):
embrace the speech from coach Gary Gaines at halftime of
the state championship game, one of the greatest moments in
all of cinema. It's all coming up on Go fight win.
The low dog always wins. Let's go. It was if
you get the ball to Donnie Cougin, let that pudgy
go go fight win. Couldn't love Coach Dooley's List anymore.
(01:41):
Coach Dooley's List is a site founded by one of
my former high school football coaches, Billy Dooley, and it's
like the Angie's List of high school sports. It's a
wide network, a wide array of dependable, reliable vendors of goods,
of services, of the things you need to keep a
(02:02):
high school athletic program afloat. Coach Dooley's List has trophies
for the end of your team season. It'll help you
find things you need in the concession stand. It'll help
your football team find an extra shoulder strap or a
belt buckle, or maybe even some knee pads. Whatever you need,
(02:25):
you can find it over at Coachdooley'slist dot com. Coach
Deoley helped coach our freshman high school football team at
Collins Hill to the first undefeated season in freshman high
school football history at Collins Hill six and zero, and
I was on the hands team for some reason. On
(02:46):
the final on side kick of the year, and I'll
never forget. Coach Dewley grab my face mask and said,
if you if you catch that ball, you better not
run with it. If you do, I'll run you until
you puke. Well, I didn't catch that ball, and by god,
I'm glad I didn't puke. But Coach Julie is no
(03:10):
longer on the field coaching. He's on the internet coaching
you up on how to find the best things you
need if you run a high school football program, or
a team, your team, mom, band, mom, band, dad, whatever
you do for your son or daughter's team, or for
the kids in your community, check out coach julie'slist dot com.
(03:30):
It has all the stuff that you need to be successful,
all right. Starting off this week with a typathy cap
to the Wisconsin State Journal, Matt Mark McMullen, good alliterative
name there wrote this article that is called the why
(03:51):
the most athletic offensive linemen are critical to high school
football art And this intrigued me. And when I found
the article and I opened it, I found out that
this article is all about pulling guards. Here's what Mark
writes here. Eli Herpel remembers playing Cambridge to open the
(04:15):
high school football season. In the first quarter, he had
a play where he wrapped around the offensive line to
the outside to block a linebacker creeping in as senior
running back Ben Paul tailed closely behind Herple plowed over
an unsuspecting linebacker, which allowed Paul to break into open space.
It's a play that looks similar in any scheme, but
(04:37):
what's different is the various ways coaches teach it. That
makes the pulling guard in art form in today's game.
If it's done correctly, the lineman will watch his running
back run for either a big game and possibly a touchdown. Now,
I'll include a link in the show's description here. I
don't want to read the whole thing. I'm not allowed
(04:59):
to do that. I've not been given that permission. But
you can check it out for yourself. And the whole
article really is the point, you know. I love that
he shouts out different offensive linemen here, like Eli Herpel.
He talks about running back Austin Perez, beaver Dam senior
(05:20):
guard Ajltzer. That's a good name for a high school
football team, beaver Dam. But it's more about the appreciation
for the pulling guard. We don't respect these guys enough.
It's all about the glitz and the glamour and the
skill guys. But if you really know ball, you know
(05:41):
that a lot of the fun is had by watching
the o line dominate. And the pulling guard is one
of the most dangerous humans in all of humanity. He
comes out of nowhere and if he's athletic enough, he
can really get under you and put you in the dirt.
And I think that this is journalism excellence. That's what
(06:04):
I'm here to celebrate. All the guys that Mark McMullen
tracks down here for this piece is great. But there's
even a little video breakdown about how pulling guard works.
But I really appreciate that he calls it an art
form because football is a brutal game. It's violent. But
(06:31):
consider some of the most beautiful pieces of artwork you've
ever seen, or some of the most impactful orchestral symphonies
you've ever heard. There's a lot there. There's a lot
of overlap between what a pulling guard does and the
craftsmanship that it takes to create those masterpieces. It's not
(06:55):
just sprung on you without much practice or intention or work.
It takes a devotion to your craft. It takes a
lot of selflessness a lot of time to perfect it.
It takes a lot of hard work. And when you
see a high school football pulling guard annihilate a defensive
(07:16):
end or a unsuspecting linebacker so his teammate can go score, well,
by god, I'll say I'll say it. That's what high
school football is all about. The selfless team guy that
is willing to lay his body on the line just
so his other teammate can get all the highlights. It's
(07:40):
a good feeling. Verona senior Jude Murphy said, you did
your job and you decleted the defender. Knowing you did
your job feels pretty good. There's a life lesson in there.
There's a life lesson about working together as a team.
Running around. Yeah, you look pretty cool doing it. You
look like a real, a real warrior doing it. But
(08:05):
you don't get the glory. You may you may not
even get a highlight on the evening news. But if
you're good enough, you're fast enough, you try hard enough,
and you execute that pull. I mean, let's back up too.
On the tier of offensive lineman, the guard is the
(08:27):
most forgotten one. You're not the center. You don't snap
the ball, you don't start every play. You don't have
the quarterback touching your butt. You're not the tackle, You're
not the guy that's one step away from being a
tight end. You're the guard. You're sandwiched in there. You
got you got your last pick of numbers on your jersey.
(08:51):
You get the last pick of face masks, both of
them probably hideous, but you know what, So is your
playing style, so is your game. And some of the
most iconic artwork and history of humankind ain't that pretty.
(09:13):
But what's the point of art? Is it to be
pretty or is it to get people to look at
you and learn something? So that's why a guard, a
pulling guard, is artwork. So I was scrolling around high
school football X on Friday night, trying to see what
was going on in the universe of high school football,
(09:35):
and I found this post here from an individual that says,
only in freaking Hicktown, Louisiana would they blow a cannon
every time a touchdown is made. I love football too,
but come on now, laughing crying emoji in Coffeetown High
School at go Coffeetown Quote tweeted this post and said,
sounds like Hicktown, Louisiana knows how to celebrate. Look, I
(09:58):
know that a lot of people don't get to go
to high school football games every week, and a lot
of people don't see high school football games at all,
or football games where there is some sort of pyrotechnic element.
It's not like big time, big money college football. There
aren't a bunch of fireworks laser shows. Sometimes there's the
(10:19):
LED light show on those old Friday night lights that
they've somehow rigged up. But if you give me a
choice between the LED light shows and a busted ear
drum from a live cannon, I'm taking the busted ear
drum every single time, because high school football games are
already some of the most entertaining things you can see.
(10:40):
You get a football game, you get some pulling guards,
you get a halftime show with the bands, and at
this one you have a cannon. And if that makes
it a Hicktown, Louisiana Friday night, then by god, I
say that Hicktown has it figured out and they have
nothing to be ashamed of. But I'll also say this,
there are probably a lot of other towns that are
(11:01):
not in quote unquote hicktowns that also fire cannons as well.
I am an end zone cannon supporter as long as
it does not interfere with the game or injure anybody.
And I will also say, you don't blow a cannon,
you fire a cannon, and you don't make a touchdown,
(11:23):
you score a touchdown. So I'll leave that up to y'all.
I'm not going to shout out this individual by a name.
You can see the go Coffeetown tweet if you want
to dig deeper into that. I don't know which high
school it was, but I do want to shout out
the people that are responsible for firing these cannons. If
that is your job, continue to do it, do it well,
(11:46):
don't worry about people thinking you're a hiccktown. Wear that
badge with honor. All Right, Almost almost doesn't mean much,
does It doesn't mean the most? It means almost. It
means all but the most. But in Louisiana at evangel
(12:08):
Christian Academy in Shreveport, and we've actually had an evangel
Christian alum on this very show. Jacob Hester was on
the first season of Go Fight Win and told his
story about playing for evangel Christian and it was a
dang goodwin. But he has another story to overshadow his
(12:31):
own remarkable career. Quarterback Peyton Houston had a game for
the Ages. This is from USA Today High School Sports.
Rick Souter wrote it. You can read the whole thing.
There's a link in the show's description. Peyton Houston threw
for eight hundred and seventeen yards with eight touchdown passes
(12:54):
and also had eighty seven yards on the ground with
two scores. That puts him in the high school football
history book with the second most passing yards in a
single game, trailing only Davidson Day North Carolina standout Will Greer.
(13:17):
He threw for eight hundred and thirty seven yards in
a twenty twelve playoff game that ended up one hundred
and four to eighty over Harold's Christian. Now, unfortunately, Peyton
Houston and evangel Christian could not get the win. I mean,
come on, defense, guys out here almost setting records and
(13:41):
you can't get it done. He went fifty three of
sixty eight class of twenty twenty seven and the team
lost seventy seven to seventy six in overtime to Captain Shreeve.
As you can imagine, that is out of Shreveport Louisiana
as well. But y'all got to check out this story.
(14:02):
Check out the link. I mean, watch his highlights. He's
running all over the place, throwing seeds on the move,
and this is the future of quarterback play. Eight hundred
and seventeen yards. Will Greer was a highly touted quarterback
(14:24):
coming into college as well. So we'll see, we'll see
what Houston does. Great name, that's a good Louisiana right
there near Texas kind of name, Peyton Houston. He is
getting looks from Arkansas, Colorado, Miami, LSU, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Texas.
(14:45):
I don't know anything about recruiting. I'm gonna say he'll
go to LSU. I don't know what he likes. I
don't know what the projections say, but chalk him up
for LSU home state. He'll go be a Tiger. Eight
hundred and seventeen yards. Man, these plays are remarkable. My
(15:08):
voice cannot do them justice. So go watch the videos,
all right. Speaking of voices and videos and words and
almost let's dive back into Friday Night Lights twenty year
anniversary of the film, taking a look at head coach
(15:30):
Gary Gaines' halftime speech at that state championship game. It
ain't about that scoreboard out there. Let's get after it
right after this. All right, y'all, continuing our deep dive
of Friday Night Lights celebrating the twenty year anniversary of
a sports film and a film that I love. Friday
(15:55):
Night Lights came out on October eighth, two thousand and four,
and if you've missed the other episodes where I've done
some deep dives on this, I did a character study
of Tim McGraw. He gets overshadowed a little bit, I
think Booby Miles. Coach Gary Gaines, who will speak about today,
also did a deep dive on some of the negative
(16:18):
reviews from film critics that didn't like the movie, and man,
do they look Do they look dumb? Today? But we're
not here to talk about them. We're here to talk
about the halftime speech that coach Gary Gaines, portrayed by
Billy Bob Thornton, gave in the movie. I'm going to
read it. I don't have the rights to just share
a clip from the film here on the show. I
(16:40):
have a family. I'm not trying to go to prison.
But I will read the script and then I'll talk
about it. I'm gonna get my head right, get my
mind right. Here. You're trailing Dallas Carter. It's halftime in
the state championship game. It is not what really happened
in real life, but that's not what matters. Here's coach Gaines. Well,
(17:01):
it's real simple. You got two more quarters and that's it. Now.
Most of you been playing this game for ten years,
and you got two more quarters. And after that, most
of you will never play this game again as long
as you live. Now, y'all have known me for a
while and for a long time now you've been hearing
me talk about being perfect. Well, I want you to
understand something. To me, being perfect, it's not about that
(17:25):
scoreboard out there. It's not about winning. It's about you
and your relationship to yourself and your family and your friends.
Being perfect is about being able to look your friends
in the eye and know that you didn't let them
down because you told them the truth, and that truth
is that you did everything that you could. There wasn't
(17:47):
one more thing that you could have done. Can you
live in that moment as best you can with clear
eyes and love in your heart, with joy in your heart.
If you can do that, gentleman, then you're perfect. I
want you to take a moment, and I want you
to look each other in the eyes. I want you
(18:08):
to put each other in your hearts forever, because forever
it's about to happen here in just a few minutes.
I want you to close your eyes, and I want
you to think about Booby Miles, who's your brother, and
he would die to be out there on that field
with you tonight. And I want you to put that
in your hearts. Boys, my heart is full, My heart's full.
(18:33):
Then he calls on Ivory and both teams are intermingled
inner cut saying the Lord's prayer. You want to talk
about a beautiful moment in film history, cinematic history. Man,
I'm gonna go back and watch it tonight. But the
(18:56):
interesting thing about that, that whole speech, beyond what it
means and the implications it has on real life, everyday life.
You know, you're a dad, you're a coach, you got kids,
whatever you do. You're a mom. You're just somebody that's
(19:17):
helping people out in the world. You're a boss. You know,
as guys, you like to measure yourself. What are you doing?
What are you accomplishing what are you contributing? And a
lot of times you don't hit that scoreboard that you
want to hit. But as long as you're honest with yourself,
(19:40):
I'm telling you, man, I feel like I'm sitting in
an ice bath. I got chills right now, got goosebumps.
If you're doing the best you can do, then man,
you're perfect. You're perfect so long as you're honest with
them and you're honest with yourself. And that's not a
participation trophy kind of do. It's different than that. It's
(20:01):
not lying and saying you know you suck, but you're perfect. No,
it's you're working at something, you're trying at something, you're
giving it, you're all. If that is what you can
say about yourself, then then that scoreboard be damned. But
the cool thing about that speech from Billy Bob Thornton,
(20:21):
he shared with The Lights, Camera, Barstool podcast three years
ago for the first time publicly, that he improvised a
lot of that speech, A lot of it was on
the script, but the night before Thornton said that one
of his friends betrayed him in a way that he
couldn't describe, and so a lot of the you know,
(20:42):
looking your brother in the eye, looking at the guy
next to you and being honest with him, actually came
from a betrayal from his friend. And I don't know
what the story was there. He didn't go into that.
It's not really any of our business, I guess, but
he pulled Peter Berg aside and said, hey, I'm pissed
off and I want to go off the script a
little bit. Can I put some of this in there?
(21:03):
And I'm glad he did. I don't know what happened,
And seems like the motivation for it was a little
bit more selfish from Billy Bob Thornton's point of view.
I don't mean selfish in a way where he was
self serving, but maybe it was. Maybe it was a
little bit cathartic for him to do that, but he
was getting some of his own real feelings out. And
(21:23):
when you go back and watch that speech, I'll have
a link to that in the show as well in
the description. But go check it out and watch it
now with that perspective that some of it was improvised
and some of it had to do with Billy Bob
Thornton's own personal life. If you didn't know that already,
but however you view it, it will send chills down
(21:45):
your spine. And I think if you've played high school
football and you've had a coach that gave a speech
like that to you, that motivated you win, loser, draw,
there's just something about a coach sharing those life lessons
with you. And that's what high schoo football can do.
That's what it can do for your soul. That's what
it can do for your interactions with your fellow man,
(22:06):
with your teammates, and the people that are in your
life day in and day out. So don't worry about
that scoreboard. If you're giving it, you're all. You're doing
your best. The scores, the results they'll come. Man, I'm
no motivational speaker, but man, Friday night Lights always motivates me.
All Right, You'll have a great weekend tag at Go
(22:26):
Coffeetown with your team's goings on, with the stories that
I need to know about, with the players and coaches
that America needs to hear about. Here on Go Fight Win.
The uplifting stories, the weird ones, the ones that seem
too crazy to be true, well they're true here each
and every week on Go Fight Win don't worry about
(22:47):
that scoreboard. Hit subscribe, leave a review, leave a comment.
See you next week.
Hey all, welcome into Go Fight Win, the show with
all the high school football stories you love. My name's
Wes Blankenship, and on this week's episode, we'll take a
look at some of those stories and storylines in high
school football from around the country, starting with a tip
of the cap to a Wisconsin outlet that celebrated the
art of the pulling guard. How do you not love
that a cannon out of Louisiana high school football game
(00:23):
that caused an uproar at least for one person. And
I'll take a look at how severe that artillery really
was and almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades,
but this almost is one of the most impressive almosts
I've ever seen in high school football history. It'll all
(00:46):
make sense in short order. Plus, we are continuing our
deep dive into Friday Night Lights, the twenty year anniversary
of the film that means so much to so many
out in Odessa. Mojo Permean Panthers. Well, today I'll really
(01:08):
embrace the speech from coach Gary Gaines at halftime of
the state championship game, one of the greatest moments in
all of cinema. It's all coming up on Go fight win.
The low dog always wins. Let's go. It was if
you get the ball to Donnie Cougin, let that pudgy
go go fight win. Couldn't love Coach Dooley's List anymore.
(01:41):
Coach Dooley's List is a site founded by one of
my former high school football coaches, Billy Dooley, and it's
like the Angie's List of high school sports. It's a
wide network, a wide array of dependable, reliable vendors of goods,
of services, of the things you need to keep a
(02:02):
high school athletic program afloat. Coach Dooley's List has trophies
for the end of your team season. It'll help you
find things you need in the concession stand. It'll help
your football team find an extra shoulder strap or a
belt buckle, or maybe even some knee pads. Whatever you need,
(02:25):
you can find it over at Coachdooley'slist dot com. Coach
Deoley helped coach our freshman high school football team at
Collins Hill to the first undefeated season in freshman high
school football history at Collins Hill six and zero, and
I was on the hands team for some reason. On
(02:46):
the final on side kick of the year, and I'll
never forget. Coach Dewley grab my face mask and said,
if you if you catch that ball, you better not
run with it. If you do, I'll run you until
you puke. Well, I didn't catch that ball, and by god,
I'm glad I didn't puke. But Coach Julie is no
(03:10):
longer on the field coaching. He's on the internet coaching
you up on how to find the best things you
need if you run a high school football program, or
a team, your team, mom, band, mom, band, dad, whatever
you do for your son or daughter's team, or for
the kids in your community, check out coach julie'slist dot com.
(03:30):
It has all the stuff that you need to be successful,
all right. Starting off this week with a typathy cap
to the Wisconsin State Journal, Matt Mark McMullen, good alliterative
name there wrote this article that is called the why
(03:51):
the most athletic offensive linemen are critical to high school
football art And this intrigued me. And when I found
the article and I opened it, I found out that
this article is all about pulling guards. Here's what Mark
writes here. Eli Herpel remembers playing Cambridge to open the
(04:15):
high school football season. In the first quarter, he had
a play where he wrapped around the offensive line to
the outside to block a linebacker creeping in as senior
running back Ben Paul tailed closely behind Herple plowed over
an unsuspecting linebacker, which allowed Paul to break into open space.
It's a play that looks similar in any scheme, but
(04:37):
what's different is the various ways coaches teach it. That
makes the pulling guard in art form in today's game.
If it's done correctly, the lineman will watch his running
back run for either a big game and possibly a touchdown. Now,
I'll include a link in the show's description here. I
don't want to read the whole thing. I'm not allowed
(04:59):
to do that. I've not been given that permission. But
you can check it out for yourself. And the whole
article really is the point, you know. I love that
he shouts out different offensive linemen here, like Eli Herpel.
He talks about running back Austin Perez, beaver Dam senior
(05:20):
guard Ajltzer. That's a good name for a high school
football team, beaver Dam. But it's more about the appreciation
for the pulling guard. We don't respect these guys enough.
It's all about the glitz and the glamour and the
skill guys. But if you really know ball, you know
(05:41):
that a lot of the fun is had by watching
the o line dominate. And the pulling guard is one
of the most dangerous humans in all of humanity. He
comes out of nowhere and if he's athletic enough, he
can really get under you and put you in the dirt.
And I think that this is journalism excellence. That's what
(06:04):
I'm here to celebrate. All the guys that Mark McMullen
tracks down here for this piece is great. But there's
even a little video breakdown about how pulling guard works.
But I really appreciate that he calls it an art
form because football is a brutal game. It's violent. But
(06:31):
consider some of the most beautiful pieces of artwork you've
ever seen, or some of the most impactful orchestral symphonies
you've ever heard. There's a lot there. There's a lot
of overlap between what a pulling guard does and the
craftsmanship that it takes to create those masterpieces. It's not
(06:55):
just sprung on you without much practice or intention or work.
It takes a devotion to your craft. It takes a
lot of selflessness a lot of time to perfect it.
It takes a lot of hard work. And when you
see a high school football pulling guard annihilate a defensive
(07:16):
end or a unsuspecting linebacker so his teammate can go score, well,
by god, I'll say I'll say it. That's what high
school football is all about. The selfless team guy that
is willing to lay his body on the line just
so his other teammate can get all the highlights. It's
(07:40):
a good feeling. Verona senior Jude Murphy said, you did
your job and you decleted the defender. Knowing you did
your job feels pretty good. There's a life lesson in there.
There's a life lesson about working together as a team.
Running around. Yeah, you look pretty cool doing it. You
look like a real, a real warrior doing it. But
(08:05):
you don't get the glory. You may you may not
even get a highlight on the evening news. But if
you're good enough, you're fast enough, you try hard enough,
and you execute that pull. I mean, let's back up too.
On the tier of offensive lineman, the guard is the
(08:27):
most forgotten one. You're not the center. You don't snap
the ball, you don't start every play. You don't have
the quarterback touching your butt. You're not the tackle, You're
not the guy that's one step away from being a
tight end. You're the guard. You're sandwiched in there. You
got you got your last pick of numbers on your jersey.
(08:51):
You get the last pick of face masks, both of
them probably hideous, but you know what, So is your
playing style, so is your game. And some of the
most iconic artwork and history of humankind ain't that pretty.
(09:13):
But what's the point of art? Is it to be
pretty or is it to get people to look at
you and learn something? So that's why a guard, a
pulling guard, is artwork. So I was scrolling around high
school football X on Friday night, trying to see what
was going on in the universe of high school football,
(09:35):
and I found this post here from an individual that says,
only in freaking Hicktown, Louisiana would they blow a cannon
every time a touchdown is made. I love football too,
but come on now, laughing crying emoji in Coffeetown High
School at go Coffeetown Quote tweeted this post and said,
sounds like Hicktown, Louisiana knows how to celebrate. Look, I
(09:58):
know that a lot of people don't get to go
to high school football games every week, and a lot
of people don't see high school football games at all,
or football games where there is some sort of pyrotechnic element.
It's not like big time, big money college football. There
aren't a bunch of fireworks laser shows. Sometimes there's the
(10:19):
LED light show on those old Friday night lights that
they've somehow rigged up. But if you give me a
choice between the LED light shows and a busted ear
drum from a live cannon, I'm taking the busted ear
drum every single time, because high school football games are
already some of the most entertaining things you can see.
(10:40):
You get a football game, you get some pulling guards,
you get a halftime show with the bands, and at
this one you have a cannon. And if that makes
it a Hicktown, Louisiana Friday night, then by god, I
say that Hicktown has it figured out and they have
nothing to be ashamed of. But I'll also say this,
there are probably a lot of other towns that are
(11:01):
not in quote unquote hicktowns that also fire cannons as well.
I am an end zone cannon supporter as long as
it does not interfere with the game or injure anybody.
And I will also say, you don't blow a cannon,
you fire a cannon, and you don't make a touchdown,
(11:23):
you score a touchdown. So I'll leave that up to y'all.
I'm not going to shout out this individual by a name.
You can see the go Coffeetown tweet if you want
to dig deeper into that. I don't know which high
school it was, but I do want to shout out
the people that are responsible for firing these cannons. If
that is your job, continue to do it, do it well,
(11:46):
don't worry about people thinking you're a hiccktown. Wear that
badge with honor. All Right, Almost almost doesn't mean much,
does It doesn't mean the most? It means almost. It
means all but the most. But in Louisiana at evangel
(12:08):
Christian Academy in Shreveport, and we've actually had an evangel
Christian alum on this very show. Jacob Hester was on
the first season of Go Fight Win and told his
story about playing for evangel Christian and it was a
dang goodwin. But he has another story to overshadow his
(12:31):
own remarkable career. Quarterback Peyton Houston had a game for
the Ages. This is from USA Today High School Sports.
Rick Souter wrote it. You can read the whole thing.
There's a link in the show's description. Peyton Houston threw
for eight hundred and seventeen yards with eight touchdown passes
(12:54):
and also had eighty seven yards on the ground with
two scores. That puts him in the high school football
history book with the second most passing yards in a
single game, trailing only Davidson Day North Carolina standout Will Greer.
(13:17):
He threw for eight hundred and thirty seven yards in
a twenty twelve playoff game that ended up one hundred
and four to eighty over Harold's Christian. Now, unfortunately, Peyton
Houston and evangel Christian could not get the win. I mean,
come on, defense, guys out here almost setting records and
(13:41):
you can't get it done. He went fifty three of
sixty eight class of twenty twenty seven and the team
lost seventy seven to seventy six in overtime to Captain Shreeve.
As you can imagine, that is out of Shreveport Louisiana
as well. But y'all got to check out this story.
(14:02):
Check out the link. I mean, watch his highlights. He's
running all over the place, throwing seeds on the move,
and this is the future of quarterback play. Eight hundred
and seventeen yards. Will Greer was a highly touted quarterback
(14:24):
coming into college as well. So we'll see, we'll see
what Houston does. Great name, that's a good Louisiana right
there near Texas kind of name, Peyton Houston. He is
getting looks from Arkansas, Colorado, Miami, LSU, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Texas.
(14:45):
I don't know anything about recruiting. I'm gonna say he'll
go to LSU. I don't know what he likes. I
don't know what the projections say, but chalk him up
for LSU home state. He'll go be a Tiger. Eight
hundred and seventeen yards. Man, these plays are remarkable. My
(15:08):
voice cannot do them justice. So go watch the videos,
all right. Speaking of voices and videos and words and
almost let's dive back into Friday Night Lights twenty year
anniversary of the film, taking a look at head coach
(15:30):
Gary Gaines' halftime speech at that state championship game. It
ain't about that scoreboard out there. Let's get after it
right after this. All right, y'all, continuing our deep dive
of Friday Night Lights celebrating the twenty year anniversary of
a sports film and a film that I love. Friday
(15:55):
Night Lights came out on October eighth, two thousand and four,
and if you've missed the other episodes where I've done
some deep dives on this, I did a character study
of Tim McGraw. He gets overshadowed a little bit, I
think Booby Miles. Coach Gary Gaines, who will speak about today,
also did a deep dive on some of the negative
(16:18):
reviews from film critics that didn't like the movie, and man,
do they look Do they look dumb? Today? But we're
not here to talk about them. We're here to talk
about the halftime speech that coach Gary Gaines, portrayed by
Billy Bob Thornton, gave in the movie. I'm going to
read it. I don't have the rights to just share
a clip from the film here on the show. I
(16:40):
have a family. I'm not trying to go to prison.
But I will read the script and then I'll talk
about it. I'm gonna get my head right, get my
mind right. Here. You're trailing Dallas Carter. It's halftime in
the state championship game. It is not what really happened
in real life, but that's not what matters. Here's coach Gaines. Well,
(17:01):
it's real simple. You got two more quarters and that's it. Now.
Most of you been playing this game for ten years,
and you got two more quarters. And after that, most
of you will never play this game again as long
as you live. Now, y'all have known me for a
while and for a long time now you've been hearing
me talk about being perfect. Well, I want you to
understand something. To me, being perfect, it's not about that
(17:25):
scoreboard out there. It's not about winning. It's about you
and your relationship to yourself and your family and your friends.
Being perfect is about being able to look your friends
in the eye and know that you didn't let them
down because you told them the truth, and that truth
is that you did everything that you could. There wasn't
(17:47):
one more thing that you could have done. Can you
live in that moment as best you can with clear
eyes and love in your heart, with joy in your heart.
If you can do that, gentleman, then you're perfect. I
want you to take a moment, and I want you
to look each other in the eyes. I want you
(18:08):
to put each other in your hearts forever, because forever
it's about to happen here in just a few minutes.
I want you to close your eyes, and I want
you to think about Booby Miles, who's your brother, and
he would die to be out there on that field
with you tonight. And I want you to put that
in your hearts. Boys, my heart is full, My heart's full.
(18:33):
Then he calls on Ivory and both teams are intermingled
inner cut saying the Lord's prayer. You want to talk
about a beautiful moment in film history, cinematic history. Man,
I'm gonna go back and watch it tonight. But the
(18:56):
interesting thing about that, that whole speech, beyond what it
means and the implications it has on real life, everyday life.
You know, you're a dad, you're a coach, you got kids,
whatever you do. You're a mom. You're just somebody that's
(19:17):
helping people out in the world. You're a boss. You know,
as guys, you like to measure yourself. What are you doing?
What are you accomplishing what are you contributing? And a
lot of times you don't hit that scoreboard that you
want to hit. But as long as you're honest with yourself,
(19:40):
I'm telling you, man, I feel like I'm sitting in
an ice bath. I got chills right now, got goosebumps.
If you're doing the best you can do, then man,
you're perfect. You're perfect so long as you're honest with
them and you're honest with yourself. And that's not a
participation trophy kind of do. It's different than that. It's
(20:01):
not lying and saying you know you suck, but you're perfect. No,
it's you're working at something, you're trying at something, you're
giving it, you're all. If that is what you can
say about yourself, then then that scoreboard be damned. But
the cool thing about that speech from Billy Bob Thornton,
(20:21):
he shared with The Lights, Camera, Barstool podcast three years
ago for the first time publicly, that he improvised a
lot of that speech, A lot of it was on
the script, but the night before Thornton said that one
of his friends betrayed him in a way that he
couldn't describe, and so a lot of the you know,
(20:42):
looking your brother in the eye, looking at the guy
next to you and being honest with him, actually came
from a betrayal from his friend. And I don't know
what the story was there. He didn't go into that.
It's not really any of our business, I guess, but
he pulled Peter Berg aside and said, hey, I'm pissed
off and I want to go off the script a
little bit. Can I put some of this in there?
(21:03):
And I'm glad he did. I don't know what happened,
And seems like the motivation for it was a little
bit more selfish from Billy Bob Thornton's point of view.
I don't mean selfish in a way where he was
self serving, but maybe it was. Maybe it was a
little bit cathartic for him to do that, but he
was getting some of his own real feelings out. And
(21:23):
when you go back and watch that speech, I'll have
a link to that in the show as well in
the description. But go check it out and watch it
now with that perspective that some of it was improvised
and some of it had to do with Billy Bob
Thornton's own personal life. If you didn't know that already,
but however you view it, it will send chills down
(21:45):
your spine. And I think if you've played high school
football and you've had a coach that gave a speech
like that to you, that motivated you win, loser, draw,
there's just something about a coach sharing those life lessons
with you. And that's what high schoo football can do.
That's what it can do for your soul. That's what
it can do for your interactions with your fellow man,
(22:06):
with your teammates, and the people that are in your
life day in and day out. So don't worry about
that scoreboard. If you're giving it, you're all. You're doing
your best. The scores, the results they'll come. Man, I'm
no motivational speaker, but man, Friday night Lights always motivates me.
All Right, You'll have a great weekend tag at Go
(22:26):
Coffeetown with your team's goings on, with the stories that
I need to know about, with the players and coaches
that America needs to hear about. Here on Go Fight Win.
The uplifting stories, the weird ones, the ones that seem
too crazy to be true, well they're true here each
and every week on Go Fight Win don't worry about
(22:47):
that scoreboard. Hit subscribe, leave a review, leave a comment.
See you next week.
Host
Wes Blankenship
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