Friday Night Lights and the Miracle hockey film

Dividing and Unifying Effects of Representative Sports as Explored in Friday Night Lights and Miracle

As Coakley notes, sports have an influence on not only individuals, but also entire societies and cultures. From the religious significance of the Mayan ball games in early Mesoamerica to the political machinations behind the Roman gladiators, sports can be divided into four categories, according to Eitzen: exercise, gambling, spectacle, and representative. Representative sports has a unique role in society. This paper will briefly overview the concept of the category of representative sports. This will be followed by a discussion on how representative sports both sets community members against one another as well as brings them closer together. Lastly, the concepts presented in the book Friday Night Lights and the movie Miracle will be explored in this context.

Representative Sports:

Eitzen cites Goodhart and Chataway as arguing that there are four categories of sport. These include sport as: exercise, gambling, spectacle, and representative sports. The category of representative sport includes limited conflict with clearly defined rules, in which representatives of towns, regions, or nations are pitted against each other. It is primarily an affair for the spectators; they are drawn to it not so much as the mere spectacle, by the ritual, or by an appreciation of the skills involved, but because they identify themselves with their representatives (15).

Eitzen continues to note that one of the most common examples of representative sports is the Olympics. Spectators often watch sports they would otherwise not follow, for the Olympics because they feel that the Olympic competitors are representing them. This athlete is not only competing to demonstrate his own physical prowess, but also as a representation of the physical prowess of the entire nation. This unique quality of representative sports results in both societal effects that divide, as well as bring members together.

The Dividing Effects of Representative Sports Rivalries:

The nature of competition itself often leads to division amongst society members. In representative sports, when spectators identify strongly with athletes, this often manifests itself as an 'us' versus 'them' scenario. Eitzen gives several examples of this negative effect of division.

Division between nations occurred following soccer matches between El Salvador and Honduras. In an elimination round between El Salvador and Honduras, at the 1970 World Cup, spectators clashed violently. This division between the two nations was so deep that it further facilitated the outbreak of war. Bombing raids, troop movements, and 2,000 people died before it was over. As Eitzen notes, clearly it was not solely the World Cup incident that led to war; however, sporting rivalry added fuel to the fire that had been smoldering between the two nations, regarding land disputes. Even within a country itself division can occur in response to representative sports.

Eitzen surmises, "Losing an international match can cause deep internal division, whereas unity typically accompanies victory" (15). Riots in Columbia following the loss of the World Cup are an excellent example of this maxim. In fact, a player who had accidentally scored a goal for the opposing team was murdered, as a response to his mistake. However, despite these incidences of great divisions resulting from representative sports, unity can be brought about as well.

The Unifying Effects of Representative Sports:

Clearly the competitiveness of representative sports, along with the strong tendency to relate the success or failure of the athletes to society members individually, as well as the community as a whole, can lead to division amongst nations, states, cities, and even neighborhoods. However, these same sporting events can bring people together, despite different nationalities, races, ethnicities, and religions. Eitzen states that representative sports can promote international goodwill and serve as the catalyst for friendship building and understanding. One only has to look at how the United States and Communist China fostered diplomatic relations with the first steps being taken through international sporting competition.

Hoglund and Sundberg study how sports can not only increase social cohesion, but also be a vehicle for reconciliation in countries that have been damaged by civil conflict. Specifically focusing on South Africa, the authors find that since the end of apartheid that sports have been instrumental in peace building. This has led to reconciliation among the divided states. It is this unifying theme that is also expressed in both the book, Friday Night Lights, as well as the movie, Miracle.

The Unifying Effects of Representative Sports as Demonstrated in Friday Night Lights and Miracle:

In Bissinger's Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, the author explores the societal webwork that is Odessa, Texas. An oil town that soars and plummets as oil comes and goes, is held together by the local high school football team -- the Permian Panthers. In the book, Odessa is a town that is both metaphorically and literally divided. There is the racial division of Whites vs. Blacks and Hispanics. Reminiscent of a far earlier time in America, Whites in Odessa in the late 1980s, on the whole are bigots, who feel Blacks are inferior.

There is only thing Blacks are valued for in Odessa -- football. For this reason, the town is literally divided into the two high schools, Permian and Odessa. The districting lines have been drawn so that all of the White students go to Permian. Only a select number of Black students get to attend the school. This, Bissinger surmises, is due to the school's desire to have students that play football. Yet, despite this divisional layout of Odessa society, it is the Permian Panthers' football that brings the town together. These students that otherwise would be seen as second-class citizens are respected and envied for their football prowess. It allows friendships to form that wouldn't normally. Town members relate so strongly with the success of this high school team, it can override the economic turmoil of the oil industry, as well as the social turmoil caused by the underlying bigotry. The movie, Miracle, has a similar theme of societal division being overcome by representative sports.

Miracle centers on the real-life story of the 1980 men's United States Olympic hockey team. The beginning of the film clearly illustrates the natural divisions this pieced together team must face. The 20 members of the Olympic team come from different teams. Some even were intense rivals in the past. The 'us vs. them' mindset described by Eitzen in the players, with the different state vs. state and college vs. college competition of the past. However, the only way the team has a hope of winning the gold is to allow the sport to become a cohesive catalyst.