September 26, 2024 • 27 mins
Was Tim McGraw Actually a Good Dad in 'Friday Night Lights'? Best high school football stories from around the country.
Please hit subscribe and share with the coaches and players you know!
Coach Dooley's List: https://www.coachdooleyslist.com/
Drone Arrest: https://x.com/gocoffeetown/status/1837331242045342109
Good sportsmanship loses team the game: https://x.com/gocoffeetown/status/1837569182252110228
Waffle House flag: https://x.com/NickHarrisFWST/status/1834962511990231265
Tough Punt: https://x.com/gocoffeetown/status/1837336474879930857
Center obliterated after offsides: https://x.com/EuhusBeaver/status/1838075298048287065
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, welcome in to Go Fight Win. The show
with all the high school football stories you love were
back this week with more of the best high skewed
football stories I've seen from around the country, including a
drone that interfered with a game, a defensive lineman that
interfered with a snap, a player that paid tribute to
the late CEO of waffle House before the game, always
(00:24):
a sucker for those all Star special stories, the worst
punt I've ever seen, and a game that ended just
because a player tried to respect the officials. I'll continue
my look at the twentieth anniversary of Friday Night Lights
and examine whether or not Charlie Billingsley, the father of
(00:44):
Don Billingsley, portrayed by Tim McGraw, was actually a good dad.
Doesn't seem like it, but let's give them the benefit
of the doubt. It's time for Go Fight Win. Hold
on to the dang football sunt, get the bottle to
Donnie Couge, and let that pudgy up. Coach dooley'slist dot
(01:14):
com is a supporter of Go Fight Win and Coffeetown Football,
and I got to shout him out each and every week.
Billy Dooley was one of my high school football coaches.
When I was a freshman at Collins Hill High School,
I wasn't any good. It's my first year playing. I
think I weighed about one hundred and seventy five pounds,
soaking wet much better at school at that time than
(01:35):
at football, And if I'm honest with you, I often
have dreams about going back to that high school football field,
knowing more about the game now than I did then.
But you can't replace the past. You can, however, affect
your future if you're a high school football coach, or
a team mom, or someone in charge of the band
concession stand. Coach dooley'slist dot com is like the Angies
(01:58):
List of high school sports. My guy, Coach Dooley has
compiled the best list of vendors. Whether you're looking for
trophies for the end of the season, certainly not participation trophies.
We're talking about trophies of players that earned it, or
some supplies. It's your team short on shoelaces. Somebody bust
up that last set of shoulder pads y'all had from
(02:20):
the fundraiser last year. Coach Dooley's list has a list
of all the vendors that Coach Dooley trust from his
wide network of coaching for decades. And if you are
in need of any kind of high school sports equipment, gear,
or legal paraphernalia, Coach dooley'slist dot com is the place
to go. There's a link in the show subscription. Y'all
(02:43):
check it out, all right? Each week we're looking at
the best high school football headlines from around the country.
And I'm gonna go Where am I gonna go? First?
All right? Someone tagged me in this tweet from Wade Neely.
Wade is covering high school football for PC sports page
the Pulaski Citizen, and he saw a drone at a
(03:08):
high school football game. This is a quote from Wade
earlier tonight. We had the drone operator escorted off the
field by the local police department, and Wade says, it
sounds like a go Coffee townscript, but it's actually Loretto
Lewis County radio feed on ex Sportsnet. Where's that? All right?
(03:28):
Northern Alabama roll Tide. So drones are a big part
of the game these days. When I was in high school,
I had too many concussions. I had to stop playing,
But what I ended up doing was helping my team
out with film. So we had a big tower. We'd
put a camera on top of the tower and send
(03:49):
it up and my coach said, hey, you're not on
the football team anymore. You're not playing, And I said, Coach,
I don't want to leave the team though I love
these guys, these are my boys. How can I help?
He said, well, you can be a trainer and pass
out water bottles, or you can help us with film.
And I said, coach, I don't think I'm going to
(04:10):
look too good in those short shorts that all the
trainers are wearing out there, and I don't really want
my teammates flirting with me. So I decided to go
up on top of the tower every day. We actually
had an old box car. It was at the end
of the practice field, and I climb up there there's
a rickety old ladder and put a camera on a tripod.
And I think that's how I kind of got my
(04:31):
start in media was due to that decision. But during
practice week it was more conventional, just a camera on
a set of sticks, zoom in and get what coach
needed from practice so they could review it. But on
game nights. We had this big tower and it was
controlled with this hydraulic air pressure. You kind of scrunch
(04:55):
it down and it would kind of fold in on
itself like a telescope. But then if you you undid
the locks, it would shoot up. It was like pressurized air,
so you had to you had to make sure you
weren't gonna get popped. I didn't need any more brain damage,
so you had to kind of keep your distance and
make sure you were operating that thing safely. And once
it got up to the top, there was this radio
(05:18):
kind of like a remote control for a remote control car,
and it would move the camera from side to side.
Actually had it rigged up in this box where it
would press the button to zoom in on the camera
as well. It was pretty advanced technology for the early
two thousands, I think, but that was how we got
our footage. Well, now I guess people are using drones,
(05:40):
and I can see where that would be advantageous to
everything that I just mentioned. You just set a camera
up on a little drone and have it fly around. Well,
the thing is about drones that I've learned is that
you have to have some FAA clearance to operate them,
and you need to know what you're doing. You can't
(06:01):
be a knucklehead out there just flying it around and
letting it get hit with punts and throws from the
quarterback and all that kind of thing. So I don't
really know what happened with this drone operator, but I
know it wasn't good. If the cops are having to
get involved with your drone operator and escort them off
(06:22):
the field, then you're not doing your job. Son. I
hope everything's okay. I hope the drone wasn't, you know,
unleashing drone strikes or anything on the fans or anything
like that. But watch out for those drones sometimes, you know,
the old school technology may not look as good, it
(06:45):
may not be as easy to control. But unless you're
standing right over the top of that hydraulic telescopic camera tower,
sounds like it's causing a lot less trouble than drones
at the football game. Hey, confiscate that dad gum drone.
We got film on there. We don't need the other
team get getting their hands on it. I'd love to
(07:08):
see what's on that drone. If anybody can find it
and figure it out, let me know. It seems like
if they were working for the other team, if they
were working for Lewis County, it wasn't working because they
were losing sixty one to forty four in that game.
(07:29):
Some Connor Stallion stuff going on, perhaps stealing some signs
with the drone, Now that's innovation. Next story here comes
from Joe wedra on X out of South Carolina. With
zero point two seconds left, all Conway needed to do
(07:50):
was take a need in the game. Thinking the game
was over, Conway tossed the ball back to the referee.
After the snap, the ball was live, Ayner recovered. In
the end, Zoe and Ayner won the game thirty nine
to thirty five. Now when I first read that, I thought, man,
(08:11):
what a shame that this team is losing just because
it's players actually being respectful and flipping the ball to
the referee. You know, he got a lot of me
guys out there right now worrying about their NIL values
and all that stuff, and it's a breath of fresh
air to see someone be selfless and just give the
ball to the ref But Joe did clarify that Ayner
(08:36):
had a player that stripped the ball just as Conway
assumed the game was over, and then the ball was
recovered and taken back for a touchdown to end the game.
It's hard to keep track sometimes on X It's hard
to keep track sometimes on high school football radio broadcasts,
so there's some gray area in there about what really happened.
(08:59):
But whatever the circumstances are, there's two sides of this story.
You hate to see a team lose that had the
game put away, but you also just really got to
admire and respect players that don't quit and just get
after it and just find that Tater have a nose
(09:19):
for the football. Son man alive. That makes my knees
sweat right there, ainor AIN or winning the game ain
or winning the game on a heads up play. Referees
just doing their jobs, staying out of the way. We
need less referees in the game. We need more players
(09:42):
like that from Ainer. This was my favorite story from
Mike roach Over at twenty four to seven Sports, following
Jackson kent Well out of Missouri, the number one offensive
tackle prospect in the country, and he ran out onto
the field for his team's game carrying a flag. It
(10:04):
wasn't the American flag, it wasn't his team's flag. It
was America's team's flag. It was the daggum waffle House,
a white flag just billowing through the drizzly breeze. That
waffle house logo a beacon for those in this country
(10:26):
who are hurting. And Nick Harris added a little perspective
here on X as well, covering the Dallas Cowboys. But
he's got some perspective on some high school football. And
the context of this is that the waffle House CEO
passed away the week of that game, and then Cantwell
(10:49):
was carrying the flag out. Was that a coincidence? I
don't know. Maybe it was just spiritual connection more than
a coincidents. Might have been some divine All Star special providence.
Rest in peace to the late waffle House CEO, Walt Amer,
(11:12):
who left us with his contribution to the world. The
waffle House, the scattered and smothered and chunked and diced
and capped and whatever you do on your hash Browns
is up to you. And that's what makes the waffle
House special, not just the All Star specials. And you know,
(11:36):
you never know what you're going to see in there.
I was in a waffle house on a late night
one night when I was in high school with my friends.
We weren't getting into any trouble. We were just at
the waffle house and we saw a fight. And it
wasn't your average fight. This was a fight involving an
individual who had a couple of prosthetic legs and the
(12:01):
opponent in this melee. I'm not making this up. Okay,
I don't ever exaggerate anything on this show, but I'm
definitely not exaggerating this. This is God's honest truth, my
hand on the waffle house menu. The opponent removed the
(12:23):
prosthetic legs from this person and started beating her up
with it with her own legs. You know, the waffle
house gets a bad rap. You only see the viral
fights a lot of times. You don't see a lot
of the good. But I want to believe that some
(12:45):
good came out of that hug in the parking lot. Maybe,
but she was just down down on the ground, just
taking it. And I'll never forget that waffle house experience.
But in happier news, it is good to see someone
(13:06):
in America's youth today that respects the institutions of this
country and decides to take the waffle house flag out
on the field. It's a team game, and we are
all team waffle House, whether you were eating it with
your friends or getting beaten up by him. All right,
(13:29):
Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl, Man, what a great
operation that is the Senior Bowl. Getting to see some
players actually play in a game and prove it in
a game atmosphere, not just the NFL Combine, not just
their college Tate Senior Bowl is awesome. But Jim Nagy
(13:51):
found this video here. Murphy at Spanish fort class six
a region in one What state is it, I don't know.
It could be any state. But this poor punter here
has to kick the ball out of his own end zone.
(14:12):
And I think it might be a situation where it
was the quarterback was back there punting. But this punt
is just dreadful. And I'm not saying it to pick
on the kid. It's clearly put in a situation where
he was over his skis. But this kick did not
go the link of a ski. It bounced on the
(14:33):
three yard line and bounced backwards, just roll backwards, had
the backspin of a pro golfer on it rolled backwards
and the other team just recovers it right in the
end zone. And this is why you never punt. If
you throw a pick six out of there, you take
(14:53):
a safety. You know, I can live with that as
a coach, But man, alive, you a kid kick a
ball that goes about twenty feet in the air and
then just squirts back into the end zone that he
just kicked in. Added him to my prayer request list.
(15:14):
That is that's gonna be tough to live down. But
it's a one week season, every single week. So just
bounce back just like that kick did. Man, You'll get them.
You will get them. Last story here, another video on
x got links to all this stuff in the show's description.
If you want to pair the visuals with my play
(15:36):
by play. Sometimes audio is, ironically, as they say, a
visual medium, so maybe it's richer for you to visualize
it yourself. But this is from tim UUs out of Oregon,
and they do play high school football up there. There's
(15:59):
appears to be a false start off sides, and these
these defensive ends do not stop until they hear a whistle.
Maybe there was a whistle malfunction here, but everybody moves
or nobody moves except for these two defensive linemen. And
(16:20):
they come off the edge like Pete Dwight Freeney and
JJ Watt. The bookends coming across and one of these
young men just levels the center and picks up the
ball while he still has it on the ground. So
I don't know what happened. I don't know if that
center was talking a lot of smack during the game
(16:43):
and they decided to teach him a lesson, or if
they really thought it was a live ball. I'll blame
the refs. Ultimately, this comes down to the officiating, as
a lot of these things do. Officiating has really just
taken a swan dive in football at every level, high school,
college and pro. But poor guy just gets bumped right
(17:07):
in the butt, pad eats the turf, and loses the football.
All at the same time. I'm amazed there wasn't a fight.
I'm amazed this didn't lead to a brawl. But that's
just what happens when you're playing football. It's not a
game for hugs and high fives and good jobs. It's
(17:30):
a game for a contact, bruises, and I don't know
if there's anything more humiliating than getting tackled by the
rear end and losing the football. Also on my Go
Fight Win prayer request list power rankings. Is that center?
(17:55):
All right, y'all? It is the twenty year anniversary of
Friday Nights the film. Throughout this season of Go Fight Win,
I will be looking back on that movie, what I
loved about it, doing some deep dives in today. I'm
going to examine. Was Charlie Billingsley, the father of Don Billingsley,
(18:17):
portrayed by Tim McGraw, Was he actually a good dad?
We'll be right back, Okay, twenty year anniversary Friday Night Lights.
It came out in two thousand and four. I'm talking
about the film here, not the book, not the TV show.
(18:39):
The film. It's a great one. Established. It's my favorite
sports movie. Came out in a formative time in my life,
formative time in my high school football career. I was refreshman.
It was my first year playing, and I saw this
movie came out on October third. Oh nope, that was
(19:05):
a TV show. Dang it, Wikipedia, I'll get the actual date,
but whenever it came out. It did come out in
two thousand and four, and I remember watching it in
the theaters and thinking, man, this is what high school
football is all about now. I played in Georgia, not
in Texas, and I think Texas high school football is
(19:26):
a beast in and of itself all right. October the eighth,
two thousand and fours when it came out, so same
month as the TV show Good Timing, lining up with
the thick of everybody's high school football seasons. But one
of the standalone I think character portrayals in the film
(19:48):
is Charlie Billingsley. Tim McGraw played him, and I think
he really sets the tone for what the movie's all about. Yes,
it opens up with explosions in the sky and Booby
Miles running shirtless sunrise light and all the children following
them down the road, But you really know what this
movie's gonna be about, and you understand what the stakes
(20:10):
are for the Permian Panthers when you see Charlie Billingsley
run out onto the football field and tackle his own
son in front of an open practice, in front of
spectators and the media. And that's the kind of thing
that would not probably would not happen in this day
and age. But you know, with all the stories I
(20:34):
just told you that our real life, I don't think
anything is out of the realm of possibility. But Charlie
Billingsley shows you what Friday Night Lights is going to
be all about. It shows you what his character is
gonna be about, and shows you what the dynamic between
he and his son Donnie Billingsley portrayed by Garrett Headlind
is going to be all about. And you know, growing up,
(20:57):
I knew about Tim McGraw for his music obviously don't
take the Girl, great Barbecue Stain, great red rag top
sad as an actor, though didn't really know what Tim
(21:18):
mcgrawl was gonna bring to the table. But dad Gum,
he shows you right away, doesn't he. And it's easy
to examine his character of Don Billingsley and look, the
real character, if you read the book, is much more tragic.
Has to enter rehab while Don is in his football season,
(21:42):
and Don ends up being much more of a kind
of a loaner that doesn't even have his dad, And
you can argue doesn't even have his dad in the movie,
but he has much more of a team minded outlook
on life in the book, I think. But in the
movie you see this dynamic, and I think it's kind
of the lens through which we see the pressure of
(22:05):
Permian high school football. It's a one to one. It's
a dad to a son, and arguably the best father
in the movie to any given player is head coach
Gary Gaines portrayed by Billy Bob Thornton. So it's a contrast.
It's a foil between fathering dynamics and the dad that
(22:31):
Tim McGraw portrays in this film. Look at face value,
he's not a good one. But is he a good
football dad? Let's see what he does. He tackles his
son out of practice because he fumbles the football. Obviously,
this is a recurring problem for Don in this football
(22:52):
film universe. He wakes up after a party and has
a I assume since graduated high school football young lady
over at his house at the same time that Don
has a high school football love high school girlfriend over
(23:17):
at his house, and he remarks, dang girl, you've grown up.
So that's a tick in the not good dad calm.
I think we can call that one pretty easily. However,
he does go on to teach Don a valuable lesson
(23:37):
about holding onto the football. He can't hold onto the lamp.
He dropped the lamp. Terrible excuse, But if you've been
in high school before then you know you have come
up with some bad ones yourself. So Don dropped the lamp.
But he doesn't drop the dagum football, does he because
(23:57):
Dad breaks out the duct tape and is just trying
to coach him up on how to be better at
holding onto the rock. I think Don goes on to
have a much better season because of it. Could he
have won a state championship if you didn't separate his shoulder? Maybe?
(24:18):
But I think the real moment of the film is
when Don's driving his drunk dad home from the football
game they lost. Think Don had a fumble in that one,
ticking the bad dad column. You don't want to be
driving your dad home after a football game that you
(24:40):
lost and have him analyzing and criticizing everything you did wrong.
You certainly don't want him kicking out the window in
your car and throwing that state championship ring into the
side of the highway tall grasses and losing it for
the time being. But while that ride home is a
(25:02):
disaster and a big check in the bad dad column,
he wakes up and says he'll right is wrong, so
he'll get that window fixed. And he says, I don't
want this to sound like an apology or nothing. And
he says, I don't want this to sound like an
apology or nothing, which is a bad apology. That's not
(25:27):
how you want to apologize. But he goes on to
tell him what I think is one of really the
most powerful speeches, not as powerful as Coach Coach Gains
his speech at the state championship, but he does tell
him some truth. You just ain't getting it. You don't understand.
(25:49):
This is the only thing you're ever going to have forever.
It carries you forever. It's an ugly fact of life,
Donnie hell, it's the only fact of life. You got
one year on un stinking year to make yourself some memory. Son,
That's all It's gone after that. And I'll be damned
if you're not gonna miss it. And really that's some truth, man,
(26:11):
that's some good dad truth. And that's some high school
football dad truth. So for all the wrong that he does,
I do think you see Charlie Billingsly redeem himself in
moments like that, and at the end when he shows
that he has indeed found that ring, and he himself
(26:36):
gives his son the biggest honor that he could give him,
even though he didn't earn it on the scoreboard. And
I know he's not a participation trophy kind of guy,
but he saw the odds that his son was up
against and what he did, how he learned to hang
on to the football. And while he won't be a
state championship in Permian's record books, he tells him with
(26:56):
a hug and with the ring, son, you got you
one of these. You're a champion in my book. So, ultimately,
not a good dad, I think we can all land
on that. But the moments that you remember him for,
(27:16):
I think that a lot of us remember him for
in that movie are the bad dad moments. He does
have some pretty dang good ones. Friday Night Lights twenty
years old. Go watch it, Let me know what you're
thinking about it. Go check out Coach dooley'slist dot com,
Hit like, and hit subscribe. Share this show with the
high school football coaches and people in your life, and
(27:38):
let's just celebrate the things that we love about high
school football. Go Fight, Win is all the high school
football stories you love. Come back for some more good
ones next week.
Hey, everybody, welcome in to Go Fight Win. The show
with all the high school football stories you love were
back this week with more of the best high skewed
football stories I've seen from around the country, including a
drone that interfered with a game, a defensive lineman that
interfered with a snap, a player that paid tribute to
the late CEO of waffle House before the game, always
(00:24):
a sucker for those all Star special stories, the worst
punt I've ever seen, and a game that ended just
because a player tried to respect the officials. I'll continue
my look at the twentieth anniversary of Friday Night Lights
and examine whether or not Charlie Billingsley, the father of
(00:44):
Don Billingsley, portrayed by Tim McGraw, was actually a good dad.
Doesn't seem like it, but let's give them the benefit
of the doubt. It's time for Go Fight Win. Hold
on to the dang football sunt, get the bottle to
Donnie Couge, and let that pudgy up. Coach dooley'slist dot
(01:14):
com is a supporter of Go Fight Win and Coffeetown Football,
and I got to shout him out each and every week.
Billy Dooley was one of my high school football coaches.
When I was a freshman at Collins Hill High School,
I wasn't any good. It's my first year playing. I
think I weighed about one hundred and seventy five pounds,
soaking wet much better at school at that time than
(01:35):
at football, And if I'm honest with you, I often
have dreams about going back to that high school football field,
knowing more about the game now than I did then.
But you can't replace the past. You can, however, affect
your future if you're a high school football coach, or
a team mom, or someone in charge of the band
concession stand. Coach dooley'slist dot com is like the Angies
(01:58):
List of high school sports. My guy, Coach Dooley has
compiled the best list of vendors. Whether you're looking for
trophies for the end of the season, certainly not participation trophies.
We're talking about trophies of players that earned it, or
some supplies. It's your team short on shoelaces. Somebody bust
up that last set of shoulder pads y'all had from
(02:20):
the fundraiser last year. Coach Dooley's list has a list
of all the vendors that Coach Dooley trust from his
wide network of coaching for decades. And if you are
in need of any kind of high school sports equipment, gear,
or legal paraphernalia, Coach dooley'slist dot com is the place
to go. There's a link in the show subscription. Y'all
(02:43):
check it out, all right? Each week we're looking at
the best high school football headlines from around the country.
And I'm gonna go Where am I gonna go? First?
All right? Someone tagged me in this tweet from Wade Neely.
Wade is covering high school football for PC sports page
the Pulaski Citizen, and he saw a drone at a
(03:08):
high school football game. This is a quote from Wade
earlier tonight. We had the drone operator escorted off the
field by the local police department, and Wade says, it
sounds like a go Coffee townscript, but it's actually Loretto
Lewis County radio feed on ex Sportsnet. Where's that? All right?
(03:28):
Northern Alabama roll Tide. So drones are a big part
of the game these days. When I was in high school,
I had too many concussions. I had to stop playing,
But what I ended up doing was helping my team
out with film. So we had a big tower. We'd
put a camera on top of the tower and send
(03:49):
it up and my coach said, hey, you're not on
the football team anymore. You're not playing, And I said, Coach,
I don't want to leave the team though I love
these guys, these are my boys. How can I help?
He said, well, you can be a trainer and pass
out water bottles, or you can help us with film.
And I said, coach, I don't think I'm going to
(04:10):
look too good in those short shorts that all the
trainers are wearing out there, and I don't really want
my teammates flirting with me. So I decided to go
up on top of the tower every day. We actually
had an old box car. It was at the end
of the practice field, and I climb up there there's
a rickety old ladder and put a camera on a tripod.
And I think that's how I kind of got my
(04:31):
start in media was due to that decision. But during
practice week it was more conventional, just a camera on
a set of sticks, zoom in and get what coach
needed from practice so they could review it. But on
game nights. We had this big tower and it was
controlled with this hydraulic air pressure. You kind of scrunch
(04:55):
it down and it would kind of fold in on
itself like a telescope. But then if you you undid
the locks, it would shoot up. It was like pressurized air,
so you had to you had to make sure you
weren't gonna get popped. I didn't need any more brain damage,
so you had to kind of keep your distance and
make sure you were operating that thing safely. And once
it got up to the top, there was this radio
(05:18):
kind of like a remote control for a remote control car,
and it would move the camera from side to side.
Actually had it rigged up in this box where it
would press the button to zoom in on the camera
as well. It was pretty advanced technology for the early
two thousands, I think, but that was how we got
our footage. Well, now I guess people are using drones,
(05:40):
and I can see where that would be advantageous to
everything that I just mentioned. You just set a camera
up on a little drone and have it fly around. Well,
the thing is about drones that I've learned is that
you have to have some FAA clearance to operate them,
and you need to know what you're doing. You can't
(06:01):
be a knucklehead out there just flying it around and
letting it get hit with punts and throws from the
quarterback and all that kind of thing. So I don't
really know what happened with this drone operator, but I
know it wasn't good. If the cops are having to
get involved with your drone operator and escort them off
(06:22):
the field, then you're not doing your job. Son. I
hope everything's okay. I hope the drone wasn't, you know,
unleashing drone strikes or anything on the fans or anything
like that. But watch out for those drones sometimes, you know,
the old school technology may not look as good, it
(06:45):
may not be as easy to control. But unless you're
standing right over the top of that hydraulic telescopic camera tower,
sounds like it's causing a lot less trouble than drones
at the football game. Hey, confiscate that dad gum drone.
We got film on there. We don't need the other
team get getting their hands on it. I'd love to
(07:08):
see what's on that drone. If anybody can find it
and figure it out, let me know. It seems like
if they were working for the other team, if they
were working for Lewis County, it wasn't working because they
were losing sixty one to forty four in that game.
(07:29):
Some Connor Stallion stuff going on, perhaps stealing some signs
with the drone, Now that's innovation. Next story here comes
from Joe wedra on X out of South Carolina. With
zero point two seconds left, all Conway needed to do
(07:50):
was take a need in the game. Thinking the game
was over, Conway tossed the ball back to the referee.
After the snap, the ball was live, Ayner recovered. In
the end, Zoe and Ayner won the game thirty nine
to thirty five. Now when I first read that, I thought, man,
(08:11):
what a shame that this team is losing just because
it's players actually being respectful and flipping the ball to
the referee. You know, he got a lot of me
guys out there right now worrying about their NIL values
and all that stuff, and it's a breath of fresh
air to see someone be selfless and just give the
ball to the ref But Joe did clarify that Ayner
(08:36):
had a player that stripped the ball just as Conway
assumed the game was over, and then the ball was
recovered and taken back for a touchdown to end the game.
It's hard to keep track sometimes on X It's hard
to keep track sometimes on high school football radio broadcasts,
so there's some gray area in there about what really happened.
(08:59):
But whatever the circumstances are, there's two sides of this story.
You hate to see a team lose that had the
game put away, but you also just really got to
admire and respect players that don't quit and just get
after it and just find that Tater have a nose
(09:19):
for the football. Son man alive. That makes my knees
sweat right there, ainor AIN or winning the game ain
or winning the game on a heads up play. Referees
just doing their jobs, staying out of the way. We
need less referees in the game. We need more players
(09:42):
like that from Ainer. This was my favorite story from
Mike roach Over at twenty four to seven Sports, following
Jackson kent Well out of Missouri, the number one offensive
tackle prospect in the country, and he ran out onto
the field for his team's game carrying a flag. It
(10:04):
wasn't the American flag, it wasn't his team's flag. It
was America's team's flag. It was the daggum waffle House,
a white flag just billowing through the drizzly breeze. That
waffle house logo a beacon for those in this country
(10:26):
who are hurting. And Nick Harris added a little perspective
here on X as well, covering the Dallas Cowboys. But
he's got some perspective on some high school football. And
the context of this is that the waffle House CEO
passed away the week of that game, and then Cantwell
(10:49):
was carrying the flag out. Was that a coincidence? I
don't know. Maybe it was just spiritual connection more than
a coincidents. Might have been some divine All Star special providence.
Rest in peace to the late waffle House CEO, Walt Amer,
(11:12):
who left us with his contribution to the world. The
waffle House, the scattered and smothered and chunked and diced
and capped and whatever you do on your hash Browns
is up to you. And that's what makes the waffle
House special, not just the All Star specials. And you know,
(11:36):
you never know what you're going to see in there.
I was in a waffle house on a late night
one night when I was in high school with my friends.
We weren't getting into any trouble. We were just at
the waffle house and we saw a fight. And it
wasn't your average fight. This was a fight involving an
individual who had a couple of prosthetic legs and the
(12:01):
opponent in this melee. I'm not making this up. Okay,
I don't ever exaggerate anything on this show, but I'm
definitely not exaggerating this. This is God's honest truth, my
hand on the waffle house menu. The opponent removed the
(12:23):
prosthetic legs from this person and started beating her up
with it with her own legs. You know, the waffle
house gets a bad rap. You only see the viral
fights a lot of times. You don't see a lot
of the good. But I want to believe that some
(12:45):
good came out of that hug in the parking lot. Maybe,
but she was just down down on the ground, just
taking it. And I'll never forget that waffle house experience.
But in happier news, it is good to see someone
(13:06):
in America's youth today that respects the institutions of this
country and decides to take the waffle house flag out
on the field. It's a team game, and we are
all team waffle House, whether you were eating it with
your friends or getting beaten up by him. All right,
(13:29):
Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl, Man, what a great
operation that is the Senior Bowl. Getting to see some
players actually play in a game and prove it in
a game atmosphere, not just the NFL Combine, not just
their college Tate Senior Bowl is awesome. But Jim Nagy
(13:51):
found this video here. Murphy at Spanish fort class six
a region in one What state is it, I don't know.
It could be any state. But this poor punter here
has to kick the ball out of his own end zone.
(14:12):
And I think it might be a situation where it
was the quarterback was back there punting. But this punt
is just dreadful. And I'm not saying it to pick
on the kid. It's clearly put in a situation where
he was over his skis. But this kick did not
go the link of a ski. It bounced on the
(14:33):
three yard line and bounced backwards, just roll backwards, had
the backspin of a pro golfer on it rolled backwards
and the other team just recovers it right in the
end zone. And this is why you never punt. If
you throw a pick six out of there, you take
(14:53):
a safety. You know, I can live with that as
a coach, But man, alive, you a kid kick a
ball that goes about twenty feet in the air and
then just squirts back into the end zone that he
just kicked in. Added him to my prayer request list.
(15:14):
That is that's gonna be tough to live down. But
it's a one week season, every single week. So just
bounce back just like that kick did. Man, You'll get them.
You will get them. Last story here, another video on
x got links to all this stuff in the show's description.
If you want to pair the visuals with my play
(15:36):
by play. Sometimes audio is, ironically, as they say, a
visual medium, so maybe it's richer for you to visualize
it yourself. But this is from tim UUs out of Oregon,
and they do play high school football up there. There's
(15:59):
appears to be a false start off sides, and these
these defensive ends do not stop until they hear a whistle.
Maybe there was a whistle malfunction here, but everybody moves
or nobody moves except for these two defensive linemen. And
(16:20):
they come off the edge like Pete Dwight Freeney and
JJ Watt. The bookends coming across and one of these
young men just levels the center and picks up the
ball while he still has it on the ground. So
I don't know what happened. I don't know if that
center was talking a lot of smack during the game
(16:43):
and they decided to teach him a lesson, or if
they really thought it was a live ball. I'll blame
the refs. Ultimately, this comes down to the officiating, as
a lot of these things do. Officiating has really just
taken a swan dive in football at every level, high school,
college and pro. But poor guy just gets bumped right
(17:07):
in the butt, pad eats the turf, and loses the football.
All at the same time. I'm amazed there wasn't a fight.
I'm amazed this didn't lead to a brawl. But that's
just what happens when you're playing football. It's not a
game for hugs and high fives and good jobs. It's
(17:30):
a game for a contact, bruises, and I don't know
if there's anything more humiliating than getting tackled by the
rear end and losing the football. Also on my Go
Fight Win prayer request list power rankings. Is that center?
(17:55):
All right, y'all? It is the twenty year anniversary of
Friday Nights the film. Throughout this season of Go Fight Win,
I will be looking back on that movie, what I
loved about it, doing some deep dives in today. I'm
going to examine. Was Charlie Billingsley, the father of Don Billingsley,
(18:17):
portrayed by Tim McGraw, Was he actually a good dad?
We'll be right back, Okay, twenty year anniversary Friday Night Lights.
It came out in two thousand and four. I'm talking
about the film here, not the book, not the TV show.
(18:39):
The film. It's a great one. Established. It's my favorite
sports movie. Came out in a formative time in my life,
formative time in my high school football career. I was refreshman.
It was my first year playing, and I saw this
movie came out on October third. Oh nope, that was
(19:05):
a TV show. Dang it, Wikipedia, I'll get the actual date,
but whenever it came out. It did come out in
two thousand and four, and I remember watching it in
the theaters and thinking, man, this is what high school
football is all about now. I played in Georgia, not
in Texas, and I think Texas high school football is
(19:26):
a beast in and of itself all right. October the eighth,
two thousand and fours when it came out, so same
month as the TV show Good Timing, lining up with
the thick of everybody's high school football seasons. But one
of the standalone I think character portrayals in the film
(19:48):
is Charlie Billingsley. Tim McGraw played him, and I think
he really sets the tone for what the movie's all about. Yes,
it opens up with explosions in the sky and Booby
Miles running shirtless sunrise light and all the children following
them down the road, But you really know what this
movie's gonna be about, and you understand what the stakes
(20:10):
are for the Permian Panthers when you see Charlie Billingsley
run out onto the football field and tackle his own
son in front of an open practice, in front of
spectators and the media. And that's the kind of thing
that would not probably would not happen in this day
and age. But you know, with all the stories I
(20:34):
just told you that our real life, I don't think
anything is out of the realm of possibility. But Charlie
Billingsley shows you what Friday Night Lights is going to
be all about. It shows you what his character is
gonna be about, and shows you what the dynamic between
he and his son Donnie Billingsley portrayed by Garrett Headlind
is going to be all about. And you know, growing up,
(20:57):
I knew about Tim McGraw for his music obviously don't
take the Girl, great Barbecue Stain, great red rag top
sad as an actor, though didn't really know what Tim
(21:18):
mcgrawl was gonna bring to the table. But dad Gum,
he shows you right away, doesn't he. And it's easy
to examine his character of Don Billingsley and look, the
real character, if you read the book, is much more tragic.
Has to enter rehab while Don is in his football season,
(21:42):
and Don ends up being much more of a kind
of a loaner that doesn't even have his dad, And
you can argue doesn't even have his dad in the movie,
but he has much more of a team minded outlook
on life in the book, I think. But in the
movie you see this dynamic, and I think it's kind
of the lens through which we see the pressure of
(22:05):
Permian high school football. It's a one to one. It's
a dad to a son, and arguably the best father
in the movie to any given player is head coach
Gary Gaines portrayed by Billy Bob Thornton. So it's a contrast.
It's a foil between fathering dynamics and the dad that
(22:31):
Tim McGraw portrays in this film. Look at face value,
he's not a good one. But is he a good
football dad? Let's see what he does. He tackles his
son out of practice because he fumbles the football. Obviously,
this is a recurring problem for Don in this football
(22:52):
film universe. He wakes up after a party and has
a I assume since graduated high school football young lady
over at his house at the same time that Don
has a high school football love high school girlfriend over
(23:17):
at his house, and he remarks, dang girl, you've grown up.
So that's a tick in the not good dad calm.
I think we can call that one pretty easily. However,
he does go on to teach Don a valuable lesson
(23:37):
about holding onto the football. He can't hold onto the lamp.
He dropped the lamp. Terrible excuse, But if you've been
in high school before then you know you have come
up with some bad ones yourself. So Don dropped the lamp.
But he doesn't drop the dagum football, does he because
(23:57):
Dad breaks out the duct tape and is just trying
to coach him up on how to be better at
holding onto the rock. I think Don goes on to
have a much better season because of it. Could he
have won a state championship if you didn't separate his shoulder? Maybe?
(24:18):
But I think the real moment of the film is
when Don's driving his drunk dad home from the football
game they lost. Think Don had a fumble in that one,
ticking the bad dad column. You don't want to be
driving your dad home after a football game that you
(24:40):
lost and have him analyzing and criticizing everything you did wrong.
You certainly don't want him kicking out the window in
your car and throwing that state championship ring into the
side of the highway tall grasses and losing it for
the time being. But while that ride home is a
(25:02):
disaster and a big check in the bad dad column,
he wakes up and says he'll right is wrong, so
he'll get that window fixed. And he says, I don't
want this to sound like an apology or nothing. And
he says, I don't want this to sound like an
apology or nothing, which is a bad apology. That's not
(25:27):
how you want to apologize. But he goes on to
tell him what I think is one of really the
most powerful speeches, not as powerful as Coach Coach Gains
his speech at the state championship, but he does tell
him some truth. You just ain't getting it. You don't understand.
(25:49):
This is the only thing you're ever going to have forever.
It carries you forever. It's an ugly fact of life,
Donnie hell, it's the only fact of life. You got
one year on un stinking year to make yourself some memory. Son,
That's all It's gone after that. And I'll be damned
if you're not gonna miss it. And really that's some truth, man,
(26:11):
that's some good dad truth. And that's some high school
football dad truth. So for all the wrong that he does,
I do think you see Charlie Billingsly redeem himself in
moments like that, and at the end when he shows
that he has indeed found that ring, and he himself
(26:36):
gives his son the biggest honor that he could give him,
even though he didn't earn it on the scoreboard. And
I know he's not a participation trophy kind of guy,
but he saw the odds that his son was up
against and what he did, how he learned to hang
on to the football. And while he won't be a
state championship in Permian's record books, he tells him with
(26:56):
a hug and with the ring, son, you got you
one of these. You're a champion in my book. So, ultimately,
not a good dad, I think we can all land
on that. But the moments that you remember him for,
(27:16):
I think that a lot of us remember him for
in that movie are the bad dad moments. He does
have some pretty dang good ones. Friday Night Lights twenty
years old. Go watch it, Let me know what you're
thinking about it. Go check out Coach dooley'slist dot com,
Hit like, and hit subscribe. Share this show with the
high school football coaches and people in your life, and
(27:38):
let's just celebrate the things that we love about high
school football. Go Fight, Win is all the high school
football stories you love. Come back for some more good
ones next week.
Host
Wes Blankenship
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