At the beginning in the summer, in between finals and when I started working, I became addicted to the TV show "Friday Night Lights."
I had always heard it was a great, well-written TV show, but I never thought that I could enjoy a TV show about football. I really hate watching football games. I’ll watch baseball any day of the week (by the way, congratulations to Derek Jeter! He’ll break the record tonight. I’m sure), but football, never.
I can count on one hand the number of high school football games I’ve been to. So, I really wasn’t a prime candidate to be a "Friday Night Lights" fan.
But in my post-finals phase I was willing to watch anything as long as it wasn’t subtitled and didn’t involve me reading, or thinking.
The show really is great. I was so attached to the characters, that when one of them was gravely injured in the first episode, I cried. This is after being introduced to fictional characters 45 minutes earlier.
So, I’m now a "Friday Night Lights" fan. I was listening to the new slate.com sports podcast, "Hang Up and Listen," when I heard about "Friday Night Lives." It’s a series on NPR about football in small towns.
The audio is featured on the Friday edition of "All Things Considered"; you can also listen to it online, or read a story. They’re fabulous. They’re planning on looking at all aspects of high school football: from the John Hughes-like cliques, to the fans, to the band, to the goths who hover by the fence hating football.
Have a good weekend and enjoy your Friday night.