FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS AND RELIGION

For many people sports is extremely important. Making sure to watch every game, following your favourite team, wearing your team colours are very important sporting rituals. For the town of Dillon, seeing the game on Friday nights is just as important as anything else, be it school, family or church. I will be explaining the elements that relate both sport and religion.

 

I am going to be exploring how religion and sport connect with various sources.  Each of the sources that I researched to see how sport and religion connect all have a slightly different take on how they connect. Blazer states two different definitions to show how religion and sport connect. The formal definition of religion states religion as “Creed (“explanations about the meaning of human life”), code (“rules that govern everyday behaviour”), cultures (“rituals to act out the insights and understandings that are express in creeds and codes”) and communities (“groups of people either formally or informally bound together by the creed, code and culture they share”)”[Blazer, 2012]. The functional definition of religion is explained as “the sacred and the profane.” [Blazer, 2012]. As you can see these definitions of religion can fit into sport, leading to the idea that sport could be considered a religion.  Another take on religion, by Simpson, outlines 3 connections between sport and religion: “the social and communal”, “meaning” and “transcendence”.  From these two sources I have created the following list on how sports can be a religion.

 

1. The first one is creed which can be shown throughout sport because injury comes with sport. With these injuries comes the questioning of the meaning of human life. This can be shown in Friday Night Lights when Jason Street gets hurt after the first game. Life is short and will give you challenges. Jason becomes paralyzed after the first episode. You see him go through various struggles like gaining the use of his hands, learning that he will never walk again, going through the struggles of having to live without his legs. This theme is shown in the speech below given by coach. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. The second is code. Rules govern the game of football says how you play football and religion has a set of rules to show how you govern your life through religion. 

 

3. The third is community. This is shown through two things. The first is team itself because it provides a family for many of the kids. An example of this is episode 5, season 5, Luke in a drunken state says that he would do anything for his teammates, so Ruckle suggests his walk on fire. So some of the Dillon Lions burn an L into their arm so then they are always bonded as brothers. Therefore they develop bonds between their teammates that can never be broken (literally). This team provides some kids that do not have family or a sense of home. Coach Taylor also provides a father-like figure for many of the boys, for example Matt, Smash, Tim and Vince. He teaches them how to be a man, how to treat women and other life values and lessons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Coach and the team provide the football players with a sense of place, very similar to the way a church does. In a church, the priest teaches you morals and the congregation provides you with a sense of place. In sports and Friday Night Lights, the Coach provides these boys with these morals and values and the team provides them with a sense of place. The second is the following of the sport. In the town of Dillon, the following of football can bring the town together. One example of this is in episode 9 of season 4. This episode shows how sport can bring a town together. Carroll Park is in a bad part of town, Coach Taylor goes down to Carroll Park one night to find one of his players; while he is there he sees a boy get shot. He realizes that it is not safe and he thinks if he could get the lights turned on that would be a huge help. So Eric works to get the lights turned on. He approaches Buddy Garrity, when Buddy asks someone he even gets laughed at for even trying to get the lights back on. Buddy eventually gets a lead and they go and meet someone who was an ex-convict who does community work. One way he does this is he creates a game for the people of Carroll Park to go against the Dillon Lions. They explain that this way it provides the people of Carroll park to trust them, who does not love football? This shows how sport can bring a town together to produce some good, just like a church. While Coach is watching the game he even sees potential in a boy and tells him to look him up when he gets older. This shows how this one little thing can affect this boy’s life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. The fourth example is meaning. This can be shown with the teaching of Coach Taylor. For example, importance of winning or what can be learnt from losing [Simpson, 2012]. The East Dillon Lions learn the importance of winning and losing. Throughout season 4 you see the lions celebrate after a loss. This is because they have succeeded farther than they did before. When they win against the Dillon Panthers, it is extremely rewarding and showcases all of their hard work. Another example is that Smash uses his football scholarship as his ticket out of Dillon and a way to provide financial support to his mother [Simpson, 2012]. This shows how sport provides a meaning to these characters. Another example could be how Vince uses his football fame to get his mother a job. After Vince’s mother gets out of rehab she finds it hard to get a job. Vince meets a man who is a big fan of Vince and says that if he ever needs anything to contact him. Vince takes this opportunity to get his mom a better job. This shows how playing sports provides a meaning to these characters whether it is the importance of winning or losing or being able to provide them with a better life. 

 

1. The final way is transcendence which“…reveals through the glorious depiction of what the Dillon Panthers football team can achieve when they come together and collectively work towards victory.” [Simpson, 2012] People who have differences can still work together [Simpson, 2012]. This can be shown twice throughout the show. The first time is in season 2 when Coach leaves and the team just falls apart. They lose games because they cannot work together as a team, as one unit. This idea is shown in the video below. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This can also be shown by season 4 and season 5 when they win against the Panthers. When the Dillon Lions start off they are a team of all types of people. Through football they learn how to work together and eventually win state. This shows how if people work together they can achieve more than if they work alone. 

 

There are also many parallels that can be made between religion and sport. For example both sport and religion have a specific time. Like church on Sundays and other holy days. Boundaries are also blurred for example if the sporting event is on a Sunday. You go to church in the morning and then you go to the sport game. In this way there is no separation between the two. [Cipriani, 2012]. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Friday Night Lights the game on Friday night is often mentioned throughout the sermon. This is another way in which the lines get blurred between religion and sport. Another parallel is between the love for God and for sport players. ‘[Nancy] Lay sees several analogies between the adoration of gods and of superstars, between the veneration of saints and defunct champions, between the intonation of hymns and football chants…” [Cipriani, 2012]. This can be shown in the way the players are treated in Dillon. Tami Taylor even states at one point that the players are treated like Gods in the town of Dillion. They get away with everything; they are often treated like celebrities. The teammates often get away with a lot more because they are highly looked upon by the town of Dillon.  Another parallel is between the two is “the quest for perfection”, for example connecting mind and body and soul and also keeping your life clean. An example of this from Friday Night Lights is JD Macoy. J.D.  is a quarterback who isn’t allowed to do anything. His father has him on an extremely strict lifestyle. He has to work out, practice plays and he is not allowed to drink alcohol. At one point J.D. is told by his father that he is not allowed to date because it is a distraction from football. All of this is taken very seriously by his father because for his father his son’s quest for perfection is the journey to playing professional football. 

 

The language associated with both sport and religion are also very similar, for example: "faith, devotion, worship, ritual, dedication, worship, ritual dedication, sacrifice, commitment, spirit, prayer, suffering, festival celebration." [Barber, 2009] To some people the idea of sports entertainment and religious services might seem like a weird connection but originally religious services were entertainment for people, who could not always afford other forms of entertainment like the theater. This leads to the question can sports be used as a replacement for religion? Nigel Barber says that it has been shown that sports attendance has increased and religious attendence has decreased. " In addition, sports spectatorship is a transformative experience through which fans escape their humdrum lives, just as religious experience help the faithful to transcend their everyday existence." [Barber, 2009].

 

This statment is very true for Buddy Garrity. Buddy often uses the Panthers as a way to avoid his daily life. For example, when his wife kicks him out he focuses on the game Friday night instead of dealing with his real life. 

 

Buddy: "... do you care anything about the Panthers?"

Eric:" Can I ask you a question, how can you even think about that stuff when you are in the mess that you are with your wife?... I think you hide your head in football a little to much... I think you need to worry about your family."

 

This quote shows how Buddy uses football as a way to avoid the struggles in his life.

 

As shown above sport and religion have very similar characteristic which could convince you that sport is a religion. However there are counter arguments. Above I stated two definitions that fitted into both sport and religion, however what about other definitions. For example content based definitions are harder to connect to sport. Content based definitions generally contain a supernatural component. As Joan Chandler argues in “Religion and Sports in America”, religion is not a sport. She says that even though it contains rituals, beliefs, etc. it does not contain a supernatural element. Therefore it can’t be a religion [Blazer, 2012]. It is harder here to connect religion and sport as the same thing compared to the other definitions. Therefore it depends on what definition you are consulting and what you think is the most important part of religion.

Sport and religion have very similar characteristics as stated above. For many people today sport could be considered a substitute for religion. Whether or not sport is a religion is up for debate. It depends on what you believe and what you believe is important in religion. Now it is your time to decide, what do you think?  Is sport a religion?