I need to read more documentary books. I seem to always enjoy them. This one was no different. Going in, I had some background knowledge having watched the Billy Bob Thornton movie and the entire television series, which was surprisingly good for the most part, at least the earlier seasons. I also served my mission in Houston, Texas and was in a small town called Sealy, home of Eric Dickerson, for about 4.5 months, and that little town was obsessed with their high school football team which always amused me. Friday nights there would definitely shut down the city as everyone was at the football game. The book does a good job in getting you to know the main characters. As a sports fan, I enjoyed the parts where the game action was described in detail and wished there was a bit more of that, but I expect he only did that where it was necessary seeing as how many of their wins throughout the season were blowouts with less excitement. Surprisingly, I came away with a better understanding of Odessa and West Texas itself during that time period and its economic struggles during an oil slump after a previous boom, and I found that to be a nice bonus. Overall, this is a book with interesting subject matter for something that is hard for a lot of people to comprehend who aren't immersed in a life where high school football means so much to entire communities. It was interesting getting to learn a bit about this unique world.
