Hooray for fictional football

I don't sit down on my own to watch football, but I do enjoy the occasional game with friends, and I do understand the game for the most part thanks to never missing a home game in high school, even though our quiz bowl team had a better win record.

I was in marching band, as if you needed more evidence that I'm a massive dork.

I'm from a Southern city but I taught for four years in a town where the school football game was the big event on Friday nights. I haven't seen the film Friday Night Lights, but I was deeply interested in seeing what the show could do. Sports dramas just don't tend to do well.

Holy cow. Best pilot since Lost, and it might have been better. I was drawn in to the characters right away. They got really developed personalities and embraced Southern culture without being stereotypical dumb rednecks. I'm really tired of all Southerners being typical dumb rednecks. But these boys had a wide variety of behaviors, and although they acted like very aware and well spoken teenagers, they were still believable as adolescents.

It helps that they're using real Southerners, even if it's not written by a real Southerner. Hey, I'm a real Southerner with experience dealing with high schoolers. I could write for this show.

And oh, Kyle Chandler. You can coach my team anytime.

But I digress. There was a game. This was not the underdog team, but it's so important to them to win since everybody's expecting it that I was completely rooting for them. I actually shouted and threw my arms in the air every time they scored a touchdown, just like I was watching a real game. I ordered the players to run to the endzone every time they had the ball. I don't know much about this fictional football team, but I really hope they win.

I'm already thinking up spec ideas. Don't miss this show.