Friday Night Lights...

I've never watched more than 10 minutes of this television show.

Why?

Well, because I didn't want to.

It is about football, afterall.

In my house of girls, football has never played a major role.

Except when my cheerleader daughter had to be at all of the games.

Last night, however, started a new chapter in this household.

FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL!

I now live in the country...

outside of a very small town...

where football is KING!

Everyone attends the games, rallies, bonfires that are held the night before each home game.

Each business in town has signs supporting the team.

Cars have signs supporting the team.

Most importantly, though, is that everyone attends the games.

So, we packed up the crew and headed to the high school to attend the first game of the season.

I guess you have to leave early if you intend to park anywhere near the high school.

We ended up parking in the grocery store parking lot.

We walked up the road (hill) to the high school where we suddenly realized where the entire town was...

In this photo you can only see a fraction of the bleachers.

They were full, people!

The game had already begun, so we quickly found some seats and got into the spirit.

Flags were flying...

whistles blowing...

The sound of bodies crunching and collapsing, while my insides shrivelled up because I suddlenly realized...

That one day, my son will be out there!

Relatively quickly we scored and the crowd went wild!

Then, I thought we were going to lose the whole thing.

The sun started going down.

Which is when my little ones really thought the game was cool.

"Momma, it is REALLY dark! But, we don't have to go to bed yet."

Ari kept screaming, "Go Cheerleaders!"

I looked behind me, down the road towards the one stoplight in town and noticed that it was completely empty.  Where was everyone?  Where were the people heading here there and everywhere?

Well, they are sitting all around you at the football game, silly!

The sun was shining right in our faces...

Not good!

So we started using the Man vs Wild trick of telling when the sun will be gone...

and in 15 minutes...

away it went.

Now, my husband works one of those crazy jobs where he has to go to work at 3 in the morning...

So, we didn't stay for the entire game.

Next time, we may have to drive in separate cars.

It was fun to be a part of a community event like this.

It was cool.

I included the shot below because it represented that initial moment when these yound men would throw themselves against the body in front of them...

It is...

MAN!

ROAR!!!

Violent

Vicious

Protective

Engergetic

It is what I want to see my son become...

just save the injuries for someone else, please.

The only thing I would have changed, would be that I needed my daughters husband, the football guru to sit beside me and let me know what was going on.

Why did they throw the flag?

Why did he get in trouble for yanking on that guys jersey?

Why did that kid get mad and walk off?

Why are they kicking the ball now?

What is that sign that says 25?

Why does the sign say 21? 

Why are they kicking the ball again?

Where are they selling the funnel cakes?

Yeah, Galen should have been my "interpreter".

By the way, we won 34-13...