Buzz Bissinger’s 1990 book Friday Night Lights book has been through a lot of adaptations over the years, from 1993 inspired-by drama series Against The Grain to the 2004 Peter Berg-directed movie Friday Night Lights and the 2006-11 Berg-developed inspired-by drama series Friday Night Lights. So it’s understandable that there’s some confusion with fact-versus-fiction discussions around it, as the book was factual journalism involving real high school football players for the Permian Panthers and the movie largely covered what happened in the book (with some changes), but both TV series featured fictional towns, teams, and players. But still, it’s remarkable to see three members of the Detroit Lions list James “Boobie” Miles, the very real running back featured in the book and the movie (where he was played by Derek Luke), as their ‘best fictional athlete’:
Who is going to tell them that Boobie Miles is…. Real? https://t.co/LtNdLpDbRj
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) September 28, 2023
It’s understandable how those players got there. As mentioned, both the Friday Night Lights TV series and the Against The Grain series (which featured Ben Affleck!) used fictional characters, even if some of their stories and themes were similar to what happened in the book. And Miles didn’t go on to play major college or NFL football; the knee injury he suffered during the 1988 season, a key focus of the book and movie, led to permanent consequences for him, and he only played one season at Ranger College and then played some semipro football. So he’s not a widely-known figure apart from Friday Night Lights.
But still, coming up with a real person as your favorite fictional athlete is quite funny. Maybe this will lead to listing of other “fictional” sports figures from sports movies based on true stories, from fictional baseball executive Billy Beane through fictional hockey coach Herb Brooks and fictional football players Brian Piccolo and Vince Papale.
[Peter Schrager on Twitter]
