Friday Night Lights does a really good job of showing how intense it really is for high school athletes. It looks at the other side of the injury issue. Yeah, its bad to play when injured and our culture pushes toughness over safety, but on the other side of that coin you have young adults who put everything they have into their sport. It is easy to see why people continue to play while injured, they don't want to give up their dream.
In the movie, it is a young tailback who gets hurt and has to give up his dream. Bobbie is the star on the team and is a big part of their success. The whole town comes to watch him and his team every Friday night. When he gets hurt everyone in the town kind of loses hope and gives up on the team. But the team doesn't give up on itself. The coach of the team truly believes that it is a team sport and it really isn't about winning or losing but how you play the game. One of his moving quotes is, "Perfection is being able to look your friends in the eye and know you did everything you could not to let them down." So, by his definition, having a perfect game doesn't mean you win by a ton but if you give everything you have then you have achieved perfection.
Injuries have a way of inspiring teams. This may be the one aspect of injuries than is a good thing. It teaches the individual, as well as the team, the importance of perseverance and surviving adversity. When their backs where against the wall the learned to push back and do quite well by almost winning state. This same situation happens a lot in sports. When Kevin Ware got hurt, Louisville went on to win the NCAA Championship. The Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl after having to deal with several key injuries throughout the season and losing two starters in the Super Bowl itself.
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