For the last Stacks Book Club episode of the year, we're diving into Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger with Joel Anderson, senior staff writer at The Ringer and co-host of sports & media podcast The Press Box. This book follows the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers, one of the best high-school football teams in Texas history. We discuss whether this book could exist as is today, how we feel about high school athletes getting special academic treatment, and why Joel wants to untether grades from extracurricular activities.

There are spoilers in this episode.

Be sure to listen to the end of today’s episode to find out what our January book club pick will be.

You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2025/12/31/ep-405-friday-night-lights

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Ep. 405 Friday Night Lights by H. G. Bissinger — The Stacks Book Club (Joel Anderson)