P3+Explain+how+the+failure's+in+the+society+of+Odessa+relate+to+the+failure's+of+the+Permian+Panthers.

7. Failures in the society of Odessa surrounded the whole community. Mainly focusing on the Permian Panthers football team, society has seemed to settle on the idea that the school system is potentially the greatest failure. Teachers of Permian High School found the easy way out for teaching. Lessons were conducted by movies, or lessons were not formally given and students talked the whole period. Hugh Hayes, Permian’s new superintendent stated, “I felt like not a lot of attention had been paid to academics. That’s not to day they had an inferior program. I don’t think an effort had been made to capitalize on the potential they had in the kids. Whatever you did in academics, you were going to look pretty good, because there wasn’t much going on” (Bissinger 138). Football students alike mostly drifted from the idea of a solid education. The panthers did not seem to realize that for most it was their senior year, the last year many of them would ever be part of a team or play real ball. Football jock came first, student came absolute last behind the other factors such as socializing. Teachers noticed how students lacked respect for their profession, and their fast arriving futures. The education system was truly taken for granted. -Alicia Lee  The unsuccessful events that occurred for the Permian Panthers are closely link to the failures that existed within their town. With an ineffective economy it was bound to affect the team in one way or another. As stated by Bissinger, “All around them the world seemed to be caving in; the way of life that had existed in Odessa for sixty years was badly shaken. Wherever you looked the economic news for this already hard-strapped area was dismal” (181). Through the oil crash their economy took a down turn and as well as the team. The town had nothing else to look forward to. They put all their hopes in the Panthers to win so they had something to feel good about. All that pressure was placed on the team that it might have gotten to them resulting in their failed games. With out those wins for the town it just became another washed up area because they were failing in many things. - Colleen Brown

7. The failures in the society of Odessa have a major impact on the Permian Panthers. Because the town of Odessa is so involved in the high school football team, they have an impact on how the players play on Friday nights. The teachers at Permian High School should encourage the students to do their work; they wouldn’t have to depend only on football for their future like Boobie did. If students had a good education and could play football they would have a good future in front of them. The teachers at Permian High didn’t care about the students and their education or how they taught their students, they let the kids watch numerous of movies and they just socialized the whole time. “If that sort of confidence and attitude could be transferred into the academic area, that would be wonderful. I don’t see that transfer” (Bissinger 149). This quote is states that if the students got the education they needed they would be good and not only focus on football. The society of Odessa should try and make the education there better. - Ashley Doty

7. Over the course of history, Odessa has had very little fortune. This can be linked to the failures of the Permian Panthers. The misfortunes and lack of success in the town have an effect on the performance of their high school football players. The failing economy effected everyone and the well-beings of the lives of all citizens, so it must have strongly effected the minds and performance of the players. H. G. Bissinger states, “wherever you looked the economic news for this already hard-strapped area was dismal” (181). The fall of the economy also meant the fall of the team. The money of the town was in direct relation to oil, and likewise their spirits to their football team’s performance. Not much else went on around town, so they could not look to other things to bring their spirits high. All of their dreams lay with their team. The end result of all of these things is: pressure. The pressure for these players to perform like gods was too great, thus driving them to defeat. - Justin Silva

7. The failures in the society of Odessa impact the Permian Panthers football team. It impacts them because the Permian Panthers are the whole town pretty much and if the town of Odessa fails then the football team then has the pressure to do opposite of what odessa has failed upon. Meaning they have to win their football game because the about a quarter of the town show up to watch the home games. As stated by Bissinger, “All around them the world seemed to be caving in; the way of life that had existed in Odessa for sixty years was badly shaken. Wherever you looked the economic news for this already hard-strapped area was dismal” (181). This explains why the town of odessa has been affected over the years and why so many whites have been leaving. Only the minorities can get the jobs because the whites will not accept those types of jobs anymore because they do not want to do that kind of work. The explanation of this is that the failures of Odessa affect the Permian Panthers greatly because so many of the things they have accomplished, have made that town a historical place. It also explains how the Permian football team has been so successful because they need to show that they play for their town. -Justin Newkirk

7. The Permian High School football team did only as good as the town's society. According to Bissinger, "She remembered the cruelty of the 1986 season, her husband's first, when Odessa was going through the worst economic crisis in its history" (237). As Bissinger states "Odessa was going through the worst economic crisis in its history". That means that the people in Odessa were not happy because of the lack of money that they had. The lack of money could make people angry about everything and not even care anymore. A result was "the cruelty of the 1986". The word "cruelty" indicates that the season went horribly. In Odessa there is no room for having horrible seasons like that. - Max Cerrillo

7. The failures in Odessa relate directly to the to the failures of the Permian Panthers. The broken school system relates to the failure of the Permian Panthers beyond high school. The school doesn’t take academics seriously because they are so focused on football. Bissinger describes how neglected academics are at Permian, “..but even in accelerated courses the classroom at Permian was hardly a hotbed of intellectual give-and-take” (130). This limits all of the student’s futures at Permian. This is why people stay in Odessa even though the town is depressed, because they can’t do anything else. The attitude of the town also affects the players. When the people are frustrated with their lives, they take that anger out on the players. This puts even more pressure on the players to make the people of Odessa happy, since football is one of the only things that keeps them going. -Danielle Rouviere

7. The failures in Odessa relate to the failures of the Permian Panthers in the sense that while the town as a whole may be doing poorly, the people put faith in the Panthers to bring shine some light on the town. As Bissinger states in the novel, "All around them the world seemed to be caving in; the way of life that had existed in Odessa for sixty years was badly shaken. Wherever you looked the economic news for this already hard-strapped area was dismal” (181). As this was the case, the only thing that seemed to give hope to Odessa was football. For decades, Permian's football team has been known for it's MOJO. With the success of the team, the town saw hope. Without this hope though, the town had nothing, and the Panthers must have known this. The town put incredible pressure on the team to succeed, and the more pressure put on the team, the more likely it is that the team would break under the pressure. -Jordan McMahon

7. The failures in Odessa can be related to the failures of the Permian Panthers. In many ways the town had given up on dreams and goals so in a way the students at Permian did also. According to Jane Franks, "Kids used to worry about where they were going to fit into the world. Kids today don't seem to worry if they are going to fit in society, because they don't give a hoot" (Bissinger 133). This quote shows that students living in Odessa did not care what the world or even what their piers thought of them. In their minds they should not have to have aspirations and should not have to achieve anything in life. This relates to the failures in Odessa itself because in most cases Odessa was all these kids ever knew. When they saw the town failing at segregation, at wealth and many other things the town faced the Permian Panthers began to do the same. The Permian education program became unnoticed as many things all throughout the Permian Panthers and even Odessa did. -Anna Clark

7. The failures that Odessa experiences relates to the failures of the town's football team in several different manners. First of all, the structure of society is the most obvious failure in Odessa. The town has become "desegregated", but not integrated. The black people of Odessa live inferior to the white people in nearly every aspect of life. On the football team, black players are valued only by their ability to play, and in this non-integrated society it is a commonly held belief that all black people are good at is playing football. Therefore the expectations out of black people in Odessa is that they will play football and be very good at it. This is totally different than what should be happening which is academics should be put as priority for blacks because very few people get to make a living out of playing sports. Bissinger said it best in his own words, “If that sort of confidence and attitude could be transferred into the academic area, that would be wonderful. I don’t see that transfer” (149). If only the black players weren't forced into thinking football was all they had, this huge failure of society could easily be turned into success. -Sean Madsen

 7. Failures were abundant in Odessa. Furthermore, these failures were most noticeable within the school system of Permian High School. Education does not seem to be a priority for the teachers. According to Hugh Hayes, the superintendent the district that Odessa resides in, “I don’t think an effort had been made to capitalize on the potential they had in the kids. Whatever you did in academics, you were going to look pretty good, because there wasn’t much going on” (Bissinger 138). These failures in the academic system in Odessa have not yet been reflected in the Pathers' lives, but they certainly have in the society of Odessa. The parents are too focused on football to realize that their kids aren’t getting a good education, and that they are being set up to fail. Without a good education, the players will be forced to live a life exactly like their parents’: A life of hard labor and tough love. The teachers failed to educate the parents of the ’88 Panthers, and it is apparent that this tradition has passed on to their kids. - Jake Korinko