Gary Gaines Halftime Speech In Friday Night Lights Is The Best Speech In Sports Movies History

Sports Illustrated - LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Gary Gaines, coach of the Texas high school football team made famous in the book and movie “Friday Night Lights,” has died. He was 73.

Gaines’ family said in a statement the former coach died Monday in Lubbock after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Gaines made many stops in West Texas during a 30-year coaching career, but was best known for a four-year stint leading the highly successful program at Odessa Permian. Gaines returned to Permian later in his career.

(White Sox Dave wrote a great blog on Gaines as well ) 

Texas HS legend Gary Gaines died last night. I never met the man, nor will I pretend like I knew anything about him. I wish his family the best during this trying time, as well as his former players. Shaping 14-18 year old men, (as well as 18-22 year old men with Gaines time coaching in college) can be a very difficult thing, and hard to balance. Managing the different personalities, different attitudes, the politics, the pressure etc, as well as figuring out who to be hard on and who to go light on is essentially a tightrope. There's also a massive balance of telling your players the stuff they don't want to hear that will get them better as well letting them know you do have their best interests at heart and want them to have success on and off the field in their adult life. 

I didn't love all of them, but it's why I have such respect for my high school and college coaches who took the time to have an impact on and off the field. It's a thankless job, often for little pay, and brings a ton of headaches, but if you do it right you'll always be addressed as "Coach" as a sign of respect for the rest of your life. 

While I don't know Gary Gaines the man, I do know the character as portrayed in Friday Night Lights. A 2004 movie that follows Odessa Permian High School on their quest to a State Title. It's in my opinion the best sports movie of all time. I went to see it in High School on the Friday it opened when I had bunch of free periods and then came back to football practice. Told everyone to go see it. It has so many terrific moments, it's well played football, and I saw it at a time when I was in the same shoes as the characters. Last season of high school ball, the future uncertain, and the scary thought that when the season ends you may never put the pads on again. I was lucky enough to get four more years playing in college, but I'll never forget my teammates faces in high school when the final whistle sounded. The look of despair that it was over was painful.  I love the movie and watched it every night before games in college. 

To not only double down that Friday Night Lights is the best sports movie of all time, I will say the halftime speech in the State Championship of Friday Night Lights is the best speech in sports movie history. 

Every line connects. Every line delivers . 

- "To me, being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It's not about winning. It's about you and your relationship to yourself and your family and your friends.Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn't let them down, because you told them the truth. And that truth is that you did everything that you could. There wasn't one more thing that you could've done." 

- "I want you to close your eyes, and I want you to think about Boobie Miles, who is your brother. And he would die to be out there on that field with you tonight. And I want you to put that in your hearts. "

and my personal favorite 

"I want you to take a moment. And I want you to look each other in the eyes. I want you to put each other in your hearts forever, because forever's about to happen here in just a few minutes."

Interesting tidbit, Gaines told Lights Camera Pod parts of the speech were improvised after a personal betrayal from his friend. 

In my opinion, that speech is bar none the best speech in sports movie history. If I had to award silver and bronze medals it would be : 

Silver : "People Will Come " -Field of Dreams 

Bronze : "6 Minutes" - Vision Quest 

I stand behind my take even though some will disagree including my coworkers. Just know when we all put our heads to rest tonight, Gary Gaines halftime speech will still be the best speech in sports movie history. Period. 

Bonus : Sports Movie Dog Walk Draft 

Double Bonus - Chief nails the movie is better than the show