“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose”

“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!” is the motto of the fictional Dillon Panthers football team of East Dillon High School, as featured in the first episode (October 3, 2006) of the television show Friday Night Lights. The motto does not appear in the book, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990), based on the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team from Odessa, Texas. The Friday Night Lights television series has been filmed around Austin, Texas.
 
A similar line—though not exactly the same as the motto—appeared in the film Friday Night Lights (2004):
 
Coach Gary Gaines:  Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It’s not about winning. It’s about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didnt let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is you did everything you could. There wasn’t one more thing you could’ve done. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, with joy in your heart? If you can do that gentleman - you’re perfect!
 
Peter Berg, who directed the 2004 film and helped develop the television series, has said: “That line came from my mind. And it’s actually related to a theme that we explored in the movie where Billy Bob (Billy Bob Thornton, the actor who played Coach Gary Gaines—ed.) talked to the team about getting love in their hearts and playing with love in their hearts and winning not being the fundamental indication of success. And that sort of theme I think is important for the show.”
 
       
Wikipedia: Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream is a 1990 non-fiction book written by H. G. Bissinger. The book follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team from Odessa, Texas as they made a run towards the Texas state championship. While originally intended to be a Hoosiers-type chronicle of high school sports holding a small town together, the final book ended up being critical about life in the town of Odessa, complete with portraits of what Bissinger called “the ugliest racism” he has ever witnessed, as well as misplaced priorities, where football conquered most aspects of the town and academics were ignored for the sake of championships.
 
Wikipedia: Friday Night Lights (TV series)
Friday Night Lights is an American television series adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Grazer and David Nevins from a book and film of the same name. During the first three seasons the series detailed events surrounding the Dillon Panthers, a high school football team based in fictional Dillon, Texas, with particular focus given to the team’s coach, Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his family. In the fourth season Taylor took over at East Dillon High School, where he coached the Lions. The show uses this small-town backdrop to address many issues facing contemporary Middle America.
 
Produced by NBC Universal, Friday Night Lights premiered on October 3, 2006, and broadcast its first two seasons on NBC. The following three seasons of the show were then first broadcast on DirecTV’s The 101 Network before being rebroadcast on NBC after the two networks partnered to keep the show on the air. NBC confirmed that the fifth season of the show would be its final season, slated to premiere on October 27, 2010. As of the end of the fourth season, Friday Night Lights had aired 63 episodes; 13 additional episodes were planned for the fifth season.
 
In May 2010, ABC Family announced it had acquired the show’s syndication rights. The show began airing on the network September 6, 2010, but it was pulled as of October 18, 2010, due to low ratings.
 
Friday Night Lights has never obtained a sizable audience; however, it has been a critical success, lauded for its realistic portrayal of Middle America and deep personal exploration of its central characters. The show was awarded a Peabody Award, a Humanitas Prize, and a Television Critics Association Award, as well as several technical Primetime Emmy Awards. At the 2010 Emmy Awards, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton were nominated for the Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress awards for a drama series.
 
Wikipedia: Peter Berg
Peter Berg (born March 11, 1964) is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is known for directing films such as Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, The Rundown, Hancock and Battleship. He is very highly recognized for developing the television series Friday Night Lights for televsion. It was based on the film of the of the same name which he was also the director of. As an actor he is best known for his role as Dr. Billy Kronk on the CBS medical drama Chicago Hope.
 
Wikipedia: Smash Williams
Brian “Smash” Williams is a fictional character in the NBC/DirecTV(The 101 Network) drama television series Friday Night Lights portrayed by actor Gaius Charles. He is the starting running back of the Dillon High School Panthers. Considered the most talented player on the roster after quarterback Jason Street, Smash received his nickname from his father after hitting a water heater. Smash is believed to be based on Boobie Miles from the Friday Night Lights book and film.
 
Williams is shown to be a jock in the beginning of the show. He starts a feud with fullback Tim Riggins, after almost having sex with Riggins’ girlfriend Tyra Collette. After being caught taking performance-enhancing drugs, Smash begins a more mature approach to life, taking QB Matt Saracen under his wing, building a friendship with Riggins and leading the team after the devastating injury on Jason Street.
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Season 1
After Coach Taylor visits the school after possibly transferring to fictional Texas Methodist University, Smash leads the other players in a chant of the team’s motto “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose,” showing they still have respect for him.
 
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Friday Night Lights
Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose
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The Internet Movie Database
Memorable quotes for
Friday Night Lights (2004)
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Coach Gary Gaines: Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It’s not about winning. It’s about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didnt let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is you did everything you could. There wasn’t one more thing you could’ve done. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, with joy in your heart? If you can do that gentleman - you’re perfect!
   
Fall TV Preview ‘06
New Series Review: Friday Night Lights (NBC)
10/02/06 03:54 PM
By ED BARK
Its toughest opponent may be the time slot. NBC’s Friday Night Lights otherwise is a near-perfectly executed play about a talented high school football team and the West Texas town that worships at its cleats.
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Now we’ll see whether the rest of the country, or even Texans, will be willing to git along with this program. For its part, Friday Night Lights gets off to a rousing start. Everything about it is vividly drawn, with Chandler excelling as an up-against-it coach whose locker room rallying cry is “Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can’t lose.”
 
FOXNews.com
Chandler Shines in NBC’s New `Lights’
Thursday, October 05, 2006
By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer
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But he may have been born to play Coach Taylor, a soft-spoken man who doesn’t let on everything he’s feeling and yet, thanks to Chandler, never leaves the viewer in doubt. Taylor has a huge challenge as the incoming head coach: to maintain the winning ways of the nation’s top-ranked high-school football squad in a rural Texas community that doesn’t have much else to cheer about. And in the process, to stay mindful that “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose”—but winning isn’t everything.
 
NBC - Friday Night Lights - Message Boards
Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!
exkilt
Nov 2 2006, 03:01 PM Post #1
Does anyone out there know the origin of this phrase? I’ve read the book and cannot recall it being used. Maybe from the movie? I LOVE this show even though I don’t fit the demo or ever played HS football. Kudos to NBC and hope it stays around. Be Well!
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Jlove03
Nov 7 2006, 04:53 PM Post #3
Clear Eyes, Full Hearts Can’t Lose
“That line came from my mind. And it’s actually related to a theme that we explored in the movie where Billy Bob talked to the team about getting love in their hearts and playing with love in their hearts and winning not being the fundamental indication of success. And that sort of theme I think is important for the show.”
 
quote from Pete Berg during his live blog, you can find a link on the home page for Friday Night Lights
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Offside
May 12 2008, 06:41 PM Post #6
Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I’m sure it’s in the pilot (Season 1, Episode 1) after the Coach gives the rah rah speech before the game .....................