Why do I like Friday Night Lights so damn much?

I just watched Friday Night Lights yesterday evening (I'm trying to get better about actually watching the shows I record on my tivo-it becomes too much like work when I'm watching shows weeks, if not months after I record them). I am nuts about that show; Not Galactica, or Deadwood "nuts", mind you, but I do enjoy it a great deal. It doesn't make much sense, really. I can't stand watching American football, especially NFL and college ball, what with their constant interruption of play for advertising dollars, the overpaid pantywaists such as T O, and of course, the bloody bowl system (shite, I tell you-pure shite!), so it certainly isn't for blind love of the game. I should give a brief synopsis of the show. The show takes place in Dillon, Texas- a small (er) town in central Texas, and follows the trials and tribulations of the fictitious Dillon Panthers, as coached by Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler, of the series Early Edition during the late 90's) as they make their way to State. It generally follows 10 or so principle characters as they deal with love, sex, racism, bills, life changing injury (the starting QB was paralyzed in a game early in the season), small town America, and of course, next Friday's game. So, it takes the movie, which was based on the 1988 season of the real-life Permian Panthers and adds more layers and runs them to conclusions that don't necessarily focus on "Friday night." The football games are wild-total nail biters in the all or nothing, the "game" is life played out on a field. Everything is on the line on this very play. Nothing else matters, because it'll all be fixed when we win this game. the ends of Poverty, racism, and hunger are hanging in the balance, and are yours to end-if you can run this pigskin into the endzone. Alas, if it were only that easy. Perhaps that is why I enjoy this show so much. I grew up just outside of a small town where the only things that mattered were football, wrestling, July 4th, and Christmas, in that very order. Every character within this show and all of their personal "issues" lived in my town. Alcoholism, absent/abusive parents, paying bills when your factory just closed, alternative lifestyles in a forest full of God and tradition or you're in hell zealots. It was all there. And then there was the football-the great uniter-where everyone could come together as "one" to fight a common foe-the visiting team. Of course at the end of the day I think I like the show for the same reason I'll watch a high school football game now, or along those same lines March Madness; The intensity of play seems to more often come from a more honest place, where love of the game means more than love of a paycheck. If you've got an hour to burn on a Wednesday evening at 8pm check it out, on NBC.