Patriots

Legendary Patriots staffer played key role in creation of “Friday Night Lights”

"Buzzy, if you want to do this, get your a-- out to West Texas where they take their football seriously."

By Conor Ryan

April 4, 2024

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Friday Night Lights remains one of the most popular and influential tomes ever penned about football. 

A 1990 non-fiction book written by H.G. Bissinger about high-school football in West Texas, Friday Night Lights inspired several other works in the years following its publishing — including a 2004 film and a popular television series.

But the tale of the Permian Panthers — and in the subsequent wave of other media related to Texas football — may not have ever been told if it wasn’t for legendary Patriots staffer Ernie Adams.

Speaking on former Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman’s “Games with Names” podcast this week, Adams explained how he set Bissinger on the path toward penning the book. 

Adams, who played a key role in New England’s two-decade dynasty as the Patriots’ director of football research from 2000 to 2021, first met Bill Belichick in 1970 when the two were football teammates at Phillips Academy Andover. 

Bissinger, who also attended Phillips Academy with Adams and Belichick, covered the football team for the school’s paper, The Phillipian. 

“Buzz Bissinger, who wrote the book, was a year behind Bill and me at Phillips Academy in Andover,” Adams said. “So when Bill and I actually played together on our senior team in 1970, the reporter for the school newspaper who covered it was Buzz Bissinger. … So Friday Night Lights wasn’t really his intro to high school football. It was covering Bill and me.

“And he goes on to be a writer. … Buzz calls me up. Buzz says, ‘I’m thinking about going out to Western Pennsylvania and writing a book about high school football and the team and the town, because I know they’re really interlinked. And I know Buzzy has never been west of Philadelphia in his life.

“So I’m going to have some fun with him. And I say, ‘Buzzy, if you want to do this, get your ass out to West Texas where they take their football seriously. … And that’s how Friday Night Lights came to be written about Odessa Permian High School.”

Given Adams’ extensive knowledge of all things related to football, it should come as little surprise that the longtime Patriots staffer played a significant role in the creation of one of the sport’s most cherished stories.

With Belichick reportedly preparing to write a book, it might be a wise move for the former Patriots coach to run the initial pitch by his longtime friend.