'Friday Night Lights' Book Sequel Released

Can We Hope for a Friday Night Lights TV Sequel Now?

Sportswriter Buzz Bissinger wrote his classic book Friday Night Lights, which spawned both the movie and the beloved TV series, 22 years ago.

Now, he has released a sequel, After Friday Night Lights, that updates readers on what happened between Bissinger and Boobie Miles, the Texas high school star running back who was featured in the original book.

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Bissinger actually moved to Odessa, Texas in 1988, where he followed the Permian High School Panthers for the classic 1990 book, writing about the town, the people and how important the football team was to both.

Miles' story was one of the main focuses of the story, as he became a local superstar after gaining 1,385 yards during the 1987 season and being recruited by major college football programs like Nebraska, Oklahoma, USC and, of course, Texas.

But the teen injured his knee in 1988, and after it didn't fully recover, he quit the team.

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Bissinger's sequel begins there, and follows Miles' story through some decidedly not-so-happy times through his present and through his friendship with Bissinger, who writes that the duo's friendship is "the most lasting legacy of Friday Night Lights, or at least the legacy I care about most," The Hollywood Reporter writes.

Bissinger describes their friendship as "that of a writer and his subject, a 'neurotic Jew' and a West Texas oil-field worker, a white man raised in privilege and a black man brought up in poverty and violence, and a father and his 'fourth son.'"

Bissinger, who has three sons with his wife Lisa, won a Pulitzer for his investigative reporting on the Philadelphia court system in 1987, and an article he wrote about fellow journalist Stephen Glass became the basis for the 2003 Hayden Christensen movie Shattered Glass.

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After Friday Night Lights is now available on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com and iTunes, and you can read a free excerpt at Grantland.com.

And fingers crossed that this return to the literary portion of the FNL world might hurry along that FNL movie -- featuring the FNL TV cast -- that's been in the works for a while.