Clear Eyes... Full Hearts...

You know the rest. At least, you should. And if you don't, then you need to make some time in your busy schedule to watch the entire series of Friday Night Lights. It will change your life.

It's only been two days since I mentioned that I had been trying to catch up with the show via Netflix. I didn't realize when I wrote that post that I would be watching the series finale yesterday morning prior to leaving for work. I just don't know how I feel about that.

What I mean there is, I'm not sure how I feel about the show ending. I know how I feel about the show. I can safely say that Friday Night Lights now holds a very special place in my heart. A place that I had once reserved for the love of a woman and a good bowl of Frosted Flakes. Yeah, it's that special.

Here I am, a day after finishing the series, and I find myself missing the Taylor family and the various students of Dillon, Texas. Just so we're clear, I mean the Taylor's of Dillon, Texas, not the Taylor's of Home Improvement. I don't miss them at all.

But I digress. We're here to talk about the Panthers and/or the Lions.

You know, going into this post, I had all these great plans to write something brilliant about how awesome this TV show is. But I don't want to give any of it away. I want you to watch it.

It's inspiring. Coach Eric Taylor is flawed. But he's a good man. He's a good coach. He's a good educator.

I never played football a day in my life. I wasn't even allowed to play intramural flag football with my friends in college. I'm a dropper. But I would have loved to have had a coach like Coach Taylor. And I want to be a teacher like Coach Taylor.

I don't want to coach a football team to a state championship. But Taylor is repeatedly referred to as a molder of men. He looked at his players and saw the best in them. When they screwed up, he was tough on them, but he was fair. And they respected him for that tough fairness. He believed in his players and knew that they would be able to meet their potential head on, no matter the circumstances. That's what I want to be when I grow up.

On a side note, Ha Ha. Wait. What?'s Amy let me know that she was an extra on Friday Night Lights. Twice. If I had been a proper fan of the show while it was still on the air and taping new episodes, I totally would have been jealous. Okay... even though the show is off the air, I'm still a little jealous.