2019/04/09 by Samantha N. Sheppard · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Sports, Gender, and Society #Sport and Mega-Event Impacts #American Sports and Literature
paper · doi:10.1177/0193723519840501
openalex publication_date 2019/04/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
This essay examines the sporting failures and racial iconicity of James “Boobie” Miles, whose athletic performance of defeat on the gridiron is chronicled in H. G. Bissinger’s bestselling nonfiction book Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, A Dream (1990), Peter Berg’s film adaptation Friday Night Lights (2004), and Big K.R.I.T.’s songs and music videos “Hometown Hero” from his album K.R.I.T. Wuz Here (2010) and “Boobie Miles” from his album 4eva N a Day (2012). Examining how the film displaces defeat, locating its effects and affects in the injured running back, I unpack the ways (Black) popular culture reclaims Boobie’s embodied failures on screen as a site of rhetorical agency and oppositional theorizing.