Does the quarterback at your school always get attention similar to say the movie Varsity Blues?
Posted by reddier2023@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 250 comments
Sports movies tend to have almost a fanatical view particularly in smaller towns that football is the be an end all? Cheerleaders, fraternity guys and sorority groups seem common and quarterbacks get all the girls and credit. Can people in this situation or experienced school / college life students share stories?
patty202@reddit
No.
MolemanusRex@reddit
Well of course sports movies are going to focus on sports. But it depends on the school. At my school the theatre kids were the most popular.
StruggleFinancial407@reddit
WHERE did you live that the theater kids were the most popular, as opposed to the… “unique” kids?
Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit
High school musical high 😂
plutopius@reddit
It was like that at my public high school in DC as well. Currently, 2 of the theater kids from my year are signed to major record labels, have gone on tours, and are doing well within their genre. One was prom king.
I have no idea who the quarterback was.
Big-Dig-Pig@reddit
I grew up in suburban Michigan and it was definitely cool to be involved in theater. It was a great excuse to show off and hang out with the opposite sex backstage for hours after school every day.
StruggleFinancial407@reddit
Oh, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to imply that it wasn’t cool at all to be a theater kid. My teen daughter did theater for three years, and she loved it. That group has always been a bit quirky in my experience, not in a bad way… in a fun way, but not the “most popular” as MolemanusRex stated.
ZachyChan013@reddit
Choir was the big thing in my school. Cool kids did choir. We had 7 different groups/classes. With one of them only taking 8 people. Had a room full of awards and traveled all over the place.
NoCard753@reddit
Man, I wish I'd gone to your school. We had Boys Glee, Girls Glee, A Cappella Choir and Vocal Ensemble. The latter had 16 members and required an invitation.
MolemanusRex@reddit
Suburb with lots of Jews and Asians and Mormons and, in retrospect, gays
sean8877@reddit
That's so wild to hear, I went to school in the '80s and the band or theater kids were the outcasts and the ones getting bullied. The athletes were usually doing the bullying which matches the stereotype I guess.
MolemanusRex@reddit
We just didn’t have bullying at my school lol. We were all a bunch of Jews and Asians and Mormons
sean8877@reddit
You're lucky
DoesTheOctopusCare@reddit
Yeah at my high school, the star of the musical theater was also the quarterback! And he dm'd D&D campaigns too.
MolemanusRex@reddit
Teenage me is frothing at the mouth rn
lily_fairy@reddit
my school was so big that no one really cared if you did sports, band, or theatre. our prom king was a theatre kid. as someone who did sports, band, and theatre i felt like the theatre kids were by far the most cliquey and had the most mean girl energy. there was a clear hierarchy of popularity within theatre that depended on talent, looks, gender (boys were automatically more popular), and being extroverted. band kids also had popular kids and loners within the group but overall they were more chill, friendly, and normal. sports girls were so nice, wholesome, and unproblematic. there was never really any drama and no one was excluded.
GeneralBlumpkin@reddit
Theatre kids were the bullies taking lunch money from the football players lmao
Pathetic_Saddness@reddit
What if they were also the bully’s? They just torture the QB, noogies every time QB1 fails to “yes, and…”
Ok-Concert-6475@reddit
I'd say theater was a bigger deal at my high school too. But I graduated 30 years ago.
green_and_yellow@reddit
This is how it was at my school, too.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Private or public?
green_and_yellow@reddit
Public. It was an urban high school. High school sports and the Varsity Blues’ football culture is more prevalent at rural and suburban high schools.
DanielR372@reddit
What the hell 😭😭😭
Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit
No. We also ran the wing t lmao
SelectionFar8145@reddit
Unclear. My school was the only public high school in the county that didn't do football.
itmightbehere@reddit
When it came to popular folks, most of them were on a sports team, but not popular because of the sports. They were mostly well rounded. A bunch of them also did theater, orchestra/band, were intellectually gifted, or a combo of a bunch of those things. I was a huge nerd, not popular at all, and I liked most of the popular people. They were nice.
I could not name who the QB was. You generally knew what sport the popular kids played because they had to wear uniforms on game days, but not what they played on that team. Our football team was locally award winning, but I think basketball and volleyball was more common among the popular kids.
This was in the suburbs of a smaller city.
TravelinTrojan@reddit
At our school, the football team sucked and so they got no attention. On the other hand, our swim team was district champs every year so they got all the attention. (Full disclosure: I was a swimmer 😉)
CommandAlternative10@reddit
I knew exactly who was on the waterpolo team. They were the golden gods of my CA high school.
NoCard753@reddit
Orange County?
CommandAlternative10@reddit
Marin.
NoCard753@reddit
Huh. I wouldn't have guessed.
KennstduIngo@reddit
At my school the football team was mid and the soccer team was ranked #1 nationally for like 3 years in a row, but the football players still got all the attention. I heard of several of them that tried to play in college and got their egos deflated.
travelinmatt76@reddit
Same here, I think in my 4 years of high school our team won 7 times
Outrageous-Pin-4664@reddit
Our football team sucked, but they still got attention. The quarterback usually won homecoming king.
The quarterbacks I remember, though, were decent guys. Smart as well as athletic. As far as I can tell, they all went on to have pretty decent lives, even though (or perhaps because) none of them ever played professionally.
AmishAngst@reddit
Nope. Couldn't have even told you who it was back then, definitely couldn't tell you now. Neither high school nor college. In high school I would have a vague notion of who the players and cheerleaders were because on pep rally days they would wear their jerseys or cheerleading uniforms all day but that's it. No one really cared beyond that.
The answer may be different in more rural areas where high school sports are THE entertainment in the area for everyone (whereas my area no one really cares much outside of the people actually connected to the high school) or where they are more fanatical about college football. Not everyone in the US is like that.
anneofgraygardens@reddit
I was in the marching band in high school so I attended every single home football game for four years. And I don't think I ever knew who the quarterback was. I knew who was on the team, generally, but I had no idea what positions people played. The quarterback was not known specifically to the student body.
Seth_Littrells_alt@reddit
God, no.
I went to a 6A high school in Texas, the biggest and most competitive level of high school football in by far the most aggressively football-mad state in America, and our high school QB was just another dude, socially. Probably because the school’s football program was bad and had always been bad, so nobody ever really expected much from the football team/players on the field.
The school had an outstanding theatre program that went to state about once every three years or so, and the guy who was their out-and-out leading man while I was there was probably the most popular guy in my grade. Good dude, he went to Julliard and then ended up as a consistent company guy on Broadway, and picked up leading roles in a few national tours. Last I saw him, he was the lead on the Once tour a few years ago.
Flat_Conversation858@reddit
....you guys had state competitions for theatre?
Sorry_Rutabaga3031@reddit
Wait until you find put about Mariachi...
Flat_Conversation858@reddit
Definitely had never thought that would a thing....but I guess it's not much different than a singing competition or cheer/dance teams performances.
But theatre?? How do they judge it?Damn you really killed that line...?
Seth_Littrells_alt@reddit
Three-judge panels. They watch all the shows at the meet, rank them, pick winners for awards, and then the top two teams move on.
The judges are all Theatre professors. This is Texas, so we’ve got four really strong Theatre schools in the state (Baylor, SMU, Texas State, and UT-Austin), and their faculty are usually the ones pulled in to be the judges. It also helps those programs get an eye on the best young performers coming out of the high schools with better theatre programs, so they can recruit those kids to the college programs later.
Seth_Littrells_alt@reddit
Hell yeah, UIL one-act competition. One act plays, there’s a district meet from which the top two troupes advance to regionals, then on to the state competition down in Austin. The state competition is brutal, the girl who won Best Performer the year my school went to state actually ended up at the same college theatre program as me, and she blew the doors off that state competition even as an 18 year-old. I was at her wedding a few years ago, she’s had a great last decade doing in-the-loop work in Chicago.
UIL runs all inter-school competitions in Texas, from football/athletics to theatre, to co-hosting some of the FFA competitions.
DanielR372@reddit
wild things happening at other people’s high school bro im equally as confused with some of these other replies. Theatre????!?!?!?!?!?
Main-Syrup-1334@reddit
I live in Texas too! Know what ya mean!
Marvel_plant@reddit
I literally had no idea who our quarterback was for my entire school career
lily_fairy@reddit
no i couldn't even tell you what his name was. my high school had about 2000 students and there was no hierarchy of popularity across the whole school. you weren't special for playing football or being a cheerleader. no one gave a shit. there was definitely drama, cliques, and popularity within different groups. as someone who did a lot of everything, sports teams were nice and wholesome actually for the most part. band and theatre were so cliquey and could be brutal to weird, shy kids.
sean8877@reddit
Wow things have changed since I was in school, the band and theater was where the weird or shy kids went to hide out from the bullies. The athletes were the mean ones, which I guess lives up to the movie stereotype. Glad to see it is different now with the athletes, but it's weird that band and theater kids are the bullies now.
FivebyFive@reddit
Not to that extent, but I'll say in my large school in Georgia, even with thousands of students, and hating football... I knew who he was.
Curmudgy@reddit
I had no idea who any of the varsity athletes were when I was in high school. That’s partly because of being in the honors science program, but mostly because there was no way a school with triple session could build that sort of school spirit. Getting into a good college was far more important.
FivebyFive@reddit
In the south playing football is HOW a lot of kids get into good colleges.
Past_Worker_8262@reddit
I hear you. Plus most kids in New England (I went to school in Marlborough and up in Fryeburg, Maine) seem to play more than one sport and stay more focused on academics
Fantastic-Pear6241@reddit
Crazy how much school sports matters in the US. My partner said she had to attend mandatory pep rallies for the school sports teams. Genuinely unthinkable thing in the UK
FivebyFive@reddit
Ehh even in the deep south where football is king, our pep rallies weren't mandatory.
MrLongWalk@reddit
It doesn’t matter that much in the vast majority of the US. I used to teach US culture in the UK and this is one of those things you lot are pretty misinformed on.
Fantastic-Pear6241@reddit
I guess I'll tell my American fiancée it never actually happened to her
MrLongWalk@reddit
I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, I’m saying it’s not as universal or important as you guys want it to be.
Fantastic-Pear6241@reddit
I think it's more so that, even at your "it's not that important" level is far more than our normal.
Your normal is so skewed that it doesn't seem that important. But when compared to our normal it's still more important than we'd ever experience.
MrLongWalk@reddit
I’m saying that in much of the country these rallies don’t happen at all, or are strictly voluntary and the football players are just other students. As a Brit your understanding of life in the US does not reflect reality. It’d be like an American trying to explain to you that school assemblies are the cornerstone of British school life.
Fantastic-Pear6241@reddit
To be fair, I never said it was a cornerstone. I said it matters far more than in my country. The fact you even have voluntary rallies would be a wild thing in the UK. If you have a sports field at your school with stands (bleachers), you take sports more importantly/seriously than any UK school.
MrLongWalk@reddit
Fair enough, I still think you’re misunderstanding the place and importance of sports in the US, it’s not like teen sports are unheard of in the UK.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Wow, so that's sufficient evidence
bass679@reddit
There's a few factors for it. 1. Football is generally a popular sport and in a lot of places their games are kind of an event. They're once per week and always the same time /date. So it's a big event. Being part of a popular thing helps your popularity.
Most teams have 1 quarterback and maybe one backup. It's one of the few positions that has only a single person AND it is specifically is a job where you stand apart from everyone else with a specific task. Like, I played on the Offensive line in HS. There were at least 5 of us and our job was basically to get in the way of the defense. It's not glamorous and we all kinda blend together to folks watching.
Quarterbacks favor a taller, slim build. If course they're in good shape but the typical build in in line with conventionally attractive body types. Meanwhile those of us on the line tended more towards the "strongman" build. Stockier and heavier so easier to get in the way of the defense.
The QB is basically the team leader during offensive sections of the game. They're making a lot of decisions and in my experience are pretty bright guys. They might not be the smartest guy you know but definite smarter. Good QBs are also tend to be decently charismatic. Being likable and a good leader is just generally helpful you need everyone to follow a detailed plan to protect you.
So, you have an easily identifiable, generally handsome, bright, and likable dude. It's very likely that correlates to a popular person in a school setting. Not that they MUST be, but it's going to work out that wymay more often than not.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Thx Bro, summarises nicely for me
MrLongWalk@reddit
It’s not a typical answer
sosuhme@reddit
Worth noting, a whole lot of places in the country don't put the emphasis on sports that others do. Or the emphasis is on different sports. Football is the biggest sport in terms of popularity for the country overall, but region to region you might have basketball, wrestling, hockey, swimming, etc., as the focus and in those places the best at THAT sport will be the one who gets all the attention. Where I went to school, the emphasis on sports was more or less even to other things like music, theatre, and other arts. There was no top dog just because someone was a good QB. It was a big school, so that factors in, but even though I'm a huge NFL fan now, I couldn't list more than a few people on the football team while I was there, much less what positions they played or what the teams record was.
guiltypleasures82@reddit
I had no idea who the quarterback was at my high school. I went to a very famous football college and only vaguely knew who the QB was there and wouldn't recognize him but I'm sure he was treated very well at any party he went to.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Treated, you mean drinks, fanatical support, sexually?
guiltypleasures82@reddit
Treated like a celebrity at a party, people probably got drinks for him, women flirted with him etc.
DanielR372@reddit
I’d say always depends on the school but I would lean more towards yes. Not as much in a bigger school. If he’s awful people know him. If he’s amazing people know him. If he’s just average people won’t really care. My high school was a little under 4,000 students but the quarterback got lots of attention because we were a top team in the country and he was a top quarterback. I went to a school before that of 500 students. Quarterback was just a regular student who was slightly above average at throwing a football.
This doesn’t apply anywhere though. At some small towns the quarterback is like a celebrity. I know people from small towns in the south that have told me wild stories.
sharpshooter999@reddit
My high-school had 75 students in 7-12 the year i graduated. Every guy in 9-12 was on the football team except for 3 guys. We had 22 players my senior year. Tryouts were never a thing, you want to play, you sign a clipboard. We only had cheerleaders for football, because all our cheerleaders also played volleyball and basketball. I was one of 7 students that didn't do track and one of 5 that didn't do band. Track and band days consisted of us doing homework and watching tv in class.
Our QB was just another classmate
DanielR372@reddit
22 players on a team isn’t the norm though
sharpshooter999@reddit
It is out here where we all play 8 and 6 man football lol. We invented both versions here in Nebraska, close to where I'm from actually
DanielR372@reddit
I have about 1,000 questions for you lmao. I come from a different world. Like I said, my high school was 4.000 students. The city I live in is around 200,000 residents and is close to Los Angeles. All the neighboring cities have above 100,000.
Ghost6040@reddit
Whay gets wild is you head out to Eastern Oregon and 3 high schoolshave to coop to get a 6-man football team.
sharpshooter999@reddit
I mean, we're at that point here. 3 of the towns that make up our school now had their own independent high-schools in the 90's
sharpshooter999@reddit
Ask away. My county has a pop of 5k. We're an hour from Lincoln, two hours from Omaha, and three hours from Kansas City. Our school is consolidated from several towns, some with populations of around 30. High-school in one town, elementary in another. That's pretty common out here. 1 teacher per grade in elementary. High-school has 2 math teachers, 2 English, 2 science, 1 history, 1 shop, 1 band, 1 PE, 1 janitor, 3 lunch ladies, 1 librarian/computer tech/business teacher. We shared a Spanish teacher with 3 other schools.
Our building had one hallway. The gym was one one end, and the cafeteria was on the other. When I graduated in '08, most lunches were made from scratch every morning. You could smell bread baking most days. We didn't have security cameras at school until '07. Zero security, no metal detector, resource officer or anything. Still don't.
You can get a school permit and drive to school when your 14, and literally everyone does. The only kids on the busses are Jr high (7-8) and elementary kids.
I knew all 16 of my classmates, their siblings, parents, and were they lived, as well as the other grades as well. People in 9-12 mixed and mingled because everyone had a younger or older sibling
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Ok, similar size to my town, so fascinated to hear the stories?
sharpshooter999@reddit
Lol what kind of stories?
DanielR372@reddit
Have you left this area and seen the real world yet?
sharpshooter999@reddit
I've been to Germany, France, the UK, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Jamaica, Honduras, the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, and Puerto Rico
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
What stories?
DanielR372@reddit
QB played a shit game. Got back to his house and a rock through his window lmfao. They take high school football/football in general extremely serious in the south. It’s Church Football and Family there. In that order honestly
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Why that region in particular?
DanielR372@reddit
Football was invented in the northeast and trickled down to the south. The northeast moved on to liking basketball and academics more but the south forever loved football. Quite frankly it’s because football is generally a poor man’s sport and the south is poorer. That’s the way I try to explain it to non-americans. Football is a sport of hard work and physical labor. That’s what kids from that area know.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Interesting, we have Rugby League (considered blue collar) and Rugby Union (private school ). Both these sports carry concussion concerns so I'm thinking generational?
matthewsmugmanager@reddit
I think that's a fair picture, but I would urge you to add the part about traumatic brain injuries. If you plan on a career that will involve your intellect, playing football as a youngster is not a good move.
DanielR372@reddit
Playing football for a few years in high school isn’t a big deal. Playing more than that is a problem I agree.
Bluemonogi@reddit
Athletes often received some special treatment/attention compared to non-athlete students. Money tends to go to sports and funding for arts get cut. A local community college has financial issues. They put money into a new field. Now they are not firing coaches or eliminating sports. They are getting rid of music or art teachers to try to save money.
I don’t know that the quarterback in my high school got more attention than other members of the team. I don’t think they “got all the girls”. They might have dated a cheerleader. People knew who they were because the team got a pep rallys, homecoming, etc. I don’t think they were exactly adored by the entire student body. Lots of us didn’t give a shit about sports.
Angry_GorillaBS@reddit
My school didn't even have football. But I do remember when I was a freshman the ugly, dumb star basketball/baseball player definitely got all the attention.
Turns out the guy couldn't even read, but magically managed to graduate.
solarsprintmode@reddit
That dynamic is really only a reality in a tiny fraction of rural high schools and even then it’s massively exaggerated for movies. Most of the time people just want the game to end so they can go to the diner or get home.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
What was the time slot?
DistanceRelevant3899@reddit
Games usually started at 7pm on Fridays when I was in school.
DistanceRelevant3899@reddit
Not when I was in high school.
But our QB was hilariously bad, along with the rest of the team. Super nice dude and he was popular, just not because of his football skills.
MamaMidgePidge@reddit
It was true when I was a teen and also for my parents generation. My dad was his high school's quarterback and was also the prom king, which is 100% a popularity contest. He was (is) a really nice guy though too.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Did he go the next level?
Johnny_Burrito@reddit
I don’t even know who the quarterback at my school was.
Difficult_Habit_4483@reddit
It depends where you live. I grew up on Long Island, NY and I couldn’t even tell you who was on the football team
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
So in a smaller town?
anclwar@reddit
There is no such thing as a small town on LI. I'm being a little facetious with that statement, but Long Island is jam packed with people.
I went to college on Long Island, attended a large state university. Between my large regional high school in South Jersey and my large state university on Long Island, I wouldn't be able to give you a single name for a single football player, QB or not.
sarapod07@reddit
No, this stuff is very regional. It's more a question of if you live in a part of the country where this is more likely to be true than town to town.
anclwar@reddit
Grew up in South Jersey and honestly, same. I kind of remember the faces of people I'd see in football jerseys on game days, but I don't remember any names and probably didn't ever know most of them. My high school was huge and the only sportsball players I knew were on a rec rugby team (it helped that I was actually friends with most of those guys).
youngpathfinder@reddit
Maybe, but I went to a 5A high school in Texas with >800 people in the graduating class and I bet more than half couldn’t have named the starting QB if their life depended on it.
LankyJeep@reddit
If you are a Varsity athlete playing football you will be known in school, the QB will be the most known because he is the most consequential player on the field and gets the most attention.
Some schools have a random sport they are very invested in from a student body perspective, but it normally takes the form of who’s popular at the time driving that interest, or a towns historic interest in the sport
msspider66@reddit
Football wasn’t a big sport in my high school. We would occasionally go to the games but it was mostly to support a friend who was in the marching band. Our football games were played on Saturday afternoons.
The sports where my school excelled were field hockey and track/cross country. It was more of a “good for them” but crowds were not attending the meets and games
I grew up on Long Island. NY
shadowpavement@reddit
The high school I attended didn’t even have football, but everyone knew the Soccer/Basketball captain. But our school was small and this kids parents both worked at the school and he had 4 other brothers, of various ages, so everyone was familiar with the family.
I currently work as a teacher in a school of 1200 kids. I’ve been there 25 years now and I’ve never known who the football captain was.
manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit
Neither of the schools I went to even had a football team.
Lugbor@reddit
I don't know if it's changed (highly doubt it has), but when I was in school, the football team was basically made up of whoever bothered to show up for tryouts. The only people who made a big deal out of it were the administrators and parents. I couldn't have told you who the quarterback was, or even who any of the team members were in general, but I do know they were pretty close to beating their record losing streak the year I graduated.
qu33nof5pad35@reddit
No
rco8786@reddit
Exaggerated but overall accurate
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Which state can I ask and smaller towns in general?
rco8786@reddit
All of them tbh and yes typically more of a thing in small towns.
NoMoreMustaches@reddit
I went to a giant public school in Miami. There were guys that I knew were popular on the athletic teams, but football wasn’t at the top, and I didn’t even know who the quarterback was. It went baseball and waterpolo (we didn’t have a pool, but there was a public one right next door), and then football.
This was even with a football team that had recently been decent and had even produced some hall of fame level professional players.
Also, weirdly the cheerleaders were some of the least popular groups. For some reason they were an afterthought, so popular girls didn’t join.
We also had a marching squad with a female dance troop that were all more popular, although by far the top of the popularity hierarchy were a crew of rich girls nicknamed “the Spit Sisters”.
My school was also nowhere near as cliqué-y as movies tend to depict. For instance I was not popular, yet I was friendly enough to sometimes eat with the popular girls, I was friends with one of the football players through us both being in drama class, etc. The social barriers just didn’t exist in the same way, and bullying wasn’t much of a thing.
Maybe, my experience is less true to others because I grew up in an insanely diverse environment. We had students from something like 80 different countries.
remes1234@reddit
The seriousness of highschool is very different between regions. I live in suburban Michigan, and it is not a huge deal here. In the south, in bigger schools, absolutely yes.
Mental-Method-1321@reddit
I graduated from a HS where our football team won state but I don’t remember any particular reverence for the QB. Our school was good at many sports so it wasn’t football obsessed either.
NateInEC@reddit
No ..... Hollywood
CloudedLeopardDaemon@reddit
No. My school didn't even have an American football team.
TillPsychological351@reddit
The quarterback on our team was kind of a quiet, humble guy. He had the same girlfriend the last two years of school. He maybe got a little bit of extra attention, but it was nothing like what you describe.
Also figuring into this, our offense just wasn't very good, so it wasn't like he gaining glory on the field.
HeartFullOfHappy@reddit
Not at my high school.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
In a small town or city?
HeartFullOfHappy@reddit
Suburban town
brizia@reddit
This was 25 years ago in suburban NJ in a school of 2000 kids, but I only knew who he was because I had classes with him. My high school football team sucked, but overall there was no athlete worship in my school. You only knew who athletes were because they wore their varsity jacket.
MrLongWalk@reddit
Nobody knew or cared at my school
machagogo@reddit
Not remotely common in mybarea. High school football is a thing kids currently in school might go see, and parents of players. That's about it. We have no stadiums like in Texas.
Also, neither my high school nor one of my sons high school even had a football team.
1Negative_Person@reddit
I’m a long time out of high school, and I didn’t play football when I was in high school, but my recollection was that most girls didn’t follow the sport closely or care who played what position.
To the extent that this is any more than a film/television trope, I’d guess it’s because that the quarterback is almost always tall, athletic, and reasonably intelligent.
Otherwise-OhWell@reddit
I graduated 30 years ago.
DeathByBamboo@reddit
I don't even remember who the QB of my high school football team was. They were hopelessly pitifully bad, even when they had a legit NFL kicker on the team.
seecarlytrip@reddit
Well I’m from north Texas, so… yes
Cheap-Unit-2363@reddit
I'm not from North Texas, but have lived here over 20 years.
Grew up in California and the "high school football field" was just that, with bleachers on both sides. Moved to Texas and the "high school stadiums" are out of this world. Multi million dollar stadiums for high school kids to play football in.
So yes, OP, football is huge in Texas, where Varsity Blues is based.
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/10-most-expensive-high-school-120000412.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADVC6ZoOdJN2ywJEVj1cipamxmbcim7a3P8HUncVBzJiQsAqPYS7-vAXcCEJCwoGUU9nGsnpgaYWoArVCYY1_k9XyEdLG-xz4aSMHCEtlLNy6AvclPJ8IOGNJoQDrR8sBcdRJnQz8ERyXuRem_-J0pMmUfNl2jBrLNYJnrIhVcm3
DeliciousBeanWater@reddit
Where i went, not even a little bit. Everyone knew who the captains of the wrestling and field hockey teams were tho
AKA-Pseudonym@reddit
Absolutely not. The only people who cared about the football team even a little bit were the people in the football team.
Certain_Expression41@reddit
Depends a lot on region/culture. We were the second worst team in our area so nobody gave a shit.
Spirited-Way2406@reddit
I absolutely did not enjoy watching any high school sports at all and I had no idea who any of the athletes were unless they were dressed in their sports outfits. On the other hand, my town did not and does not have a ritual of affirming communal identity through children's sports. Sports were and are considered to be a way to get kids into college (on sports scholarships), to get kids to exercise, and to produce a well-rounded adult--mens sana in corpore sano and all that. But if all you were known for was sports, you were considered to be kind of shallow by your peers and by adults.
Initial_Natural2650@reddit
I went to every football game in high school because I was in the marching band and I never knew the name of the quarterback. But our football teams wasn't very good. If the team was good and the quarterback was good, I probably would have known his name.
DummyThiccDude@reddit
Never seen the movie, but football was pretty popular in my area.
We were a smaller highschool so we paired with another highschool for sports. Most of the team was from the bigger highschool, so i cant really speak on there popularity but even their students knew who i was (i also played football).
Individual_Profile90@reddit
I went to school in a deeply rural and conservative area, so a place you’d typically associate with football… at my school you only played football if you were a “loser”. We lost every year and nobody gave a rats ass about our team. If you were cool you ran cross country track. Idk how it ended up that way, we also had a huge amount of funding for our arts and music programs rather than sports. Deeply grateful for it
Fluffy_Mantis3133@reddit
At our very small school, the quarterback was usually just a middling player while the best player and the one who got the most attention usually ended up being a different position.
At a small school, the color of that attention had a lot to do with personality. They weren’t worshipped because everyone just knew each other too well for that.
Most of the glorification was the game itself. It’s one of the very, very few things small communities can gather around.
Same with a lot of the football players being in theater and show choir. And the popular girls were often athletes. I went to college in the city and found they had really strict gender roles. Like F that.
Successful_Image3354@reddit
Yes and no. Obviously you are comparing real life to a fiction, but there is some element of truth in it.
Do you play football? This is a rhetorical question because of course you don't. Otherwise you would not be asking this question.
I'm not going to be critical of you, but what everyone who has played knows is that football is war. The quarterback is the person who leads the offense. Either he is a leader or your team sucks.
With that said, every leader leads in different ways. Some lead quietly by example. Some are absolute bullies. There is no central casting. But believe me when I say that no football program is successful without firm leadership. And I say this with 2 years of midget football. 4 years of high school varsity, and one year of college football. And I wasn't the QB.
BTW, though, us middle linebackers, without the pretty faces, were pretty tough too.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
I've played Football (AFL) and it's dangerous and what we say white line fever. Each team a captain but wasn't revered where people are going crazy over him.
Successful_Image3354@reddit
Fair enough. You are asked about a USA TV show/movie about USA football and I erroneously assumed that when you were referring to the AFL, you did not mean the USA AFL., OK. I get it.
You played a different game than I played. They both were dangerous. 50 years later I still feel the effects of the game, but I still would never give up for the sake of pain what I got from the camaraderie/ teamsmanship that came from playing US football. Everything I said previously about the sport is true.
Successful_Image3354@reddit
I mean this with the utmost of respect. If you played in the AFL you are older than me, and I'm 72. I remember the first three Superbowls when the Packers beat the Chiefs, then the Raiders, and when the Jets beat the Colts before the merger of the AFL with the NFL. It was the best year ever in 1969 when the Jets, the Knicks, the Rangers, and the Mets all won their respective world championships.
Let me ask you a dumb question. If you played in the AFL, why would you ask the question you asked about Varsity Blues? You already lived it. You know the answer before you asked the question.
Low_Attention9891@reddit
OP is most likely referring to the Australian Football League, which is not the same thing as American football or soccer for that matter.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Not in USA
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Australian Rules Football...check it out
asexualrhino@reddit
Depends where you live. It's probably a bigger deal in the south or states where high school and college sports are a big deal.
I couldn't have told you who our quarterback was even when I was in school. I knew one football player (I think a linebacker) and that's because he sat at my table in art class. Big nerd. Loved Magic the Gathering.
Low_Attention9891@reddit
Both of my schools are in Michigan.
I go to a large state university (~50,000 students), I went to a high school that had about 1,000ish students. I never played football at either school. Neither are in a small town.
Fraternities and sororities are exclusively in college, not High School. And, at least at my university, they definitely do exist and are common.
As for the popular football player clique that doesn’t really exist at either school. At my High School, there was a football clique, but they weren’t really that popular. Although my high school football team sucked, so that may have something to do with it.
At college, the football team is essentially a professional sports team. I’ve never seen or interacted with any of them personally. I’m sure there’s a clique, but I wouldn’t be aware of it. At that scale it kind of adds some distance.
Pathetic_Saddness@reddit
Idk but if your reference Varsity blues you get the mandatory “I don’t want your life!” Reference.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Meaning what exactly ?
Pathetic_Saddness@reddit
That’s a famous scene in the film
Amockdfw89@reddit
I live in a large urban area and honestly yea it’s pretty close.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
What state, this seems pertinent
Amockdfw89@reddit
Texas
hisamsmith@reddit
I grew up in Indiana. It’s a state obsessed with basketball. The basketball players the year my small town high school team won the state championship (with a 26-0 winning streak record) they didn’t get assigned any homework from the tenth game on. Everyone knew them not just students but people in the small town. The town gave the team a parade after the championship game. It was huge. I was friends with some of the boys on the team and I can remember going out to eat with them in restaurants in town and suddenly our bill was on the house for the championship winners.
It was less common for football players but still close to it.
Danibear285@reddit
100%
I’m here to confirm your biases
Unique_Statement7811@reddit
Depends on the school. Varsity Blues taxes place in football crazy Texas. In parts of the US like Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas, football is really put on a pedestal. Go to Washington or New York and most high school students couldn’t name their schools QB.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
What does Texas have that other states don't?
Unique_Statement7811@reddit
A cultural obsession with football. The US is a massive country. Lacrosse is big in the Northeast, Hockey is big in the Midwest, football is big in the South and Southwest, and so on.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Yes, I'll come over soon
sarapod07@reddit
A weird obsession with high school sports.
funkoramma@reddit
I grew up in a suburb. We called our high school quarterback “BMOC” for “Big Man on Campus”. It was sort of a joke riffing off the stereotypical high school football movies. But everyone did know him and he was popular. You should look up “quarterback face”. It’s an interesting theory.
Of course, this is going to be very different by geography. In some schools, the popular kids are jocks and in other school there will be different popular cliques.
_fenwoods@reddit
I have no idea who the quarterback of my high school was.
Glittering-Debt-5729@reddit
Not my school. Our football team was good but I doubt people could tell you who the quarterback was. Our school had lots of talented people across multiple disciples but thankfully it was more egalitarian than the movies.
CHawk17@reddit
when I was in High School, our QB was a grade A asshole; so no, he did not get attention to the same magitude as you see in movies.
he did have his circle of friends and 2 or 3 groupies; but the vast majority (including team mates) could not stand him. and he was the starting QB of the only Football team from my school to win the state championship.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Arrogant and elitest?
NoCard753@reddit
In California, no, and I'd imagine not in most other stares. In towns and small cities in Texas and Oklahoma, though, and maybe a few other states, the starting quarterback gets VIP treatment — usually only if his team is winning, though.
I love Varsity Blues, but the book Friday Night Lights is a much more accurate description of Texas high school gridiron football. The author was a Washington Post sportswriter who took a two-year leave of absence and moved to Odessa, Texas to write it, immersing himself in West pTexas culture.
SplitOpenAndMelt420@reddit
I'm from a town on Long Island where high school sports meant nothing and I genuinely don't remember who the quarterback was and I was on the football team lol
Infinite-Surprise-53@reddit
It was the wide receiver at mine
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Speed and fitness?
Infinite-Surprise-53@reddit
He ended up starting on a Division 1 college team so he was pretty good
Baebarri@reddit
We weren't allowed to have our graduation ceremony at the football stadium because it had rained two days before and the coach was afraid we'd ruin his turf. In MAY.
In Texas, football is God. Everybody in town knows the entire football roster and the quarterback is typically also the homecoming king and maybe class president. And he dates the head cheerleader.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
I still find this crazy to believe 😊
UpbeatPhilosophySJ@reddit
I’d say most of these impressive athletes were already kind of popular simply because they were all grown up before everybody else
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Great point
GetInTheHole@reddit
Not when I was in school.
Our QB was probably on the spectrum in today’s parlance. Totally out of place outside of sports. A goober with the girls. One of the top 5 in our class but he sweated and fought for every GPA point.
He wasn’t the biggest nor the fastest but he was the ultimate grinder. He succeeded through sheer hard work. Tough farm kid who knew that was the only way out. I was taller and faster, but he had 30 pounds of muscle on me. I barely worked out in the off season, he lived in the gym.
But, he was also voted the most likely to join a cult or a MLM company. I don’t know anyone that has heard from him in 35 years so it could,have gone either way.
FunImprovement166@reddit
This is Reddit. Most people on this site wore a cape to class. Not the group of people you should use to gauge sports related popularity.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Bahaha, possibly another sub Reddit?
FunImprovement166@reddit
Maybe ask about the best player in an e sports sub or something
Zealousideal_Lab_427@reddit
I’m from a large metropolitan area, so I went to one of the many public high schools in the city. It was a college prep school, had a robust art/drama program, an IB program, math/science path and language path. We had football, baseball and basketball teams (all boys) and a volleyball team (girls).
I never went to a single game. Our gymnasium had banners hanging with the various championships, and trophies in the main hallway, so I knew teams existed. I’d sometimes see the teams in uniforms, piling into buses for a game…but yeah, it even depends on the individual school. No one in my friend circle went to games either.
Big-Dig-Pig@reddit
I have no idea who the quarterback on our football team was. The most popular guy in school was a genuinely wonderful and friendly dude who would give you the shirt off of his back. I think that he played basketball but he wasn’t the star athlete or anything.
roses_sunflowers@reddit
I never knew who the quarterback at my high school was. I might’ve known a few cheerleaders, but only because they would regularly wear their uniforms to class. I’m going into my final year of college and also don’t know who the quarterback is. Occasionally I see frats and sororities doing stuff around campus, but all I really remember is that one of the sororities passes out pins that look like breast cancer awareness but are actually advertising for them. And I think sometimes the frats set up fundraisers where you can throw a pie (or some other messy thing) at someone for a few dollars.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
So what type of person becomes part of these frats and sororities? Maybe in university things became more prominent?
roses_sunflowers@reddit
There are a lot of types of frats and sororities. Plenty of them do good stuff, like volunteering, community fundraisers, and encouraging academic success of their people. Some of them are stereotypical dudes partying. I don’t interact with many people in frats or sororities so my understanding of them is barely more than stereotypes.
malachite_13@reddit
Football is not super big here. So no. Other places yes I’m sure.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Hockey?
malachite_13@reddit
Hockey is very popular. I don’t think to the extent that football is in other states though
ku_78@reddit
We ran the ball on 3rd and 8. Our QB had one job, hand off.
Sitcom_kid@reddit
We had no sports. The drum major got the attention.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Wow
MakeMeAHurricane@reddit
I knew who the quarterback was, but only because I was also in theater with him.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
The so called cool guy in theatre sounds like other movies ive watched.
Evenfisher01@reddit
Yea football is a big deal. Varsity blues is overblown though
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Can you explain that against the actual movie?
Main-Syrup-1334@reddit
Where I live, football is king, so it’s not just the quarterback, but the whole team!
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Being King, what were his attributes and did the cheerleaders age town people fuss over him?
Main-Syrup-1334@reddit
It had been a long time ago, I don’t really remember that much, I was not a big football fan. The football players and cheerleaders were the popular group. In later years, my high school won state championship 3 years in a row.
packersfan823@reddit
No. My school was trash at football, though.
We all knew who the basketball players were (and the quarterback of the football team was vetter known for playing basketball). 1 kid went to the NBA for a few seasons, he was very well known around the school.
xxxjessicann00xxx@reddit
It's the wrestlers at my school. The football team sucks but the wrestlers are nationally ranked.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Didn't expect that?
misagale@reddit
Yes.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Why?
misagale@reddit
When football is a big deal in a community, the best football player is the hit shot. Not much mystery to it. It definitely differs depending on which community.
theDudeUh@reddit
No. My high school tried to have a pep rally once. We all got sent back to class after we booed the football team off the stage.
Legitimately more people came to our high school football games to watch the marching band at half time than the football game.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
This is funny
BreadfruitTasty@reddit
You know, I was head of sports for our online newspaper but I couldn’t tell you who he was. I probably knew the QB back then’s name but I don’t know it now.
We also had the homecoming dance that went with it. Usually I’d think you’d vote for a player to be king and his girlfriend to be queen. That rings a bell at least.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Holy shit, the Prom King and Queen is crazy and just doesn't exist for us. Movies highlight and connect sports success with Prom status?
BreadfruitTasty@reddit
No, the royalty (underclassmen are prince/princess) are voted on usually during the dance or the game. Whichever comes first and announced whatever event is later. At least from what I can recall.
thewholetruthis@reddit
The social QB has potential to be revered in a school that excels at football, especially in a state that loves football.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
What states?
OkContract2001@reddit
No. I don't know if I ever knew who the QB was at my school. But our team was so bad people showed up mostly to cheer the marching band (which was excellent). I grew up in a private school in a very wealthy area where lots of the parents were professors or engineers, so academics and creative arts like theater and band were much more popular.
smurphy8536@reddit
The best player on my high schools football team wasn’t the quarterback but pretty much everyone knew who the “star player” was. I also ran cross country with kid who went on to compete in the Olympics.
AlpsHelpful1292@reddit
I went to a school where the football team hadn’t won a game in 4 years until they finally won one our senior year. Everyone made fun of the football players. Our mathlete team slayed though.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Seems a sense of entitlement ?
CosyBeluga@reddit
No. Our team sucked and nobody really went to the games.
g00berCat@reddit
My dad was career military so I went to 6 different schools during my high school years. Some schools were huge on football and the QB was the local hero. By the time I graduated I was going to a school where basketball was the big sport and the power forward of the varsity team got all the attention.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Varsity is not used in our Country
EpicBlinkstrike187@reddit
Probably. One of the biggest schools in the state. He won a state title for our school.
I guarantee he got as many different girls he wanted during high school. I wasn’t in his clique so no idea if he did that but I knew he was with the popular crowd so he could’ve been at a party every weekend if he wanted with girls fawning over him.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
That's the perception from afar I get.
JohnnyC300@reddit
The popularity of football varies from state to state. And city to city withing that state. Varsity Blues took (stole) a lot from the non-fiction book Friday Night Lights, which itself spawned a mediocre film and a GREAT tv show. But Varsity Blues took bits and pieces and then turned the volume up to 11. It is true that many schools in Texas take football VERY seriously. And other southern states like Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina. There are at least 6 high school football stadiums in Texas with seating over 15,000. And they fill those stadiums every Friday night. And winning and losing are taken VERY seriously in those sorts of places. But even in Texas, that sort of thing isn't universal. But in the schools that DO take it seriously, QB1's are often a pretty big deal. Some places put them on pedestals like in Varsity Blues. My school in the midwest certainly didn't. But we were AWFUL. Our sport was basketball, and we were GREAT at it. But even our best hoops players weren't treated like gods, and we had a player who played in the NBA and like 8 who got scholarships to play in college. They were special though. But not many schools treat athletes like gods.
billbo24@reddit
In some areas yeah. Obviously there’s no one size fits all rule, but you’ve nailed it in that small towns it can get close to that. A guy at my small college in the northeast was a star in Louisiana and I couldn’t believe his stories.
(Also he dropped a big touchdown pass his last career game and things got very bad for his family 😬)
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Oh shit, competitive
keddesh@reddit
Ha....no. our school sucked, barely anyone cared who he was.
distracted_x@reddit
No. I had no idea who the quarterback of the football team was at my school. If I was into football I'm sure I'd know but they were not like a celebrity and not even well known (at least at my school) to people who didn't care about sports.
elveebee22@reddit
I went to private schools my whole education (religious affiliated schools and then liberal arts college). I didn't know a damn thing about any of the sports teams and neither did any of my friends. Can't properly express how happy I was and am about that lol.
PresentationThick341@reddit
I had no idea who the quarterbacks were in my high schools (and I was in student council, theater, etc.) I organized my class's homecoming float and even went to a couple games but nah.
garbageman2112@reddit
No
Traditional_wolf_007@reddit
I have absolutely no idea who was quarterback of the highschool football team. I probably was friends with him or got bullied by him, either way, no idea. College I went to didn't really have a football team, bigger on hockey, and I didn't interact with many of the hockey players.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Hmmm, so I suppose it depends on a school/college curriculum and history of footy success?
Traditional_wolf_007@reddit
Not really, my high school did really well at football. In college, I had too much to worry about to even think about sports. I only really saw athletes in the morning at breakfast and on the hockey rink when I did colorguard. A few athletes were on our floor freshman year too, but we didn't interact with them as much. I was an army cadet in college so I kind of considered focus on sports a frivolity, and most of the athletes I knew didn't share my interests which were mostly study of ways of war and embarrassingly nerdy stuff like 40K and D&D.
DankItchins@reddit
Grew up in California, couldn't have told you what my hs quarterback's name was if my life depended on.
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeess-@reddit
I don’t think I ever knew who my school’s quarterback was. I didn’t pay attention to the football games or the team outside of the few times I tutored a couple of the players.
308_shooter@reddit
I didn't even know who the quarterback was.
DiscontentDonut@reddit
There are always going to be some exceptions to the rule. But most schools, all sports players are just more teens that blend in with everyone else. They are usually too obsessed with either the game they play, or working out, to even pay attention to anyone else.
Also, we don't have cliques or groups like they do in Hollywood. People don't just group into jocks, pretty girls, needs, smokers, etc. Of course you're going to hang out with people who have the same interests as you. But everyone is so worried about fitting in and their changing bodies, no one has the mental capacity in high school to care that much.
famousanonamos@reddit
I went to a fairly small school that was pretty into football, but I'm not sure I ever knew who the QB was. I only knew who played because they wore their jerseys on game days.
redvinebitty@reddit
Shows you see aren’t typically the cross-section of US culture. Typically just showing a facet that exists somewhere
DahjNotSoji@reddit
I think it depends heavily on the part of the country you’re in and how small the town is. I went to a Southern boarding school - our football team’s quarterback was known at school but he didn’t have like celebrity status or anything like that, but that might be because my boarding school was a private school.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
Why is private different?
invisibleman13000@reddit
I wasn't even aware of who the QB for my highschool's football team was. My highschool's football team was also terrible.
reddier2023@reddit (OP)
That's the exception not the rule?
invisibleman13000@reddit
Probably
Undercover_Dave@reddit
Same, I was honestly trying to remember. I knew a bunch of the guys on the team, but don't even know who played what position or if anyone was even any good.
Minute-Of-Angle@reddit
Cue Achilles saying, “and this is why no one will remember your name” to the QB.
OverweightMilkshake@reddit
I went to a high school that sucked in sports and although I knew the QB because a lot of my friends played football, I don't think the average student knew who he was.
IsopodKey2040@reddit
Not exactly. Athletes in general can kind of have more popularity, but you'd need other qualities too.
yellow_wallpaper_17@reddit
It definitely depends on the school and the region of the country. If the school has a lot of emphasis on its football program (lots of resources, good team, general culture) then it’s more likely to be a yes. There are parts of the country where that’s more common because football is more culturally dominant. But plenty of places where it’s not the case. Even at my high school, which had a pretty good football program and is in a part of the country where football is very culturally emphasized, I didn’t ever know who the quarterback was because it was a fairly big school and I was a nerd who was focused on other things. Most normal students probably did know who they were, but I don’t know if they were by default popular.
Background_Humor5838@reddit
I have no idea who the quarterback was at my high school and it was a very small school. I didn't happen to be friends with the quarterback so I wouldn't know who it was. I didn't keep track of every sport each student played and our football team was very good but soccer was more popular.
Calm_Madness7799@reddit
“I don’t want your lyfe.”
YoshiandAims@reddit
No.
Sports people hung with sports people. Maybe in the realm of the team/coaches/sports fans, the positions mattered more but everyone else mostly did their own stuff. They weren't idols or anything like that. Barring some large prestigious sports focused schools, it's not the norm in most schools in the country.
DustyComstock@reddit
Maybe in some places like Texas where high school football is really popular, but where I went to high school at a large school in suburban Chicago I had no idea who he was.
refriedconfusion@reddit
I had no idea who the quarterback was in my high school
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Varsity Blues is fiction.
Our quarterbacks were cool guys but nothing like that.
In my college there were no frats and we weren’t big on sports so there was none of that. But your mileage is going to vary all over the country.
Temporary-Boot-2247@reddit
The starting quarterback my junior year had a minor form of Tourette’s. Super nice but nerdy guy. We can the ball a lot. So no