Obviously this story isn’t shit compared to what most people post, but it popped in my head while browsing so here we go.

Have you heard about Friday Night Lights? If not, it’s a book and movie about Permian High School’s football team in Odessa, TX back in like the 80’s. I went to school there in the mid 2000’s and we were fucking garbage, and I don’t think any of that has changed since then. But there’s some people that take great pride in being a part of the football team there no matter what. And while the team was garbage when I was there, it still produced at least one person I went to school with that played in the NFL and no telling how many starting players at major colleges.

But anyways, I’m at C school in Pensacola and going to the smoke deck. While I’m walking up to it I see a guy showing off a tattoo that is 100% the Permian Panther “P” to a crowd of at least 10 people huddled around him (and about 75% are women). I’m very interested as to why so many people seem to be awe struck that someone got their high school’s helmet logo tatted on them, and light up a cigarette and listen.

It should also be mentioned this was around 2008 and the movie came out in like 2005. It wasn’t a major blockbuster, but it was shown nationwide so at the time a lot of people knew about Permian.

But while I’m listening, I’m hearing him tell this crowd that he was a star football player at Permian when I was a senior there. Like I said, at least one guy went to the NFL (and maybe a couple went to practice squads) and quite a few went to start for major colleges. Even if you didn’t go to the games, you absolutely knew who the star players were. Hell, you knew most of the players in general.

Unfortunately I was in band and had to watch every play of every game where we would get the shit beaten out of us, so I absolutely knew of every person on the team. Especially if they actually had talent.

This dude didn’t look familiar and the last name on his uniform wasn’t familiar either. After listening to him talk about how many glorious plays he made and how he turned down scholarships to join the military while I smoked my cigarette, I was fuming. I wasn’t in a good place mentally already, and then I had to listen to absolute bullshit and see people practically worship him while I smoke a cigarette to try and calm down from my own problems.

I finished my cigarette and moved into the circle and asked what years he was at Permian. He’s thinking I’m another fan and immediately answers, and based on what he said he would have been a year under me. I say “Oh shit, we were at Permian at the same time! We probably had the same teachers. Who did you have for [insert every class]?”. He literally couldn’t name a single teacher or even a principal.

Turns out he never even lived in the area, but got that P tatted on because he thought it would impress people and lend credence to his bullshit stories. I have no idea what happened to him after that night because I never saw him on our smoke deck again, but hopefully he was able to get that covered up because while I have bad tattoos… getting a high school logo tatted on you when you never even went there is fucking wild.