New England Patriots' Ernie Adams Takes Credit For 'Friday Night Lights' Rise

Ernie Adams helped give rise to the Patriots, but many more may be grateful for his role in forming the (Dillon) Panthers instead.

Adams is perhaps one of the more notable architects of the New England Patriots' new-century affairs, serving as the team's football research director under the guidance of his close friend Bill Belichick. The 71-year-old was perhaps best known for keeping a low profile and operating behind-the-scenes, but nothing was stopping him from proudly boasting about his contribution one of the most famed staples of sports pop culture.

Appearing on Julian Edelman's "Games With Names" web series, Adams declared that the "Friday Night Lights" franchise as the world knows may not exist without his intervention: Adams came to know future author H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger at the Phillips Academy prep school, which was where his fateful friendship with Belichick also began.

The course of NFL and entertainment history perhaps shifted with those unions: little more needs to be said about all that Adams and Belichick accomplished together while further advice from Adams helped Bissinger find focus for what became his magnum opus, the 1990 non-fiction book "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream."

"Buzz calls me up. Buzz says, ‘I’m thinking about going out to Western Pennsylvania and writing a book about high school football and the team and the town. I know Buzzy has never been west of Philadelphia in his life," Adams recalled to Edelman, the former Patriots receiver. "I say, ‘Buzzy, if you want to do this, get your (butt) out to West Texas, where they take their football seriously, and that’s how "Friday Night Lights" came to be written about that Permian High School."

The FNL tome centered on the famed Permian High School football program, spending most of the team's 1988 campaign in a prominent behind-the-scenes role that took both an awed and critical look at the renowned high school football culture in Texas. Bissinger endured the famed passion of both the rational and extremist variety when residents of the setting, Odessa, TX, reacted negatively upon its original release. It has since undergone a positive re-evaluation and is often regarded as one of the best and most influential non-fiction stories of both the sports genre and beyond.

Adams' advice paid off and then some: the Lone Star State personalities came to define Bissinger's book and later gave rise to one of the most enduring pop culture franchises based on a sports property.

A film version directed by Peter Berg and starring Billy Bob Thornton earned acclaim from critics and audiences alike in 2004 and later gave rise to a similarly titled ensemble TV series that ran on NBC and DirecTV for five seasons. Whereas the film was more of a direct adaptation of the book, the series centered on fictional Texas school Dillon but managed to capture the spirit of the real-life incidents that Bissinger documented nearly two decades prior.

Colorful Texan personalities both on and off the field proved to be a lasting staple in both the movie and the show and only further vindicated Adams' advice.

No matter where Adams seemed to roam, he appeared to fully personify the trope of "Clear eyes, full heart, can't lose," a mantra popularized by Kyle Chandler's head coach character Eric Taylor on the TV series.