Friday Night Lights

Well, it was Friday night…and we went in search of the lights! Thanks to the wonder of the internets, I was able to find the casting company's myspace page that alerted me to, if nothing else, when and where they would be filming something. I was also able to discover the location of Hermann Field, aka the football stadium set the show uses in Austin and luck of lucks…its literally right across the street from the airport! We saw the infamous Friday night lights when we were landing.

The call time was 5:45pm so I was sure they'd still be filming when we landed around 11:30…after scooping up the rental car we headed out and found the stadium. Inside was a sea of blue and yellow, panther flags and football players. I was a wee bit stalkerazzi at first, staying in the car and attempting to take pictures. We then got out and after a cop did a few drive bys and said nothing to us, my mom, who obviously has bigger cajones than I do, started walking towards the entrance to the stadium…we passed the Dillon High School bus and before I knew it, we were inside the field.



It was pretty cool! I was taking some covert pics of the scoreboard, etc. when all of a sudden I realized that Coach Taylor was walking by! The coach! (Also known as the adorable Kyle Chandler, the bomb guy who got obliterated in Grey's Anatomy). I kind of just watched him leave the field and then noticed he had been stopped by folks asking for autographs and pictures…and before I knew it I threw my mom the camera and was posing for a shot. Notice the nice Texas "glow" I have going on? I have a little bit of a large crush on Coach Taylor, so getting that pic is definitely a highlight!

Coach Taylor!

We went back in to watch them film some scenes, quickly realizing that QB1 Matt Saracen and Tim Riggins were on the field…again, very cool. A few minutes later I was scrambling to remember Tim Riggins' real name (Taylor Kitsch) because he was walking right towards us with Landry! Again, some folks stopped them for photos so mom and I headed over…she took a "so so" pic of me and Riggins while I took an awesome one of her, Riggins and Landry. Riggins has that sexy stance down. At one point one of the "fans" asked them if they ever got sick of this and of course, they said "no" to which I replied "hey…I switched to DirecTV for you guys!" Which is mostly true…it was also that it is cheaper, but the FNL switch was a bit incentive;-) They seemed pretty impressed that I did that, so you know, I made a connection. Matt Saracen also walked by us but appeared a little cranky so I decided not to push my luck.

The funniest thing? All of the football guys were carrying their helmets/pads off the field with them like they were real football players coming from practice…no prima donnas here!

QB1 Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford)

All and all it was really cool…can't wait for the season to start on Oct. 1. Afterwards we went to check into the Hilton at the airport, which, for the record, I pre-paid for…and found out the hotel was overbooked and we had to drive across town to stay at another hotel. I told the woman "You're lucky I just met the coach, or I'd be really pissed!"