The movie Friday Night Lights showed us a Carter team full of menacing black giants who won by playing dirty, but we never met the players, or their community.
#30 for 30 football story series
It wasn't just this incredible series of real life dramas that convinced me to make What Carter Lost, though - it was the stories that hadn't been told. That after their team captured the title and a record number of scholarship offers, six Carter players committed a series of shocking crimes that changed the course of their lives, and their community's reputation, for decades. That an anonymous tip and a Texas-wide legal battle almost eliminated Carter from the post-season, nearly every week, but they still won it all. That one of the greatest high school football teams in history played in the same season and the same state as the most famous high school team ever - the Odessa Permian Panthers from Friday Night Lights. No matter how many times I hear the story of the 1988 Dallas Carter Cowboys, it's still hard to believe it really happened. Perhaps it was the Dallas police officer and Carter fan who said it best after his actions ended a string of crimes that shocked the Carter faithful to their core: "Why would you do this?" Years later, it is a question that still has no easy answer, but through searing interviews with Carter players, coaches and family members, as well as glimpses of their lives today, this film is ultimately about what Carter found. Somehow, Carter managed to win it all on the field, and somehow, they threw it all away. With 21 players who were offered college scholarships and several who went on to the NFL, Carter took on the best that Texas had to offer - including the Odessa Permian team that inspired Friday Night Lights - as well as the worst, in a racially charged state-wide dispute over one player's algebra grade and Carter's legitimacy. What Carter Lost, directed by Adam Hootnick for ESPN Films' 30 for 30 series, is the saga of that team, the 1988 Dallas Carter Cowboys. Oddly enough though, one of the greatest teams in state history has been lost to time. There's high school football, and then there's Texas high school football.
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