“He said he didn’t care what color we were. All his players wore green” (152).

I chose this line because I thought it demonstrated an important trait in Coach Rake; that is, he wasn’t biased to groups of people. He didn’t see the color of somebody’s skin, instead he just saw a person, and in some cases someone that could be good at football for him.

“For all of his toughness, he was terribly sensitive to the suffering of others” (154).

Another trait of Coach Rake. Though he was a tough, brutal football coach, he couldn’t stand seeing people get mistreated. The way he taught his players, nobody was allowed to mistreat someone or abuse power over someone else. Rake believed in equality of all people.

“If you’re winnin’, never quit. If you’re losin’, never quit. If you’re hurt, never quit” (108).

This line shows the attitude that Coach Rake installed in his players minds; never quit. Rake believed in working as hard as possible no matter what the circumstances were, whether you had no chance of succeeding or whether success seemed inevitable. He taught his players to never slow up or take it easy.

“But the Lanes were gracious people, slightly more educated and affluent than most in Messina. If they held a grudge, and he was certain one was being held, they wouldn’t show it” (123).

I chose this line because I feel it shows a flaw in society; as opposed to honesty, a virtue that is viewed positively in almost all cultures, this line contradicts the idea of honesty with saying that putting on a charade of emotions is considered proper. I always thought that somebody being blunt and honest would be the genuine thing to do, as opposed to being nice to someones face and conveying their true emotions of that person to everyone else.

“He refused to accept failure. You want his advice on how to overcome it” (158).

This line describes the way in which Rake impacted his players in a way. Coach Rake taught his players that failure was unacceptable. His success made him someone they all wanted to go to for advice on how to turn failure around.

“The question is, ‘Do I love Eddie Rake, or do I hate him?'” (159).

I chose this line because it shows the largest internal conflict in Neely Crenshaw, and that is his feelings toward his head coach. Neely spends the majority of his life so far answering this question in the novel, and finally comes to peace with the question at Rake’s funeral.

“Cameron was probably home by now, a million miles from Messina. She might think of him once or twice in the coming days, but the thoughts would not linger” (162).

This is one of my favorite lines in the story because it is a sort of symbol in the way failed love effects people the rest of their life, and the way that it is indelible in the memories of somebody’s life.

“Messina was the only hometown he knew. The best years of his life were there” (163).

I enjoyed this line because it is where Neely comes to peace with the memories of his hometown, and realizes that instead of running away from everything he’s known, that he should visit home frequently and remember his best days.

“His genius was simple–stick to the basics, and work nonstop until you can execute them perfectly” (148).

This line is interesting to me because it demonstrates a simple idea; success comes from hard work. Coach Rake never made anything complicated, he simply outworked everybody else and found wild success for this.

“And don’t cry for the memories. Never look back, there’s too much left to do” (145).

This was probably my favorite line from the story because of how it applies to anybody’s life. Don’t worry about what has been when there is still more left to do, remember it, but don’t let it interfere with the rest of your life.

“Greatness comes along so rarely that when we see it we want to touch it.” (150)

This quote is a line from a former Messina football player giving a speech at Coach Rake’s funeral. The idea behind this line is simple and straightforward: greatness is a rare thing to achieve. This being said however, all of Coach Rake’s players reached greatness playing for him, and though many people dislike or even hate Rake, he was truly a great man with a few drastic mistakes. These mistakes would include the death of one of his players during their conditioning of running bleachers, and the fight with Neely Crenshaw in the ’87 championship game; both of which he apologizes for through a note at his funeral. Again, however, there were many ways in which he was a great, loving man: he loved his players even if he cussed at them and never showed affection. He hurt with every loss of his team the same way they did, even if he couldn’t accept losing and wouldn’t show that affection. He loved his family even if he dominated them at times. He genuinely cared for those that were mistreated or in need of care, and would see to it they were helped even if he didn’t get any credit for his work. He believed in equality of all races, genders, and kinds of people. His former players could never get his voice out of their head after graduating high school, and would always be reminded of him when they seemed about to fail. He was a constant source of motivation for his former players, and molded to them into better characters for the most part, with the exception of a few juvenile people that used to play for him. He taught the next generation valuable lessons, motivated them to achieve more than they thought possible by themselves, and those same lessons will be taught to the generation below them. And that is what makes Coach Rake a truly, truly great man.

People Love Those That are Successful

Messina High School football before Eddie Rake came to coach there was pathetic, as the team had a losing record before his arrival and it was considered by many in the town to be a rather successful season. Once Rake came in, winning was everything. He would not play kids that weren’t going to work hard and execute every small detail of a play and learn the fundamentals of football. This attitude along with his grueling, physical idea of the way football should be played created a winning trend in Messina’s friday night games, and people would love Rake for the 34 years of success he brought the town.

 Heroes Are Easily Forgotten

In Messina High School football, many of the best players of each team are treated like heroes during their playing days, only to be forgotten or ignored after a mistake or two off the field later. Neely Crenshaw was an arrogant all-American quarterback. Once he had gone to Tech, he was the biggest name ever in Messina, viewed by everybody as the next Heisman winner and NFL caliber quarterback. A late hit from an A&M player ended this promising career, and he would never play football again. Suddenly those that surrounded him during his playing days were nowhere to be found and he had to live a different life from the one he lived for those 5-6 years of short lived fame. Another player this happened to was Jesse Trapp; Jesse had broken every Messina weight lifting record worth mentioning, and was a monstrous football player who seemed destined to play in the NFL. After a few drugs and a prison sentence, he was abondoned by just about everybody and would fester in prison for 28 years with rare visits from anyone.

People Make Stupid Decisions

The novel Bleachers is full of mistakes and stupid decisions that people make. One would be Neely’s decision to dump his high school love, a girl named Cameron, for a more “easy” girl that went by Screamer in his sophomore year of high school. This decision ruined his chance with Cameron, and he never forgave himself for the way he did it,  simply embarrassing Cameron in the process. Another dumb decision was Coach Rake’s actions during the halftime of the ’87 state championship game, in which he walked up to Neely and started a fight with him. Though the game ended in a victory nonetheless, Rake could never forgive himself for being so radical in his actions that night.

Bleachersby John Grisham is a very entertaining, sports-fiction novel that grabs a readers attention. Though it’s not a very long book by any means, it is a good, concise, inspiring story of a coach and his former players and their journeys together over the course of 34 years of Eddie Rake coaching Messina High School football. The internal conflicts of the main character, Neely Crenshaw, are very intriguing and realistic problems that make the reader think about the way these characters feel. If I had to change something about the book I would hope for a better resolution, though the resolution’s not bad, it seems to drop the story off in the middle of nowhere. All in all on a scale of ten I would call it a 7.5, a good story with a few minor faults in it, and would recommend it to someone who is interested in sports stories.

The novel Bleachersby John Grisham is full of mixed emotions of love and hate between Eddie Rake and his former high school players. The most obvious case of this can be found between Rake and Neely Crenshaw, a former all-American quarterback that played for Rake. In a fight at halftime, Rake called Neely a lousy football player and started a fight with him, in which Neely knocked out Rake. The players would then go out to win the championship game without their coaches, calling the plays themselves. Throughout the story Neely feels mixed emotions toward his old coach, often asking himself; did he hate Rake for hitting him and calling him a lousy player after all he had done? Or did he love Rake for the way he pushed himself to succeed and do more than he ever could have?

Another example could be found in the way the townspeople saw the money being spent at the school. Rake’s football program received more money than all the other school programs combined, which upset people in other activities throughout the school, but made many people happy for putting the town on the map. Rake, though a very good man and bringing groups of people together in harmony, caused much dispute amongst people on this issue. He made many love him for giving the town some life and something to claim to, but angered many as well and made some hate him for taking away from other opportunities that students could have had.

Another example of mixed emotions toward Coach Rake can be found in the way his former players talk about him amongst themselves drinking beer early in the story and the way they talk about him at his funeral and amongst other people that are not former players. Amongst themselves they talk about the grueling practices, how they hated playing for him out of fear, the way they ran all the time; however at the funeral they mention the way he pushed them to excel, to not be afraid of anything, and the lessons they learned playing for him.

The novel Bleachers by John Grisham is a story of a legendary football coach in his last days, and the players and former townspeople that return and reminisce over memories of his long, illustrious career. The story is told from the point of view of Neely Crenshaw; a former all-American quarterback for Messina High School who played in Eddie Rake’s (the coach’s name) last championship win. Neely had been avoiding the town due to unmet expectations and bad memories in Messina, but the news of Rake’s soon to be death draws all of the coach’s former players to the town to show their respect. Neely’s main problem in the story is an altercation that occurred between Rake and himself in the ’87 state championship game; down by a ridiculous amount at halftime, Coach Rake walked into the locker room and started a fight between himself and Neely, in which Neely knocked out his coach, while at the same time breaking his hand. The football team then went out to play without coaches, calling plays for themselves, and made a miraculous comeback to win the game. Neely never looks at his coach the same after this event; not sure if he hated him for those memories, or loved him for how much he pushed him to succeed. At his funeral, Rake leaves a note for someone to read, apologizing publicly to Neely for what had happened at halftime in the said game. Neely finally comes to peace with his former coach, and gives a eulogy at the funeral as was requested by Rake.

Neely Crenshaw in Bleachers by John Grisham is the main character in the story. Early in his high school football career Neely was very talented, and received a lot of attention for his talent. By the time he was a senior, he was an All-American and everybody knew who he was. He began to walk around his school with a sense of arrogance that he was better than a lot of other people for what he had done on the field, and often mistreated those who had done nothing to him, such as when in high school he had broken up with a girl named Cameron for another girl named “Screamer.” Neely would eventually go on to play division one football at Tech, and would do so illegally; accepting $50,000 in inappropriate benefits from the school to go play there. In his sophomore season at the school Neely suffered a devastating injury caused by a late hit from an A&M player. His career was over, and Neely would have to think of a new life to lead outside of football.

After Neely had to stop playing football he slowly changed; he grew to understand that the arrogance many young men find in playing football is and ignorant, temporary luxury that cripples them later in life and drives many people away. This significantly changes him and he eventually becomes a respectful, humble man.

Significance of the title, Bleachers

The significance of the title Bleachers is shortly alluded to in the story on pages 53 and 54. The idea behind the title comes from the fact that a boy named Scotty Reardon died running bleachers for Coach Rake, a coach who had won 13 state football championships for the town of Messina. Coach Rake had a reputation for pushing his players harder than he should, and nobody had complained because of the way he won his games. However, with the death of Scotty, more than just a boy’s life died off that day. With Rake fired over the incident, it was the end of the towns success at football at any level whatsoever. That being said, it was also symbolic of what happened to former players; while they were winning for the town they were heros in their own way to the other people in Messina. But when they were done, a part of their life had died, as playing football for Coach Rake was entirely their way of life in high school, and once finished they were nothing but a memory to the people who had once lifted them up on a pedestal. Rake’s funeral brings all these to the town at once; the town was reminded of why they had won those championships, despite what might have happened in one incident, and the large number of ex-players reminded the people of the way in which old players were left out once done winning and forgotten.

Neely Crenshaw, the main character of the novel, is a former conceited all-american quarterback that comes later to realize that he is just a faded memory to the town he had won a state championship for. In high school he took advantage of his All-American status; not doing his school work and yet making A’s in every class and dating his choice of girls at his school would be prime examples of how he did this. His high school career led him to playing Division I college football at “Tech,” taking improper benefits of $50,000 to play there. His career there started off good but was short lived, as in one of the first games of his sophomore season he took a late hit to his knee from an A&M player that would keep him from ever playing football again. The aftermath of this hit was terrible; at first the town of Messina was in a practical depression that one of their best former players had been limited in his career. Later the town seemed to forget, only vaguely remembering him as one of the best quarterbacks they had ever had, but nobody remembering him on a personal level, giving him the feeling that his high school days were “another life” and that there was no point in ever talking or thinking about it. Neely was a talented athlete who was brash and naive in what he did in high school, but later came to be a calm, humble man who came to understand the way a former “hero” of his town is treated, as shown through him and other players and what happens with Coach Rake. Neely may have made his mistakes that cost him but he learns from them and finds a different of life that makes him a better person.

Bleachers by John Grisham is a sports fiction novel that takes place in modern day settings. The exact location of the town of Messina is never described, although from the names of the colleges given and the mention of extreme heat it appears that it would be in Texas, or perhaps another southern state. The reason Grisham would create a town like this in the novel would be to show the way football is treated almost as a second religion in some places, and to create an event in the story that would bring everybody to the town and allow him to sum up a lifetimes worth of self insight and reflection on some characters parts and put it in a relatively short novel. 

The idea of a coach winning 13 state championships at a high school doesn’t seem highly plausible though it is possible to happen in reality. Even more improbable is “The Streak” that is referred to in the book in which they win a ridiculous amount of games and championships in a row that appears to be ludicrous. The novel appears to be based off of real events but if so the stories of these ideas have been overexxagerated in order to create a more interesting fiction story. This book wouldn’t quite be rationalized as realistic but more of a stretch on an account of actual events.