Don Billingsley stated, "I don't do much on Fridays" (129). Teachers did not want to place any strain on the football team by bothering the players with homework or causing a star player to be suspended from football for his poor academic performance. A teacher would have been shunned by the entire town for causing a player to become suspended, and as a result, causing the team and the town a disappointing season. Some players also received academic assistance from their peers. Like the teachers, the majority of the students were just a big of football fanatics themselves. The football players had a glorious image in the school and were on top of the hierarchy of the student body. Because of this image and motivation to help the team succeed, the students were happy to help the players.
Girls in the school were obsessed with the football players. They saw dating a player as an accomplishment and a way to become popular in the school. Don Billingsley was asked to strip for girls on multiple occasions. He focused much more on flirting and turning down girls than he did on academics, which could have been accountable for his class rank being in the bottom third of the senior class. One desperate girl that the players called the "book bitch" bought a player a new backpack and asked him for sexual favors in exchange for fifty dollars. Her offer was turned down, so she looked for another way to associate with the players. She then began waiting outside their classrooms to carry the books to the next class for several players (141). The prostitution and peonage could not have been beneficial to the school. The players made most of the girls feel inferior. .
Football was detrimental to the team members physically and mentally. While the players did exercise regularly as a requirement of the team, they felt pressured to continue to play despite any type of injury they had. This caused the players to put themselves in a position in which they were vulnerable to a more serious, long-term injury.