I felt really bad for the coach!! :(

He did that to himself.

That scene was heartbreaking. I loved Coach.




"I fulfilled a lot of people's predictions about me. I've become a real scumbag."

Danny Vermin

I really did feel bad for the coach at the end. He had such a pathetic exit, "and he never coached again."

but this thread made me laugh out loud!

I felt bad too. He realized he did wrong after trying to choke someone, and they should have followed the old man out assuming the coach wouldn't make the black guy inject his body

That was a great scene, he got what was coming to him.

Trying to strangle your QB at half time can do that to a team.



You are gonna like these tacos boy, they taste just like steak.

The coach got what he deserved. Actually now that I think about it he got off easy. He was putting those guys in the game even thou they were hurt. Billy Bob had passed out multiple times and school nurse said he shouldn’t play. By playing he was risking perm brain damage. The player that hurt his leg and the coach was going to have pain killers injected so he could play more. He didn’t care about them and just wanted that title. Back in HS we had a coach like that. There was one kid that was incredible and that coach put him in every game and never gave him a rest, actually over worked him. He did make pro but after one game his shoulder gave out and he had to quit. NEWS FLASH: Just saw it on the news that teenage boy should only pitch twice a week and no more then 50 pitches a game or risk permanent damage to their shoulder. My friend that is what gave out was his shoulder.

Taken out of context, yes, it's a bit of a sad scene. An old man with absolutely nothing left can be tough to watch under any circumstances. On the other hand, he's lucky that he didn't end up in prison.

I think that scene was very intentional. We never really see him get his comeuppance, so one last shot of him being tired and broken wrings a little bit of sympathy out of the audience and keeps us from feeling like there are any loose ends. Cinematically, I think it was a pretty smart move.

I watch Varsity Blues from time to time and I always wonder how much of the villain was the coach vs. the town. Did the town's need for FOOTBALL, fuel the coach? Or did the coach's insistence on winning at all costs drive the town into a frenzy? It's easy to see the coach as the agent of evil and he certain did his fair share of wrongs, but it would be interesting to dig into West Canaan's backstory a little further and determine if the coach was a product of West Canaan or if West Canaan was a product of the coach.

Maybe the town drove him until he broke when he played football. Maybe the parents and business owners and school officials dumped ALL of the pressure on him to win. Maybe he considered himself the lynchpin that held this way of life together that so many parents treasured and revered. I don't think his actions were justified, but I think a deeper look might also be in order. It's like talking to an abusive parent only to find out how horribly they were abused when they were children...it doesn't excuse their actions, but it can soften that perspective of "pure evil" that the movies would have us believe existed.