Today I’m double dipping and going obscure. Again, the subject is Varsity Blues, which I’ve covered for this column. And I’m going obscure because this song is actually unreleased.

I mean, you could pay over a hundred bucks for a copy of the score on Ebay, but I don’t have that type of cash.

Football movies do have a mold and Varsity Blues never strays too far from the well beaten path. However, it was the cast what drove the movie. Yes, they are going to win the game. Yes, they are going to overcome the abusive coach. Yes, Van der Beek’s gonna get the girl of his dreams.

Then it hits you. Mark Isham’s song is both inspirational and wistful. There’s an undercurrent of sadness and it pairs well with the closing speech by Mox (Van der Beek). “And for some of us, it ended without us knowing.” Maybe it’s my depression, maybe it’s my fatalism. I just feel that line encompasses perfectly the experience of doing something for the last time without realising it was the last time.

The last time you shared a hug. The last kiss. The last “hello” to a parent. The last patting of a pet’s head. What sets Varsity Blues apart from the other typical football movies is that moment of sadness.

It’s weird we got two football movies bookending 1999. Varsity Blues in january, the phenomenal Any Given Sunday in December. My dad was a big football fan and watched both. He cheered and hollered with Any given sunday in a cold cinema in Arkansas, where we went for holidays. It was a Christmas holiday I’ll never forget.

Sorry, went off on a tangent.

-Sam J. Valdés López