AUSTIN, Texas -- Mack Brown has a national championship. Is
an Emmy far behind?
The Longhorns coach has a cameo role in "Friday Night Lights",
the new NBC series about a fictional high school football team
based in Texas.
In Tuesday night's premiere episode, Brown plays the father of a
player who gives the new coach a hard time at a pep rally the night
before his first game.
"There's a group of us giving him a rough time that he'd better
be working hard, that he'd better win," Brown said. "There wasn't
a script because [director] Peter Berg said you've heard fathers
for 33 years, so you ought to know what to say."
Brown said actor Kyle Chandler, who plays the coach, seemed
surprised by the intensity of the scene.
"He said I was hard on him. He said, 'I hope it's not really
like this,"' Brown said.
"I did think the part would help show the pressure on high
school football coaches in our state. Everybody thinks the
pressure's on college coaches. It's not. High school football
coaches have every bit as much or more pressure in this state than
college coaches, and they don't get paid near as much."
Brown shot the scene in the spring and spent about three hours
on the set. He said he enjoyed the role, but figures he should
stick to coaching.
"That's my 30 seconds of fame. They told me afterwards I'd
better keep my day job," Brown said. "Don't get up and use the
bathroom, or you'll miss it."