Deviate with Rolf Potts · Friday, July 3, 2026
During a discussion on the geography of sports movies, hosts Rolf Potts, Chuck Klosterman, and Michael Weinreb debated the fictional town of Dillon from Friday Night Lights. While the series was filmed in Pflugerville, a suburb of Austin, the conversation centered on whether Dillon represented Odessa, a West Texas location, or an idealized version of rural Texas football culture.
“So, um, like, do you think that Dylan is Odessa, or is it just sort of an idealized version of West Texas where people care a lot about football?”
“And so it's obviously the fictional town of Dylan, Texas. It's a spin-off of the movie, which was based on a non-fictional book, which was set in Do you guys remember where it was set?”
“The book was in Odessa, Odessa, Odessa. Odessa and Midland and that West Texas.”