Billy Bob is dead.

Ron Lester gave us the heart and soul of 'Varsity Blues'


Ron Lester’s movie career was defined by his role as Billy Bob in “Varsity Blues.”

That’s how Lester, who died Friday at age 45, will be remembered by most people. He played the lovable, overweight offensive lineman in the MTV Films production that depicted high-school football craze in West Texas.

Lester dealt with those weight problems in real life. The New York Daily News reported at one point that he was “more than 500 pounds, though he had gastric bypass surgery in 2001 and lost 350 pounds.”

Lester also touched a lot of people in that role, which was apparent on social media on Saturday morning. That’s how he’ll be remembered, and there’s more to that than you think.

I saw “Varsity Blues” when it came out in 1999, and I’ve probably watched it more than 100 times since. I know every scene (too many to count) and every one-liner (“I think it’s a pig”). This also is the movie I associate with Paul Walker, who died in 2013. Whether you played high school football in Texas or in Central Ohio, you saw this movie, and it did the trick.

The message — while sensationalized — still hit home.

There’s a lot of pressure to play high school football, and if you can handle that pressure, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Billy Bob wasn’t the star of the movie, but he was the most-important character by far, especially when you look back at that movie now.

It’s Billy Bob who is 100 percent devoted to the team. It’s Billy Bob who is dangerously-overweight. It’s Billy Bob who is pressured to play with a concussion by head coach Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight). It’s Billy Bob who is nearly driven to suicide because he blames himself for somebody else getting hurt.

It’s been almost 20 years, but those are themes that are dangers to the game of football at the high school level and beyond. Concussions and the psychological effects of playing football have come into focus more than ever in the last few years. Those are the things that threaten the game’s long-time future.

High school football has changed, too. It’s bigger than ever. There’s a $62.8 million football stadium in McKinney, Texas, now. Recruiting is covered just as much, if not more, than college football. Picture the social media presence in a “Varsity Blues” remake. That movie would be so much worse.

“Varsity Blues” was the perfect movie at that time. It’s not as good as “Friday Night Lights,” but it didn’t have to be. It was fun. If there’s one lasting image of Lester as Billy Bob, it’s as the hero. Billy Bob scores the winning-touchdown in the final game, and that’s a scene you’ll see pop up quite a bit today.

That’s the reason most of us choose to play football in the first place. We all want to score the game-winning touchdown. Lester did that as Billy Bob, and that’s something he’ll be remembered by a generation who still loves that movie. I’m not the only one who has seen it 100 times.

Of course, at the end, Jonathon "Mox" Moxon, played by James Van Der Beek, runs down the aftermath for all the important cast, and he says, “Billy Bob cried because he's a bit of a crier.”

Today, we can return the favor and cry for Lester for a while.