Peter Berg, the director of cult phenomenon television show Friday Night Lights, is taking a political stance against Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
In the series, high school football coach, Eric Taylor, tells his team before every game to play with “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.” The players chant this phrase back to their beloved coach, becoming the most widely recognized catch phrase affiliated with the popular series.
Romney began to incorporate this phrase into campaign speeches, passing it off as his own creative message. The show’s phrase even appears on Romney’s personal Facebook page (photo below), making clear that this was not a slip into a campaign speech, but a deliberate use.
In Iowa earlier last week, Romney said he found the phrase to be “compelling.” Romney and his wife, Ann, claim to be fans of the series during its five-year run on NBC and DirecTV last year.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Berg sent a letter to the Romney campaign on Friday, calling the use of “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose,” an act of stealing. Berg, an outspoken supporter of President Barack Obama, goes on to say, “your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series.”
The writer of Friday Night Lights the book, Buzz Bissinger, however, has endorsed Romney for president and taken issue with Berg’s request.








