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It was a Collette-Riggins family reunion at the ATX TV Festival on June 5. Friday Night Lights stars Taylor Kitsch, Adrianne Palicki, Stacey Oristano, and Derek Phillips came together for an online chat at the festival’s virtual ATX TV…from the Couch! event. The actors who played Tim Riggins, Tyra Collette, Mindy Collette-Riggins, and Billy Riggins shared their thoughts on what happened to their characters after the NBC series ended in 2011. 

All their ‘Friday Night Lights’ characters would be together during the pandemic

Mindy, Billy and Tim Riggins at dinner table
Stacey Oristano as Mindy Riggins, Derek Phillips as Billy Riggins, Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins | Bill Records/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

During the conversation, Kitsch — who had Riggins’ football jerseys hanging behind him —  asked his former co-stars what he thought they would be doing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

“I think they would all be together,” he said. 

“We would murder each other!” Oristano replied. 

“I’m guessing Billy did something to piss Mindy off so she’s living with you guys right now and I keep showing up,” Phillips said. 

Palicki thinks Tim and Tyra are divorced — twice 

Mindy, Angela and Tyra Collette at Mindy's wedding
Stacey Oristano as Mindy Collette, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson as Angela Collette, Adrianne Palicki as Tyra Collette | Bill Records/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

Tim and Tyra didn’t end up together at the end of Friday Night Lights, but the finale left open the possibility that the two would eventually rekindle their relationship. Palicki says she thinks that happened, though things didn’t necessarily go smoothly for the couple. 

“Obviously Tyra and Tim are married with children [and] divorced, like twice,” she said. She added that Tyra would be a counselor “giving kids advice” and Tim would now be coaching the football team in Dillon, Texas. 

“Tim? That’s a lot of responsibility,” Kitsch said. 

Kitsch says Tim Riggins is ‘back on the ranch’

Tim Riggins in a truck
Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins | Bill Records/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images

Kitsch had some more ideas about what Tim and his older brother Billy would be up to now. 

“He definitely would be back with Tyra on the ranch, maybe give Billy the sh*tty guest house with no electricity or A.C.,” the Waco actor went on to say. “There’d be a makeshift pool that would be, just like, dugout. They didn’t really do any research, they just dig it out and filled it with water. A lot of pickup trucks up there.”

But as for a career, Kitsch said he had trouble imagining what kind of job would be right for the former high school football star. “I just don’t think he likes authority,” he said. 

Billy Riggins is ‘still doing illegal sh*t’

In Friday Night Lights, Billy Riggins had a habit of skirting the law. In season 4, he started running an illegal chop shop out of his and Tim’s auto body shop. But when the police shut down the enterprise, it was Tim who ended up taking the fall for his older brother. Unfortunately, Phillips doesn’t think Billy has fully reformed. 

“I think he’s still doing illegal sh*t to get by,” the actor said. “It’s one step forward and two steps back.”

“I bet during the crisis, or the pandemic, he’s running an underground poker game somewhere,” the actor said. “Something illegal but just to keep the lights on.”

His wife Mindy has had to go back to dancing at The Landing Strip to support the family, Oristano theorized. “I think she would have to,” the actress said. “Because Billy doesn’t make any money.”

Friday Night Lights is streaming on Hulu.

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