Why doesn't Mike like Odessa?

Nothing good happened in Odessa for Mike Winchel. To Mike Odessa meant pain and a dead end. his father’s health began to slip and Mike began to doubt himself, question his gift, brood over it. Now, his father had died and when his brother, Joe Bill, refused to let him live with him, it was because he felt Mike needed to stay in Odessa and make his father proud. Joe Bill himself had never been able to let go of the dream of playing football for Permian and now he wanted Mike to play for the school he couldn’t get out of his system. So Mike stayed in Odessa even though he never brought his friends to his mother’s home and he never said much about her. Instead, he persevered in football just like he had in baseball.