2 Texas football games bring comfort after mass shootings

DALLAS – High school football teams representing Texas communities marred in recent weeks by mass shootings are competing against each other in two separate games seen as a salve in the aftermath of attacks that killed nearly 30.

Permian High School in Odessa on Thursday hosted Franklin High of El Paso in a game featuring a minute of silence and another minute of applause for first responders.

A gunman on Saturday killed seven people and injured around two dozen others as he went on an hour-long rampage from Midland to Odessa, firing at random before being killed by police.

In El Paso, a gunman opened fire Aug. 3 at a Walmart, killing 22 people before being taken into custody.

Another El Paso school, Eastwood High, travelled just north of Dallas to play Plano Senior High School.

Plano school officials were criticized last month when they initially cancelled the game for fear that extremists would use it as a platform to gain attention.