Steve Harris Joins 'Friday Night Lights'

Every good football team needs practice and now it looks like the Dillon Panthers will be getting more than their fair share. According to Entertainment Weekly, NBC's latchkey football series 'Friday Night Lights' will be bringing aboard a new cast member: Steve Harris.

According to Entertainment Weekly, NBC's latchkey football series 'Friday Night Lights' will be bringing aboard a new cast member: Steve Harris. Every good football team needs practice and now it looks like the Dillon Panthers will be getting more than their fair share. According to Entertainment Weekly, NBC's latchkey football series 'Friday Night Lights' will be bringing aboard a new cast member: Steve Harris.

Harris, who is best known for his role as lawyer Eugene Young on the David E. Kelly legal drama 'The Practice', is currently scheduled to appear in seven episodes as Vernon Merriweather, a former star football player who is also the father of fellow Dillon, Texas newcomer Jess Merriweather (played by Jurnee Smollett).

'Friday Night Lights', which has garnered critical acclaim but struggled to stay on the air over its first three seasons, will begin airing new episodes on October 28 on DIRECTV channel 101; the season will then re-air as a summer replacement on NBC in 2010.

Watch a season 4 promo