The offseason is a great time to catch up on football movies. What’s your favorite?
As I was putting together this list, I was struck by how many of them are underdog stories. At least, the ones I preferred are. I have no time for a film like ‘The Water Boy’ even though it’s one of Adam Sandler’s top-grossing movies, but perhaps you loved it. Did I miss any? What’s your favorite? Let me know!
These are the ten that are certainly worth a mention, but not in my top five.
Just missed
Remember the Titans
Any Given Sunday
North Dallas Forty
Friday Night Lights
Worth watching
The Replacements
All the Right moves
Brian’s Song
We are Marshall
Semi-Tough
Heaven Can Wait (Had to get the LA Rams in here!)
My top-5 football movies
My top five are the ones I can, and have, watched over and over.
Radio
Ed Harris plays a high school football coach who becomes a mentor to a local man with an intellectual disability, pushing others in town to open their hearts and minds. Great acting from Harris and Cuba Gooding Jr made it very easy to connect to the characters. Loved it.
The Blind Side
The story of Michael Oher, a black, homeless, and traumatized boy who became an All-American football player and first-round NFL draft pick. Sandra Bullock plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, a rich white socialite who takes pity on Oher and invites him into the family home, and eventually convinces her husband that they should adopt him.
Jerry Maguire
A look at the relationship built between an agent, Tom Cruise, and a player played by Cuba Gooding Jr. When Maguire has a crisis of conscience, writes a company-wide memo and is promptly fired, he starts up his own management firm with only single mother Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger) joining him in his new venture. This movie has it all. Love, sports, revenge, and the happy Hollywood ending. Hats off to Jonathan Lipnicki, who played Ray Boyd, Renee Zellweger’s son, for stealing just about every scene he was in.
The Longest Yard
Forget you even saw the remake with Adam Sandler; the original is a great film. Burt Reynolds gives a stellar performance as a quarterback who ends up in a prison where the warden is a football fanatic. To give you all the background behind the football game played between the prisoners and guards would take forever. Suffice it to say, it was a basic good against evil storyline with some brilliant acting bringing to life an equally brilliant script.
Rudy
Hands up if you’ve seen this one more than three times! Recognized by many as the greatest sports movie of all time, it stars Sean Astin as Rudy Ruettiger, an undersized small-town kid who grows up with aspirations of one day playing football for Notre Dame. Against all odds, he eventually gets into the school, walks on, and is chosen for the practice squad. His heart and determination win over the team, leading to him finally dressing for an actual game and getting onto the field for one play.
I think the film is as popular as it is because Rudy is an ‘everyman’. Fans can all relate. Sean Astin is terrific, as should be expected from someone who’s played a Goonie, Rudy, and a Hobbit, and really brings the role to life. The fact that it is a true story certainly doesn’t hurt.
These are my choices. Have I forgotten any? What’s your favorite?
