
Photo Credit: NFL.com
In the past, I have made a list of my favorite baseball and hockey movies. Today I am going to give you my top five favorite football movies from five to one. The sport that I like the most is football. I have never played a snap but have covered more football games than any other sport. That has led to me becoming a high school football announcer. Many good football movies are not on my list but that does not mean that I do not like them. There are so many movies based on this topic.
- School Ties (1992)
This movie had a great cast of very young talent like Brendan Frasier, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris O’Donnell, Cole Hauser, and Amy Locane. This movie is about Brendan Frasier’s character David Greene a public-school quarterback who gets recruited to a prep school to help them win over their rival team and championship. The prep school is very religious and David is Jewish. In the beginning, he hides it throughout the movie his teammates find out after they beat their rival. When they find out they ridicule him and try to get him kicked out of school for cheating. The player who did cheat was Matt Damon’s character Charlie Dillion. Dillion had pressure on him with his dad and brother being so successful. The football in the movie is with soft helmets and was based in the 50s.
What I liked about this movie was the football scenes and the fact that no one should hide their true self. At that time in society, it was hard for certain religions. What this shows is no matter what religion you are the game of football is for everyone. At the end of the movie, we see David Greene walking alone after Charlie Dillion gets caught cheating and is expelled. The questions are how did his classmates react after Charlie was expelled? And did David Greene go to Harvard? Because at the prep school, all the seniors were heading to Ivy League schools.
- Remember The Titans (2000)
This football movie, just like School Ties, has another topic other than football. This movie was based on a true story about racism in the 70’s. What happens in this movie is Denzel Washington’s character Coach Herman Boone got a head coaching job at an all-white high school. The first thing that Coach Boone had to do was get all his players to come together. That was very hard because of racism in society. In one part of the movie, he makes the entire team run to the battlefield of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle on American soil. This battle took place during the Civil War. Despite everything, he would lead the team to a state championship. Just like in School Ties, I liked that they overcame so many aspects of life just to play football.
- Friday Night Lights (2004)
Just like with School Ties and Remember the Titans this movie was also based on true events. This football movies are based in the state of Texas. Most know that football is a religion in Texas. Just like the previous two, this was based on the team getting to a championship game. The coach in the movie was played by Billy Bob Thornton whose character name was coach Gary Gaines. Gaines had a team that looked good throughout the year but just like most of them, struggled. The team made it to the high school playoffs via a coin toss and made it to the title game, but fell on the final play. It was sad to see the talent that Gaines had as the following year after the movie took place, he went undefeated and won the state championship.
- Varsity Blues (1999)
This movie is also about Texas high school football. Outside of the state of Florida, the game of football is very important in Texas. This is the only movie on my list that is not based on true events. This about a story about the pressure of playing high school football with another great cast starring James Van Der Beek, Ali Later, Paul Walker, Amy Smart, and Jon Voight. What happens is Paul Walker’s character, Lance Harbor, is the starting quarterback for the West Canaan Coyotes. Midway through the season, he gets hurt and backup and bench warmer Jonathan Moxon (Van Der Beek) takes over. Jon Voight plays coach Kilmer who does not like Moxon at all. In the end, the team wins a district championship with Moxon as the QB.
As the team went into halftime of that game Coach Kilmer choked Moxon. The team rallies after that with Harbor becoming their head coach for the second half. As the movie ends, many of the players go off to college as Mox goes to Brown but not to play football. What I like about it is that you should never underestimate people or players without seeing what talent they have.
- Rudy (1993)
This a movie that I am not afraid to admit makes me cry every time I watch it. This is based on the story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger. Ruettiger had a dream to play football at the University of Notre Dame. The main star in the movie is Sean Astin who also had a big role in The Goonies. Ruettiger goes through ups and downs trying to get a scholarship to Notre Dame. In the end, he finally gets to play a game with his family in the stands and the whole stadium chanting his name. Just seeing him overcome all the obstacles to play out a dream brings tears to my eyes. This is my favorite football-themed movie.
These are my top five football movies.
What are your favorite football-themed movies? Leave a comment below.
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