Ask 100 fans to name their favorite football movie, and you’ll probably get at least 30 different responses, from comedy-dramas such as “The Longest Yard” (both Burt Reynolds and Adam Sandler versions), “Semi-Tough” (1977), “Varsity Blues” (1999), and “The Waterboy” (1998) to earnest dramas including “Knute Rockne, All American” (1940), as well as “We Are Marshall” (2006), “The Express: The Ernie Davis Story” (2008), “The Blind Side” (2009), and “Concussion” (2015).
Worthy contenders, but not quite strong enough to make my starting lineup of the 11 Best Football Movies of All Time.
11. “Any Given Sunday” (1999)
Oliver Stone indulges in a running time (2 hours and 42 minutes) that nearly matches the length of an NFL game, filming “Any Given Sunday” like a war movie—peppering us with whip pans and hyperreal action sequences, handheld camerawork, and slo-mo. The screenplay is filled with football clichés, e.g., the traditional coach (Al Pacino) who has given his life to the game vs. the coldly calculating new owner/general manager (Cameron Diaz), and the aging star quarterback (Dennis Quaid) giving way to the talented but narcissistic younger showboat (Jamie Foxx)—but the star-studded cast sells the material. This is one of those “alternate universe” football films, set in the fictional AFFA (Affiliated Football Franchises of America) and featuring teams with entertainingly goofy names such as the Chicago Rhinos, the Washington Lumbermen, the Kansas Twisters, and the Wisconsin Icemen. Still, storylines such as the thread about an unscrupulous team physician (James Woods) carry real-world impact, and the football scenes deliver a visceral wallop.
Available on VOD.
10. “Remember the Titans” (2000)
As is the case with “The Blind Side,” the legacy of “Remember the Titans” is complicated, as many of the key sequences in the film bear little or no resemblance to the true story upon which it is based, and the late coach Herman Boone was eventually fired. Still, as a fictional dramatic film loosely based on a real-life story, “Remember the Titans” contains essential truths about high school football against the backdrop of the South in the early 1970s. Denzel Washington infuses an electric authority to his portrayal of the coach, with the invaluable character actor Will Patton bringing humanity to the role of Coach Bill Yoast, who initially undermines Boone but eventually teams up with him.
On Disney+.
9. “Draft Day” (2014)
Ivan Reitman’s front office sports drama is often overlooked in the pantheon of Kevin Costner sports movies—but it’s one of those comfort-viewing, actor-friendly movies that plays well on a lazy Saturday afternoon or a late-night click around the channels. (People still click around the channels, right?) It’s a kind of “Jerry Maguire” meets “Moneyball” storyline, with Costner easing comfortably into the role of Cleveland Browns GM Sonny Weaver Jr., who on the morning of the 2014 draft has to figure out how to best use the 7th overall pick, all the while dealing with soap-opera complications in his personal life, most prominently the fact his girlfriend Ali (Jennifer Garner), the team’s financial analyst, is pregnant. The supporting cast is fantastic, with everyone from Denis Leary to Frank Langella to Sam Elliott to Ellen Burstyn to Rosanna Arquette popping in—as well as the late Chadwick Boseman as top Ohio State prospect Vontae Mack. Given the ways in which the NFL has turned the draft into a multi-day extravaganza with high-end production values, “Draft Day” is already starting to feel like a quaint period piece.
Available on VOD.
8. “Rudy” (1993)
With “Breaking Away,” “Hoosiers,” and “Rudy,” three of the most inspirational sports-related movies of all time were set in Indiana—with the latter two directed by David Anspaugh, a native of Decatur, Ind., and an Indiana University alum. The likable Sean Astin captures the real-life Rudy Ruettiger’s indefatigable (and yes, sometimes exhausting) determination to join the University of Notre Dame football team, despite being comically undersized and without any skill set beyond persistence and guts. Ned Beatty as Rudy’s father, Charles S. Dutton as the groundskeeper who becomes Rudy’s mentor (you’ve probably seen the famous “clapping” GIF), and Robert Prosky as a Catholic priest are all playing movie tropes, but they’re such fine actors that they elevate the material. Just as “Moneyball” unfairly maligned former Oakland A’s manager Art Howe, “Rudy” does former Notre Dame coach Dan Devine wrong, and that’s a shame—but again, these are fictionalized versions based on true events. We need conflict and resistance to create an underdog story. “Rudy” is an unabashedly sentimental tale, and even if you’re a USC fan and you hate Notre Dame, I defy you to watch it without cheering for that little dude.
On Netflix.
7. “The Program” (1993)
You can’t get much further from the hip-hip-hooray tone of “Rudy” than “The Program,” which arrived in theaters just three weeks prior to “Rudy” in the fall of 1993. Director and co-writer David S. Ward embraces some upbeat college football-movie clichés—but also explores the dark side of the sport, with plotlines about wealthy alumni, athletes receiving special treatment in the classroom, alcoholism, and the use of anabolic steroids. (When two assistant coaches witness a roided-up lineman smashing in car windows with his head, they opt not to tell the head coach, but to warn the player about upcoming testing, so he can figure out a way around it.) Like his “Godfather” brother Al Pacino in “Any Given Sunday,” the great James Caan brings a growling, paternal authenticity to the role of the head coach, and the supporting cast features a number of bright young talents, including Halle Berry, Craig Sheffer, Kristy Swanson, and Omar Epps.
On VOD.
6. “Jerry Maguire” (1996)
Nothing against sports agents—I know a couple of sports agents, and they’re fine people—but there’s still something miraculous about Cameron Crowe putting an agent at the center of the most quoted sports movie of all time. By this point, “Show me the money!”, “You complete me,” and “You had me at hello” are years past their saturation dates, but when you rewatch “Jerry Maguire” and revisit the lines in context, they really click. Tom Cruise is in prime movie star form as the titular character, who by the end of the story has come to genuinely believe in his mission statement. Renée Zellweger brings depth and substance to a role that admittedly has a bit of a stuck-in-the-1950s mentality. And yes, Cuba Gooding Jr. plays to the rafters in a part tailor-made for a Best Supporting Actor award—but he’s a hilarious force as an undersized receiver with a big heart whose mantra is show me the money – but only because that money is for him to take care of his family.
On VOD.
5. “Friday Night Lights” (2004)
One of the things I love about Peter Berg’s high school football classic is how it emphasizes that only one or two Permian Panthers truly possess the size and talent to play at the next level. Unlike the powerhouse Dallas Carter team, with a roster that included more than 20 players who were offered college scholarships, for the vast majority of the Permian squad, Friday night was the end of the road—which only increases the pressure on these 17-year-olds to come through for an entire town that lives vicariously through them. “FNL” is filled with adults behaving badly and making terrible decisions, e.g., Tim McGraw’s alcoholic father abusing his son (Garrett Hedlund) because the boy doesn’t have his talents, and L.V. Miles (Grover Coulson) encouraging his nephew and ward Boobie (Derek Luke) to play against medical advice. We reel from their actions, but we understand why these men are so desperate. Their time has come and gone. The high school football careers of their loved ones are all they’ve got, and they act accordingly. That’s wrong, and terribly, terribly sad—but it makes for compelling drama.
On Netflix and Starz.
4. “Brian’s Song” (1971)
An all-time “guy cry” classic. This 1971 ABC Movie of the Week about the special friendship between Chicago Bears star running back Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) and the brash free agent turned fullback Brian Piccolo (James Caan, making his second appearance on this list), who died of cancer at 26, was such a spectacular success that it was subsequently shown in theaters, with a major premiere at the Michael Todd Theatre in Chicago. Sayers and Piccolo were the first interracial roommates in the NFL, and the film handles the issue directly and with grace and warm humor, with Williams and Caan exuding tremendous buddy-film chemistry. Especially in the 1970s, television directors and writers were considered second-tier talents to filmmakers—but in adapting an excerpt from Sayers’ book “I Am Third,” director Buzz Kulik (whose résumé includes the legendary anthology series “Playhouse 90” and multiple episodes of “The Twilight Zone”) and writer William Blinn (whose credits extend from episodes of “Rawhide” and “Gunsmoke” to co-writing “Purple Rain,” how about that) created a beautiful piece of work.
On VOD.
3. “All the Right Moves” (1983)
More than any other film on this list, Michael Chapman’s Pennsylvania steel town football drama resonates with me, because it struck so many parallels to my own experiences under the Friday Night Lights as a thoroughly ordinary backup tight end and special teams player for the Thornridge Falcons in Dolton, Ill. (Hometown of the Pope!) Two months after Tom Cruise’s star-making turn as a rich-kid high school schemer in “Risky Business,” Cruise gives a much more grounded and even more impressive performance as defensive back “Stef” Djordjevic, whose clashes with his hard-nosed coach (a forceful Craig T. Nelson, years before he played a sitcom coach) could kill Stef’s dream of earning a college ride so he can study engineering and break the generational cycle of a back-breaking life toiling in the steel mills. (If the mills even stay open.) Twenty years before the film version of “Friday Night Lights,” here was a movie that perfectly captured the intensity, the glory, and the pressures of small-town high school football.
On VOD.
2. “Heaven Can Wait” (1978)
Oh, how I love this film. Warren Beatty, who co-directed with Buck Henry and co-wrote the screenplay with Elaine May, gives one of the most endearing performances of his career as Joe Pendleton, a backup quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams who is plucked from the Earth before his time, returns in the body of millionaire industrialist Leo Farnsworth, buys the team, and installs himself as the starting QB. The soprano saxophone moment (when Jack Warden’s Max Corkle realizes this Farnsworth guy really is his old friend Joe) is hilarious but sweet, and the love story between Joe and Julie Christie’s Betty is beautiful and touching, transcending life and death, leading us to believe in romantic destiny.
On VOD.
1. “North Dallas Forty”
In the late 1970s, just as pro football was reaching unprecedented levels of popularity and solidifying its standing as the dominant TV sport in America, along came the subversive, cynical, biting, and hilariously on-point “North Dallas Forty” to slice and dice the sanitized mythology of the game. Based on the terrific satirical novel by former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Peter Gent, “North Dallas Forty” is both a love letter to football—and a scathing indictment of ownership that treats players like expendable commodities, with little regard for their health or their futures. Nick Nolte delivered empathetic anti-hero work as the aging and ever-rebellious wide receiver Phil Elliott, who is becoming increasingly dependent on painkillers. Meanwhile, the amiable country singer Mac Davis was a revelation as the star quarterback, Seth Maxwell, a pragmatic company man. The invaluable G.D. Spradlin mirrors the all-business persona of the Tom Landry-esque head coach. At the same time, the late great John Matuszak, essentially playing himself, delivers a Hall of Fame-level locker room tirade at Charles Durning’s unctuous assistant coach: “Job, Job, I don’t want no fucking job, I want to play football, you asshole…I want some fucking team spirit…Every time I call it a game, you call it a business, and every time I call it a business, you call it a game!”
On VOD and free on Hoopla.
