Top Ten Good American Football Movies

The Top Ten

There is nothing like a good movie and for football fans and there is nothing like a good football movie to help fill in the long months between seasons. It is not surprising that Hollywood has looked to the game of football for all kinds of inspiration. Just go to any video store and you will see there is no shortage of gridiron movies on the shelves. Here you will find a review of some of my favorite all time best movies about the gridiron along with video clips and where you can buy your own copy so that like me you can watch these classic movies over and over again.

I have put together a list of my favorite ten favorite football movies from over the years. Keep in mind that this list is totally subjective as my choices may be totally uplifting to one and completely mind numbing to another. But this is my Hub and I get to call the shots here ;)

The Waterboy

Good Football Movie

The Waterboy is one of my favorite football movies that stars Adam Sandler. This is a check your brain at the door movie, but it is still very funny. Sandler plays Bobby Boucher a dim-witted Mama’s boy who joins a college football team when it is realized that he has the talent to play linebacker simply by channeling all his rage toward the opponent. I love Adam Sandler no matter what he does so is it incredibly silly, it sure is but it is still fun to watch.

North Dallas Forty

Football Movie

(1979) From the novel of the same name by former player Peter Gent this movie is loosely based on the NFL Dallas Cowboys of the1970's. There is some good game footage and locker room scenes that get close to whats ots like in the real locker room. Starring Nick Nolte as Phillip Elliott who is an aging wide receiver for the North Dallas Bulls who still delivers on the field despite all his past injuries and Mac Davis as Seth Maxwell as the quarterback who thinks he's seen it all. This semi-fictional tale shows the dark side of football and how the greedy owners take a win at all cost approach and toss the players aside when they are no longer useful.

"We're not the team. You're the team. We're only the equipment - like the jockstraps and the helmets."

Heaven Can Wait

Classic Good Football Movie

A remake of 1941's classic movie, "Here Comes Mr. Jordan." this all time great features writer director Warren Beatty as the golden boy L.A. Rams quarterback Joe Pendleton , who is killed ahead of his time in a car accident and is summoned to heaven. When archangel Mr. Jordan played by James Mason realizes the mistake, Joe is returned to Earth but it's in the body of a wealthy industrialist, Leo Farnsworth who's about to be murdered by his unfaithful wife Julia played by Dyan Cannon and and her lover, Farnsworth's personal secretary is Tony Abbott played by Charles Grodin.

You may have to take a couple of leaps of faith in order to follow the somewhat complicated plot in this really good football movie. Most of the action of the football scenes are not all that realistic but watching Joe who is not going to let a little thing like murder prevent him from playing in the Super Bowl--new body or not is what makes the movie great. Add a great romance between Julie Christie (on my own top ten lists of great chick flicks) and football together and you have a winner on all counts. This movie is not to be confused with the 1943 film of the same name.

 Brians Song

Great Football Movie

Football is an emotional game, and it often has been said that if a movie can make you laugh, cry or inspired, then it will be successful. And so this good football movie begins with a voiceover by actor Jack Warden who plays Bears legend George “Papa Bear” Halas.

“Ernest Hemingway said that ‘Every true story ends in death.’ Well, this is a true story.”

Favorite Football Movie

Brians Song is based on the true story of popular NFL Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo played by James Caan, who died of cancer at 26, and the unique friendship he developed with teammate and future Hall of Famer running back Gale Sayers played by Billy Dee Williams. They were the first interracial roommates in the history of the NFL. They began their relationship as rivals competing for the team’s Chicago Bears starting running back position when they arrived at their first training camp in 1965. Piccolo spent that season on the practice squad, while Sayers went on to arguably the greatest rookie season in NFL history. Still, they eventually formed a bond that transcended race, competition and any other obstacle that threatened to come between them – even a terminal illness. It is a true look at the real bond that can form between team mates and a very emotional look at the way a personal tragedy can shape an entire team. This football movie is a guarantee that even the hardest of men will find themselves getting misty by the end.

Jerry Maguire

Romantic Football Movie

Tom Cruise in this 1986 drama is funny and smart. Its about backstabbing and all that goes into a successful career off the field and what goes on between an agent and a football player. This movie is the whole package and that is proven in the fact that it is not often that you find threelines from the same movie that crept into our culture in a most defining way. When Tom Cruise returns to make up with Renee Zellweger with a line that every woman wants to hear, "You complete me" and she tells him "You had me at hello" they both give voice to lines that will likely repeat itself for all eternity. And then when Cuba Gooding Jr. celebrates his new contract by shouting "Show me the money" he ushers in a rally cry for all players and agents to cash in on sudden and well deserved fame.
You cant forget that fateful night, he puts his thoughts to paper and crafts a lengthy "mission statement" where he believes he and his fellow agents should take fewer clients, give more personal attention and lobby for their client's health and not just their pay. In short order, Jerry will find himself out of a job with one remaining client, Rob Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), dumped by his fiancé and left with a lone staff member, Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger). Dorothy believes in Jerry and his new "mission statement" and quickly falls in love with the emotionally wounded man.

A football movie that is a classic and so good that it warranted two video clips to remind you of how great this film is.

Friday Night Lights

Football Movie turned TV Series

"Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know you didn't let them down. I want you to put each other in your hearts forever--because forever is about to happen. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, with love and joy in your heart? If you can do that, then you're perfect." Those are the words of Coach Gary Gaines.

1959 the first year that the Panthers, Odessa, Texas "boys in black", established themselves as the most successful football program, not only in Texas, but in the entire country. The movie takes us to the the last days of summer of 1988, where the Permian High School Panthers begin the season with one thing on their minds--winning their fifth straight championship in their thirty-year team history. It is based on the best-selling book by H.G. Bissinger, Peter Berg's gritty, powerful drama that tells the true story of a small Texas town in which high school football is the only thing that matters.

The Longest Yard

Football at its Best in Movies

In Robert Aldrich's crowd-pleasing 1974 classic, The Longest yard stars Burt Reynolds as convict Paul Crewe, a former football player who is doing time for drunkenness and car theft in a prison controlled by two authoritarian sports fanatics, warden Hazen played by Eddie Albert and captain Knauer played by Ed Lauter. When Crewe sees that the guards have a top-notch football team, he takes it upon himself to form a squad with his fellow inmates.

As the prisoners come together, reved up by the shot at challenging the guards, they begin to come together with a sense of purpose and solidarity and of course the warden Hazen doesn't like it. With the Penitentiary Bowl approaching, Hazen pressures Crewe to throw the big game. Crewe must choose between his own freedom and supporting the newfound dignity of his convict teammates.

Paul Crewe: We're gettin' up a football game against the guards. Wondered if maybe you and some of your buddies here would like to join in on the fun.
Samson: With the guards?
Paul Crewe: Uh huh.
Samson: Sure, I'd like that

A remake of this classic football movie with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock came out in 2005 with Burt Reynolds in a well deserved cameo.

All the Right Moves

Football Movie

This is a story of courage. And in it Tom Cruise plays a mill-town football star determined to escape the same traps that ensnared his parents. And he shows us All the right moves to do it.

Craig T. Nelson, in a terrific villain role, is the coach who thinks thinks Stef has a "bad attitude." and so he takes revenge out on Cruise's ambitions that drift a little too close to home.

One could argue that most films about high school football players usually fall into one of two categories: glossy jock romance or locker-room sex farce. This one takes us to both places and scores both as decent character study and decidedly unsentimental With a great theme song by Jennifer Warnes-Chris Thompson and Lea Thompson who shows him how the love of a good woman can keep him from falling into the slough of his family's steelworker tradition.

Any Given Sunday

The Perfect Day for Good Football Movie

In Oliver Stone's 1999 look at professional football, Al Pacino stars as Tony D'Amato, the aging head coach of the fictional Miami Sharks. He has to deal with the team's demanding president/co-owner Cameron Diaz, and a washed-up star quarterback played by Dennis Quaid and the rookie QB in line to replace him Jamie Foxx.

Every scene is filled with close-up shots of players in the trenches, revealing locker room sequences and action and sound so incredible that viewers feel like they're right there on the field.

More than any other football movie this one cuts to the chase of what it mean to play, coach, own and manage a professional football team in the NFL. And it addresses the age old question of when your time is up. There are great down and dirty scenes but it is behind the scenes that make this movie soar. I often wonder if Mark Sanchez when he must have watched this movie was a pre req for him thinking it was ok to eat a hot dog on the side lines as in this movie the QB is seen eating chips on the sideline.

My favorite part is of course the famous locker room speech . ."its a game of inches"

Memorable quote:

"On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is -- can you win or lose like a man?"
- Tony D'Amato

Paper Lion

Alan Alda stars as George Plimpton in this true to life 1968 account of an unassuming journalist attempt to suit up as an NFL quarterback for the ultimate insiders look at the game. There were alot of real life Detroit Lions who played along side for the real life George Plimpton are featured as themselves. It was the story for Sports Illustrated and his ensuing best-selling book, Paper Lion tells and relates his trials and errors through training camp while attempting to keep his journalist identity a secret. Ultimately, his exploits culminate in him playing in a live scrimmage before thousands of paying fans. If you love football you will love this movie!

Appearances by Alex Karras, Frank Gifford and the immortal Vince Lombardi.

Memorable quote: "You try the AFL?"
-Vince Lombardi, insulting the supposedly weaker league when compared to the NFL, in which his Packers played.

Remember The Titans

Best Football Movie

Ok so I cant count and this great football movie makes this top ten list actually the top 11. I just could not be leave this one or any other one off this list.

Two words define Remember the Titans, the movie,and those two words are Denzel Washington. In this all time great football movie, Denzel stars as coach Herman Boone, charged with helping his team deal with issues of integration and tolerance in a racially charged environment while at the same time managing to win a few football games. And in fact Boones Titans manage to put together an undefeated season as they go onto the state championship. This 2000 drama is based on the true story of a suburban Virginia school that has been segregated until 1970 and this coach was brought in to unify a divided program when the school was finally integrated.

"Let them remember forever the night they played the Titans"