The Top 10 Best Football Movies

5. The Longest Yard (1974) 

Football players aren’t exactly strangers to prison time. However, I doubt any of them have had anything close to what Burt Reynolds’ Paul Crewe experienced in The Longest Yard. A semi-pro quarterback, Crewe, ends up in a Florida prison where he eventually ends up getting roped into pulling together a group of convicts to take on a team of guards. Of course, the prisoners all drop their escape plans at the chance to use a little unnecessary roughness on the guards, and soon the game is set. Now, let me be sure to specify that this is the 1974 version that’s being included on this list, not the Adam Sandler remake. Though I certainly don’t have anything against the British version, Mean Machine, that features cons playing soccer (aka football for the rest of the world).       

4. North Dallas Forty

You might think the life of a football player is all fame, fortune, and sneaker endorsements, but there’s a dark side that comes with throwing your body against other enormous men for years on end. Few football movies show the painful truth of painkillers and corticosteroids. Now, before you start thinking that North Dallas Forty is a downer flick, keep in mind that football is a business, and at the end of the day it really doesn’t care that much about its players. For every first stringer out there, there are 10 more just waiting for a chance to play in the big leagues. North Dallas Forty is a satire of the industry which means that it mixes in plenty of funny moments to make the bitter truth a little easier to swallow. Comedy or not, the film was praised for how it reflected players of the time.    

3. Rudy 

Some people might call not giving Rudy the number one spot on this list of football movies blasphemy. As much as I love watching the little hobbit that could (Sean Astin) play with the big boys, I have some concerns about putting a 5’6 guy on the gridiron with a bunch of rage-fueled Macy’s day floats bearing down on him. Still, it’s an inspirational story about a man following his life long dream and pouring everything into achieving it. I know I’ve been a bit hard on the sport throughout this top 10 list, but Rudy really is one of the most inspiring films ever made. In fact, it’s one of the only movies that all men get a free pass to get choked up over. When it comes to football movies, few are as universally regarded at the same level as Rudy. That’s why it was the first film I wrote down when I started this list.  

2. Friday Night Lights 

When it comes to small towns, nothing is bigger than high school football. The obsession seriously borders on cult-like. I mean, it’s a little scary, to be honest. Few football movies capture the intensity of high school programs quite as well as Friday Night Lights. The amount of social pressure on the players is absolutely insane as they put their bodies on the line even before they’ve stopped growing all in the name of small-town glory. Several of the players in the film end up badly injured and one even hides the results of his MRI from the coach in order to keep playing. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever loved anything as much as those folks love football. That’s probably why it’s no surprise that Friday Night Lights ended up with a successful television spin-off series.  

1. Remember the Titans 

Coming in at the number one spot on this list of football movies is the biographical film about high school coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington). Believe it or not, folks “were” still a tad bit racist in Virginia during the 1970s. So, when Boone was promoted to head coach at T. C. Williams High School folks were a wee bit miffed. Things escalated when Boone dared to let black players on the field. In spite of that, the results speak for themselves as Boone leads the team to a State Championship. Of course, the team’s journey is no cakewalk and it takes them time to put racial tensions aside and come together. Even then, tragedy strikes when one of their star players is taken out of the game. Remember the Titans is a truly great film and one that every football fan will enjoy. That’s why it’s sitting pretty at the number one spot.  

Honorable Mentions:

Big Fan

There aren’t a lot of football movies that take a look at how intense and frightening fans of the sport can be. Patton Oswald stars as a Giants fan who had nothing else going for him other than his obsession with the sport. He’s a ride or die fan that spends his nights calling into sports talk shows defending his team. That is until an incident makes him rethink his undying love for the team. It’s a pretty dark film but definitely worth a watch for any sports fans out there.

Jerry Maguire 

There’s no denying that Jerry Maguire isn’t a great movie that shows another side of the sport Americans love so much. It’s a film that reveals just what a business football is as it follows an agent trying to hold onto his star client and his livelihood. In all honesty, after seeing this film I’m not sure who works harder, the agents or the players. 

Those are my picks for the best football movies of all time. What’d you think of the flicks that made the list? Touchdown or fumble? Let me know in the comments what you think of them and if there are any great films I might have missed. As always, I’ll be updating this list as new football movies hit the big screen. So, be sure to check back to see how the rankings might change in the future.