To celebrate the start of the 2013-14 football season, we’ve decided to count down our favorite football movies.
It’s been a long spring and summer, but football season is finally back. Technically, high school and college football seasons have already started and the first game of the NFL season happened on Thursday night, but today marks this season’s first NFL Sunday. What better way to celebrate football’s return than by watching football movies?
There have been so many great ones over the years. In fact, it seems like there’s at least one movie about football that comes out each year. Even though we do enjoy watching football games, we sometimes actually enjoy watching football movies even more. They make the game more intimate because we get to know and care about the players. Football movies give us more to root for than just a team.
While there are so many entertaining football movies out there, here’s a list of our top 6 favorites. (We were going to just do a top 5, but couldn’t narrow it down!)
‘Rudy’ (1993)
Rudy is one of the most inspiring football movies. We couldn’t help but relate to this small underdog wanting to play college football (even if we ourselves are not football players). Who hasn’t had someone tell them that they’re not good enough, strong enough, or smart enough? Rudy showed us that we can do anything we set our minds to.
‘Friday Night Lights’ (2004)
Based on a novel, Friday Night Lights tells the story of a successful high school football team from a small town in Texas. We like this movie because it shows a different side to high school football programs and all of the pressures involved. We really empathize with the town and players, and were really excited when the movie’s director created a spin-off TV series.
‘The Replacements’ (2000)
Ok, so while it may not necessarily be inspiring or emotional like the other football movies on our list, The Replacements is definitely one of the most entertaining. Watching all of these different people get a second chance at an NFL career is sort of moving, but it’s honestly more hilarious than anything. And the “I Will Survive” scene in the jail? Priceless.
‘We Are Marshall’ (2006)
The death of so many young football players and fans is incredibly heartbreaking. We admire the way the team and the university community banned together to rebuild the program and improve morale. This is one of the most memorable football movies because it was based on a tragically true story.
‘The Blind Side’ (2009)
Nominated for Best Picture, The Blind Side is the most recent of our favorite football movies. We love Sandra Bullock as the confident and protective mother who takes in a high school kid that’s practically a stranger to her and her family. One of the reasons why we like this movie so much is that it doesn’t take place in the distant past. In fact, Michael Oher, the subject of the film, played in the 2013 Super Bowl and his team, the Baltimore Ravens, were the champions. How cool is that?
‘Remember the Titans’ (2000)
Remember the Titans is quite possibly one of the best sports films ever made, let alone one of the best football movies. It just has so much heart. We as an audience get to know every single one of the T.C. Williams players, which is really rewarding once they all come together and work as a team. Julius Campbell and Gerry Bertier is definitely one of our favorite BrOTPs of all time (although we love Coach Boone and Coach Yoast’s relationship too). We can’t help but to sit down and watch this movie whenever it comes on. It’s just too good.