Since there are still a few nights when you can’t watch real football, here are the greatest football movies of all time.
Football movies aren’t just about sports — they’re a way to address emotions we don’t always feel comfortable talking about, and cover a lot of genres, from comedy to serious tearjerkers.
And now, our list.
Brian’s Song (1971)
Brian’s Song is comparable to David Anspaugh’s Rudy in that they are both unmitigated tearjerkers. It is also comparable to Rudy in that they are both true stories. And that they both deal with not just football, but disappointment, friendship, overcoming obstacles and courage.
But Brian’s Song is different in that it does not have a happy ending. It’s the story of the bond that formed between Chicago Bears teammates Brian Piccolo and the legendary Gale Sayers. When Piccolo is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Sayers helps him through it until the end.
It’s OK to cry watching this movie — or listening to it. It has one of the saddest movie scores ever by composer Michel Legrand.
Jerry Maguire (1996)
A great football movie, and almost perfect movie all around, Cameron Crowe’s 1996 Jerry Maguire follows sports agent Jerry Maguire as he has an epiphany: more focus on clients, less on money.
That doesn’t play well with his superagency, which fires him, leaving him with one client, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr., who won a supporting actor Oscar for his incredibly charismatic performance).
This one has plenty of drama, excellent comedic dialogue, and plenty for the romantics out there, too: Not just Jerry’s fumbling relationship with adorable single mom Dorothy (Renee Zellweger), but also Tidwell’s deeply committed marriage to Marcee (Regina King).
Remember the Titans (2000)
Remember the Titans is the mostly true story of football coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) as he battles racism and resentment while trying to lead the recently integrated T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia to an undefeated season in 1971.
Boone has replaced white former coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), leading to initial tension, but they overcome their differences for the good of their community and their team.
Like all the greatest football movies, it’s not just about football.
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Based on Harry Segall’s play of the same name — which has been remade on numerous occasions — this New Hollywood classics, co-directed by Buck Henry and star Warren Beatty, is virtually nothing like the Ernst Lubitsch version that preceded it in 1943. Because this is a football movie.
A perfectly written, acted and directed football movie. When quarterback Joe Pendleton is taken to heaven prematurely prior to his team going to the Super Bowl, he must do everything in his power — and heaven’s — to procure a new body, convince his old coach of who he really is, buy his old football team and insert himself as its star quarterback.
We know: Yikes! But it’s not nearly as convoluted as it sounds.
North Dallas Forty (1979)
Another quality football movie from the golden age, North Dallas Forty is the semi-fictional account of a pro football team (based on the Dallas Cowboys teams of the early 1970s).
It is brash, loud and irreverent and gives a completely unrelenting look at the mostly unglamorous life of a professional football player.
The Best of Times (1986)
This is an often-overlooked gem of a football movie. You will watch it and then ask yourself, “Why did I like that so much?”
The answer is, because it was written by Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, Tin Cup), and Ron Shelton can turn out a whale of a sports movie. Doesn’t mater what sport it is.
This one happens to be about football and is perfectly cast with Kurt Russell as the strapping yet aging ex-high school quarterback with an attitude problem and Robin Williams (at his understated and mellowed-out best) as the nerdly ex-high school receiver with a chance to redeem himself for the pass he didn’t catch.
Rudy (1993)
TriStar Pictures
This is the true story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, and undersized kid who works his way on to the Notre Dame football squad. Okay, so it’s not the most cerebral football movie on the panel, but so what? What it lacks in sophistication it more than makes up for in heart and spirit.
Plus, it’s written by Angelo Pizzo and directed by David Anspaugh, two seasoned pros at crafting feel goodsports movies (Hoosiers, The Game of Their Lives).
Oh, and guys: The goosebumps on your arm and lump in the throat you’ll experience when watching the ending are just precursors to a much larger disorder known as… bawling your eyes out.
The Program (1993)
The Program is one of those movies that college guys get a hold of and watch religiously for four years, then sever ties with permanently after they graduate. A story of camaraderie (and bad behavior) on and off the football field, it tackles steroids, domestic abuse, alcoholism, success-driven coaches and basic male machismo.
It’s kind of like a non-humorous and less chipper Necessary Roughness, except it’s damn entertaining, if not completely irrelevant.
Friday Night Lights (2004)
Peter Berg’s film about a high school football team that lights up life in Odessa, Texas is a staggering, emotional story, immaculately shot, that captures why people love football — and how crushing the game can be, in every sense.
It benefits a lot from a pulsing soundtrack that includes Explosions in the Sky and Public Enemy.
It’s based on the nonfiction book by Buzz Bizzinger, which also, of course, inspired the excellent TV series of the same name. (And if you like Friday Night Lights, you might also like Berg’s latest project, the fact-based opioid epidemic drama Painkiller.
Any Given Sunday (1999)
Oliver Stone injects that special Oliver Stone energy into this story of Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx), a pro quarterback who rises from mediocrity to primetime, and his ability (or inability) to deal with instant success at the highest level of his profession.
But it’s Al Pacino quickly gets possession of the movie — this is one of roles movies where he does his screaming thing a lot, but it’s justified and totally works.
Cameron Diaz is also great as the new owner of the Miami Sharks.
The Longest Yard (1974)
The Longest Yard was shot during the golden age of the football movie—the 1970s, an era which still produced an original idea every now and then. The story of an ex-pro quarterback (Burt Reynolds) who leads a group of prison inmates in a game against the prison guards, it features one-dimensional characters, but characters you care about and root for nonetheless.
This is not to be confused with the Adam Sandler remake of the same name, as there are several differences between the two movies, including an opening domestic violence scene in the original that would make Ike Turner recoil.
The Waterboy (1998)
Adam Sandler plays meek waterboy turned fearsome linebacker Bobby Boucher Jr. in this gleefully ridiculous — but strangely moving — story set in the football stadiums and bayous of Louisiana.
Rob Schneider almost steals the whole thing with one line: “You can do it!” He would go on to repeat it again and again across many Adam Sandler movies.
And Fairuza Balk is terrific as always, this time playing Bobby’s love interest with a criminal past.
Knute Rockne, All American (1940)
The only film on this list to star a future U.S. president, Knute Rockne All American also opened Hollywood’s eyes to the incredible cinematic potential of football.
Based on a true story, it features Ronald Reagan, as dying Notre Dame halfback George Gipp. In the most memorable scene, he asks his coach, Knute Rockne, to tell his teammates to “win one for the Gipper” — a line Reagan skillfully resurrected as president.
If you liked this list, you might want to look to the sidelines for this list of Cheerleader Movies That Changed the Game.
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Main image: The Waterboy. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution