My Favorite Football Movies

It's that time of year... football season! And, of course, the Chiefs did lose in the last 30 seconds to the Eagles Friday night... so disappointing but in the tradition of Kansas City professional teams, I'm used to it. Sadly. This time of year also has me digging into my massive DVD collection looking for the movies that revolve around football. So grab your bag of popcorn, sit on the couch and enjoy the movies that I consider my favorite football movies~

Remember The Titans: This one is my absolute favorite. The movie is based on a true story from the early 1970's. It is a great story of how two high schools from different racial backgrounds are merged together and work through their differences to become one unified team. The football team is the first group of students to actually break through the tension and set the example for the rest of the community.

When I was a junior and senior in high school, I played for the high school powderpuff football team. When it was my senior year, the girls and I decided to warm up before practice and the game while singing the "We are the Titans" song, but replacing Titans with seniors.

Rudy: I don't think I would be a fan of Notre Dame if it wasn't for this movie. A young man named Rudy has always dreamed of playing football at Notre Dame, despite his small figure. His determination however, is noticed and he does eventually get to join the team. This is just a classic, feelgood movie... one that I would recommend people put on thier bucket list. If there is ever a time where I feel a little bit down or seem to be in a situation where I feel like I just cant fit in... I stick this in my DVD player and feel a lot better about a situation.

The Waterboy: It may easily be the dumbest football movie out there, but I cant help liking it. The Waterboy of a Louisiana team discovers his talent of tackling through pent up anger and rage, which leads him to playing college football. Like many of Sandler's comedies, there is a blend of comedic timing and sentiment. This is the one football film I quote the most. "You can dooooo it!!!" "Foosball is the devil!" "Gatorade....." And I will stay away from the frog cupcakes...

The Replacements: This is one movie that I catch myself watching every time it is on tv, even when it isn't football season. A bunch of NFL players decide to go on strike because they demand bigger salaries. The coach of the Washington Sentinals decide to recruit replacement players, who never made it to the NFL. This plan seems to work and generates some interesting plays... and strip club cheerleaders, lol. This is another movie that shows teamwork and character building. What I love about this movie is the perfect blend of comedy, football, and storyline. The group of actors in this film (Keanu Reeves, Jon Favreau, Gene Hackman, Orlando Jones, Rhys Ifans) was just pure awesomeness.

The Longest Yard (2005 remake): Ok, I haven't seen the original, but being an Adam Sandler fan, I watched the remake anyway. Paul Crewe has a drunken incident that leads him to jail. The warden of the prison offers Crewe to have a reduced sentence if he is willing to create a football team with inmates to play against the guards. This was another movie where I loved the blended cast (Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds, Nelly, Chris Rock, Terry Crews). When the Caretaker was killed, I was upset. It would be like killing off Red (Morgan Freeman) in Shawshank Redemption. Not cool to kill the caretaker. As a whole, I thought this movie was merely ok, but had its moments.

The Game Plan: This is what you call a cutesy football movie. Joe Kingman, quarterback, is about to lead his team to the championship (apparently Disney didn't get the rights to say Super Bowl, lol) when he gets an unexpected visitor. His daughter, whom he never knew about until that moment. So he is forced into a situation where he's balancing his personal life and professional life while taking care of her. Ok, so it's really not much about football, except for the last 15 minutes. But entertaining in a "watch with your kids" kind of way.


And Now for my "Walk of Shame"...

Football Movies That I Have Yet to See:
-The Blind Side
-We Are Marshall
-The Program
-Any Given Sunday

Yes, I have been told by a few random people that I have been depriving myself from watching these movies. One person, years ago, was bold enough to say I cant be a real football fan because I hadn't seen Any Given Sunday. Oh, well. I'll see it eventually, lol