You might think that females don’t like football movies. However, I have seen every one of these football movies that are based on real life stories since my husband and I have a deal: he will go see a chick flick with me if I go to see a sports movie with him. OK – I have to admit that these football movies based on true stories are now among my favorite movies in any movie category. Here is my list of best football movies based on real life stories you can watch while waiting for Super Bowl Sunday.
Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo play for the Chicago Bears. They compete for the same team position and even though Sayers is black and Piccolo is white, they become roommates. When Sayers is injured, it is Piccolo that stands by his side and gives him determination to fight for recovery. Then Piccolo’s cancer takes his life too early.
An entire town grieves the loss of players and fans of the Marshall University football team in a tragic airplane accident. Coach Jack Lengyel has to teach a town and the surviving football players how to overcome grief and revive the football program.
Remember the Titans
Star: Denzel Washington
Football Coach Herman Boone has to go down as one of the heroes of integrated football teams in history. His coaching courage and leadership led to some of the most loyal friendships between black and white football players that existed in that time.
A Native American sports phenomenon from an Oklahoma Indian reservation emerges as one of the world’s greatest athletes of all time. Controversy strikes and his medals are stripped. His marriage falls apart and his coaching dreams end. This is a sad but true story of a true sports hero.
Gridiron Gang
Stars: The Rock, Xzibit, L. Scott Caldwell, Leon Rippy
This is a great movie about how you can use football to rehabilitate juvenile delinquents. This movie is about the real life story of a juvenile camp detention officer.
Friday Night Lights
Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, Garrett Hedlund, Jay Hernandez, Lee Jackson, Lee Thompson Young, Lucas Black, Tim McGraw
This is one of my favorites since my high school alma mater in El Paso, Texas – Eastwood High School — played the Odessa Permian Panthers on several occasions while I attended high school in the 1970’s. The 1988 Permian team and their state championship victory is the highlight of Friday Night Lights.
Invincible
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Greg Kinnear
What athletic young man doesn’t dream about playing in the NFL? This is the true story about how one guy in Philadelphia beats the odds and became a Philadelphia Eagles teammate.
Rudy
Stars: Charles S. Dutton, Jon Favreau, Lili Taylor, Ned Beatty, Sean Astin
A movie about never giving up, Rudy is the true story about how one rather below-average student and athlete overcomes challenges and makes the Notre Dame football team.
Legend in Granite
Stars: Ernest Borgnine, Colleen Dewhurst, James Olson, John Calvin
This is the story of Vince Lombardi’s amazing football career starting from one of Fordham University’s legendary “Seven Blocks of Granite” to becoming one of America’s greatest professional football coaches.
Radio
Stars: Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ed Harris
T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson, South Carolina had a visionary football coach Harold Jones, who sees beyond the mental challenges of Radio. They would stay friends for several decades, and Radio becomes an inspiration to his community.
Ernie Davis was the first African-American to be awarded the Heisman Trophy.
Grambling’s White Tiger
Stars: Bruce Jenner, Dennis Haysbert, Bill Overton, Deborah Pratt, Byron Stewart
This is the true story of Jim Gregory, the first white football player and quarterback at Grambling University in Grambling, Louisiana. Resentment from teammates sets in when Gregory joins the team at this historically black college.
A true story based on Jasmine Plummer, the first female football player in the Pop Warner football tournament. Never in the 56 years of the tournament were girls allowed to participate, but eleven-year-old Jasmine busted the paradigm.
Monday Night Mayhem
Stars: John Turturro, John Heard, Kevin Anderson, Nicholas Turturro, Brad Beyer
The remarkable story about the life of Howard Cosell and how he “invented” Monday Night Football.
Something for Joey
Stars: Geraldine Page, Gerald S. O’Laughlin, Marc Singer, Jeff Lynas, Linda Kelsey, Steven Guttenberg, Paul Picerni
This tearjerker football movie is the true story of Heisman Trophy winner John Cappeletti and his courageous compassion for his little brother suffering from leukemia.
