American Underdog and All Madden: holiday weepies bare the NFL’s heart

With a pair of major NFL-themed releases, America's biggest sports league is taking aim at the NBA's Christmas crown

Christmas is an NBA holiday, but this year the NFL is taking aim. Besides two tasty Saturday games, the league has a pair of films coming down the chimney that will rival any Hallmark TV feature for sentimentality.

Coming only to theaters is American Underdog, the Lionsgate biopic on the former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner - a rags-to-riches tale after my own heart. I moved to Missouri for college when Warner washed up on the 1998 St Louis Rams roster as a 27-year-old third stringer and watched every game of his breakout 1999 season. Years later as a Sports Illustrated cub reporter I'd vibe with pro football insider Michael Silver over his 2000 Warner biography All Things Possible, the text upon which American Underdog is based.