Article 766PY What’s your favorite football movie?

What’s your favorite football movie?

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from on (#766PY)
622f1a1db1780b243455c0cad277fc45American actor Burt Reynolds (1936 - 2018) (in costume as Paul 'Wrecking' Crewe) holds a football during the filming of 'The Longest Yard' (directed by Robert Aldrich), Torrance, California, 1973. (Photo by Steve Schapiro/Corbis via Getty Images) | Getty Images

The offseason is a great time to catch up on football movies. What's your favorite?

As I was putting together this list, I was struck by how many of them are underdog stories. At least, the ones I preferred are. I have no time for a film like The Water Boy' even though it's one of Adam Sandler's top-grossing movies, but perhaps you loved it. Did I miss any? What's your favorite? Let me know!

These are the ten that are certainly worth a mention, but not in my top five.

Just missed

Remember the Titans

Any Given Sunday

North Dallas Forty

Friday Night Lights

Worth watching

TheReplacements

All the Right moves

Brian's Song

We are Marshall

Semi-Tough

Heaven Can Wait (Had to get the LA Rams in here!)

My top-5 football movies

My top five are the ones I can, and have, watched over and over.

Radio

Ed Harris plays a high school football coach who becomes a mentor to a local man with an intellectual disability, pushing others in town to open their hearts and minds. Great acting from Harris and Cuba Gooding Jr made it very easy to connect to the characters. Loved it.

The Blind Side

The story of Michael Oher, a black, homeless, and traumatized boy who became an All-American football player and first-round NFL draft pick. Sandra Bullock plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, a rich white socialite who takes pity on Oher and invites him into the family home, and eventually convinces her husband that they should adopt him.

Jerry Maguire

A look at the relationship built between an agent, Tom Cruise, and a player played by Cuba Gooding Jr. When Maguire has a crisis of conscience, writes a company-wide memo and is promptly fired, he starts up his own management firm with only single mother Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger) joining him in his new venture. This movie has it all. Love, sports, revenge, and the happy Hollywood ending. Hats off to Jonathan Lipnicki, who played Ray Boyd, Renee Zellweger's son, for stealing just about every scene he was in.

bf1ac631821fed9620c649b91108abd0The Longest Yard

Forget you even saw the remake with Adam Sandler; the original is a great film. Burt Reynolds gives a stellar performance as a quarterback who ends up in a prison where the warden is a football fanatic. To give you all the background behind the football game played between the prisoners and guards would take forever. Suffice it to say, it was a basic good against evil storyline with some brilliant acting bringing to life an equally brilliant script.

Rudy

Hands up if you've seen this one more than three times! Recognized by many as the greatest sports movie of all time, it stars Sean Astin as Rudy Ruettiger, an undersized small-town kid who grows up with aspirations of one day playing football for Notre Dame. Against all odds, he eventually gets into the school, walks on, and is chosen for the practice squad. His heart and determination win over the team, leading to him finally dressing for an actual game and getting onto the field for one play.

I think the film is as popular as it is because Rudy is an everyman'. Fans can all relate. Sean Astin is terrific, as should be expected from someone who's played a Goonie, Rudy, and a Hobbit, and really brings the role to life. The fact that it is a true story certainly doesn't hurt.

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These are my choices. Have I forgotten any? What's your favorite?

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