College Football 2011: Top 40 Football Movies to Watch Before the Season Starts

Now that the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the NFL Draft are both over, all that lies ahead for the serious college football enthusiast is a long hot summer highlighted by the NBA playoffs and then endless innings of baseball.

Other than changing the grease in the wing fryer, cleaning the filter on the beverage refrigerator and considering the purchase of a larger flat screen television, what can the college football fan do to prepare themselves for the 2011 season?

Well, before taping up your ankles and pouring the cheese puffs in a bowl, the following slideshow delicately recommends 40 football movies to help you to start getting your game face on.

Put the remote down, because no matter how many times you flip through the channels, you won’t find anything better on TV than these 40 flicks, of course until the first weekend in September, when our lives will suddenly begin once again.

40. Quarterback Princess (1983)

Based on a true story, Quarterback Princess is the heartwarming story of a girl from Oregon who wants to play quarterback on the high school football team.

Beyond achieving success on the field, Tami Maida (portrayed by Helen Hunt) proves that being feminine can coexist with being athletic.

Despite the title and the questionable plot line that involves girls, this really is a good flick.

39. Leatherheads (2007)

Leatherheads is a slapstick, romantic comedy set in the 1920s featuring an ambitious pro football player (portrayed by George Clooney) who is trying to save the fledgling professional football league from going under.

His plan is to recruit Princeton University’s star player, Carter “The Bullet” Rutherford to join the pro ranks and therefore save the league from demise.

Though this is not a “great” football film by any stretch of the imagination, it’s a well set period piece that provides an entertaining look at pro football in its earliest days.

38. Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Heaven Can Wait is a crazy film about a quarterback from the Los Angeles Rams (Warren Beatty) who has a near death experience just before leading the Rams into the Super Bowl.

An overzealous angel mistakenly takes QB Joe Pendelton to heaven before his time; meanwhile, his former body is cremated, and the angel tries to make amends by putting Pendelton’s spirit in a multi-millionaires’ body.

Pendelton, predictably, purchases the Rams franchise so he can be the starting quarterback in the Super Bowl.

I see shades of Jerry Jones, who unfortunately got put into a body too old to go under center, but you know he’d do it if he could.

This is a highly entertaining movie.

37. Possums (1998)

This is a very strange movie that has the mysterious quality of being somewhat satisfying though completely weird.

It’s the story of Will Collier (played by Mac Davis), who does the announcing for a small town football team.  When the football program in is canceled, Collier keeps on announcing without a team (freak!).

Things heat up when Collier has his pretend team contending for a state title.

Like I said, bizarre, but still preferable to a long Sunday afternoon of baseball.

36. Fumbleheads/The Fanatics (1999)

Known by both titles, this film is about a group of fans who come up with an absolutely ludicrous plan to bring back their football team, which was relocated to another town by its owner.

Starring Ed Asner (and why not?), this movie had the tag line “A scheme so comical, it’s criminal.”

Though far-fetched, this film is highly entertaining.

35. The Game Plan (2007)

The Game Plan is the story of an NFL quarterback who suddenly discovers he has an eight-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

Told in a very Disney-esque style, this is one you can watch with your kids or watch by yourself and then not freely admit it afterward.

34. Code Breakers (2005)

This film tells the story of the 1951 academic scandal at West Point that ultimately halted the stunning successes Army had enjoyed as a powerhouse college football program.

The honor code at West Point was eventually upheld, and those who had cheated were dismissed from the academy; this included most of the varsity football team and legendary Army Coach Earl Blaik’s son.

Interestingly, Vince Lombardi was on the Army coaching staff during this time period.

This is a great historical film about a significant event in college football (when it happened, it was not unlike SMU getting the death penalty; only Army pointed the finger at itself and ended its status as a member of the football elite, forever).

33. Paper Lion (1968)

Starring Alan Alda as George Plimpton, Paper Lion has an absolutely riveting story line.  It’s the tale of a sports writer who convinces the coach of the Detroit Lions to allow him to work out with the team during their summer training camp.

Would you like to see Brent Musburger doing drills with the Patriots?

32. Two for the Money (2005)

Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey star in this film about the art of gambling on football.  It’s a grim look at a very seedy side of sports that makes you wonder if the alarmists aren’t right when they scream “it’s rigged!”

For the fan who is blindsided by their sheer love of the game of football, this film is stark reminder that, tragically, the game we love is not just played on the field.

31. The Longest Yard (2005)

Starring Adam Sandler and an impressive cast that includes Brian Bosworth, Chris Berman and Burt Reynolds, this is the 2005 remake of the 1974 classic.

It’s the rematch of the prisoners versus the guards on the gridiron; some will say that this is better than the original, but for my money, I say that the first edition is superior.

Regardless, this is a very entertaining movie.

30. Little Giants (1995)

Even though this movie is about little kids (including one girl) playing football, it is still great fun to watch.

It’s got the classic underdog versus overdog appeal; yes, it’s like Texas against Baylor or Ohio State versus Purdue, only in Little Giants, the Bears and Boilermakers win in the end, every time.

And Jim Tressel and Mack Brown lose, over and over and over again.

29. All the Right Moves (1983)

Starring a young Tom Cruise that had not yet started showing everybody his “Risky Business,” All the Right Moves is a classic football movie.

Set in a small Pennsylvania steel town, this movie does a bang up job of vividly portraying the dreams of young kids stuck in the worlds their parents created.

It’s the stark reality of football and trying to make it to the next level. It’s not candy coated and over dramatized like many of today’s sports films.

A must see.

28. Jerry Maguire (1996)

Another Tom Cruise classic, Jerry Maguire entertains us while reminding us of what professional sports is really all about: the money.

It’s romance, it’s cute little kids, it’s funny, it’s reality and it’s football.

Good stuff.

27. Wildcats (1986)

Goldie Hawn stars as in Wildcats as the woman who wanted to be a high school football coach. 

Though perhaps you might be inspired to discuss the progression of women in coaching, or the appropriate application of feminism in football, you might be missing the point of this movie.

It’s hilarious.

26. Fighting Back (1980)

Fighting Back is the amazing story of Rocky Bleier, who won four Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970’s.

After graduating from Notre Dame, Bleier played his rookie season with the Steelers and was then drafted into the Army and sent to Vietnam.

Bleier was seriously injured by first a gunshot wound and then shrapnel from a grenade causing damage to both his legs.  The injuries were so severe that the doctors told Bleier he would never play football again.

This movie is the story of how Rocky Bleier not only played football again; he made it back to become a starter in the NFL and won four world championships with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

25. Hometown Legend (2002)

Hometown Legend is the emotional story of a small town in Alabama whose football coach has lost his son but finds purpose in helping an unruly teen through the powers of athletics.

A great story.

24. North Dallas Forty (1979)

A classic 1970’s look at professional football, North Dallas Forty stars Nick Nolte and Mac Davis as members of the Dallas Cowboys.

This movie is humorous, seedy and crass; provocatively set amidst the back-drop of the glitzy and over the top 70’s in Dallas and actually conveys a story with powerful undertones.

It’s the tale of the used up athlete, the superstar, and the total owner control of the period.  If you wonder why players strike, you might want to take a look at this piece of football film history.

23. Varsity Blues (1999)

This movie explores the difference in approaching athletics as a “win at all cost” scheme versus the theory of “let’s have fun and learn something about ourselves”.

The question is dealt with in an interesting and entertaining way that makes this film worth watching.

22. Facing the Giants (2006)

Another deep-thinking motion picture, Facing the Giants is as much as a statement of faith as it is a football movie.

Regardless, this is a great football film that puts sports, family and life itself into perspective.

21. Waterboy (1998)

One of the funniest movies on this list, The Waterboy features comedian Adam Sandler at his best as the bumbling super athlete hidden in waterboy’s clothing.

It’s almost a full feature film about the football part of Forrest Gump, only Waterboy is funnier, shorter and features Kathy Bates as a Les Miles-like psycho Cajun.

20. Horse Feathers (1932)

Horse Feathers is the oldest film on the list and features the comedic genius of the four Marx Brothers set against the backdrop of a football coach’s obsession with winning.

If you haven’t ever seen, much less heard of, this movie, you ought to watch it. If nothing else, it will make you appreciate all the grandiose talk of the talented Marx brothers.

19. Knute Rocke All American (1940)

Starring future President of the United States Ronald Reagan, Knute Rocke All American is an iconic college football film.

Filmed just nine years after the legendary Rockne died in a plane crash at the age of 43, this film is a biographical sketch of Knute Rockne’s life.

The cheesy, often over-dramatized style of today’s sports movies is contrasted in this film by the 1940’s approach of over-acting and sterilizing the facts and real life.

Of note, fellow legend and coach Amos Alonzo Stagg plays himself in the film.

There are a lot of Notre Dame haters out there, but it would be a shame to pass on seeing this movie just because you dislike the Irish.

A true classic.

18. The Longest Yard (1974)

The classic, original version of the film remade in 2005, The Longest Yard is an edgy, gritty and humorous film that, of course, features the story of the prisoners and guards going at it on the gridiron.

What really puts this film over the top is the cross-dressing prisoner cheerleading squad, which is worth watching the whole movie for.

17. Necessary Roughness (1991)

Necessary Roughness offers a remarkable plotline for a football movie: What if college football players were forced to meet the same scholastic standards of the regular, rank and file, students?

The result is entertaining but it makes you think...what if?

Set in Texas, the film features Sinbad, Jason Bateman, Kathy Ireland and other famed individuals from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

16. The Junction Boys (2002)

This movie was made by ESPN and is based on a tremendous book of the same title by Jim Dent.

The Junction Boys is the little known story of coach Bear Bryant’s 1954 team at Texas A&M and his infamous 10-day training camp at the little town of Junction, Texas.

Bryant’s tactics to toughen up the Aggies are brutal, questionable and difficult to watch; the value of the experience is left for each individual to judge for him or herself.

“The Junction Boys” was the name given to the survivors of the camp and includes names like Jack Pardee and Gene Stallings.

This film makes you look at Jack Pardee and his “run and shoot” offense in a whole new way.

This movie could easily be in the top ten.

15. Radio (2003)

Another tear jerker, Radio features Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ed Harris in a true story about a football coach who was willing to put himself out there to help a mentally handicapped boy.

Heartwarming as it is heartbreaking, Radio makes you not only realize that there are still good people in the world; it makes you want to be one.

Why do I want to slap Jim Nance right now?

14. Everybody’s All American (1988)

The story of Gavin Grey, LSU’s “The Grey Ghost,” Everybody’s All American takes a breathtaking journey from the segregated, hypocritical yet warmly glowing world of southern football in the early 1960’s to the raucous and dangerous NFL of the early 1970’s and finally to what happens to a player when he can no longer play the game that has defined him.

It’s historic, it’s steamy, it’s highly entertaining and its game scenes are stunningly shot (in fact, Dennis Quaid actually broke his collarbone during shooting).

13. Gridiron Gang (2006)

Another motion picture based on a true story, Gridiron Game tells the story of a juvenile detention camp officer (played by Dwayne Johnson, aka “The Rock”) who uses football as a means to discipline and motivate the troubled inmates.

This is a fairly realistic movie and makes you think about how sports, when properly applied and utilized, can be an amazing force for change.

12. The Program (1993)

The Program is an interesting, fictional look at the real pressures that drive college football (and sometimes drive it right out of control).

Starring James Caan, the film follows the ESU Timberwolves as they face the very real challenges of trying to recruit and win in modern day college football.

It’s a great story and yet again, it makes you pause to consider what our great sport is really all about.

11. Any Given Sunday (1999)

Starring Al Pacino, Any Given Sunday is relentlessly gritty and raw.  It’s the story of a football coach who encounters a player who doesn’t fit the cold, scientific and impersonal parameters of today’s “great player” mold.

The athlete makes Pacino reconsider his entire approach to football (and therefore life, for what’s the difference?).

Besides being a great football movie, Any Given Sunday is a bit of a cinematic coup for a sports movie; shot by Oliver Stone, it has a little more flourish than your normal, run of the mill sports film.

For me, it's hard to completely accept and digest Pacino as a football coach. He looks more like a basketball coach, but despite a fine performance, the "coach" role doesn't quite fit.

10. The Replacements (2000)

This movie deals with the reality of an in-season NFL labor strike where in “scabs” or “replacements” are brought in to substitute for the striking starters (i.e. the 1987 NFL season).

The plot thickens for scab-a-licous QB Keanu Reeves and coach Gene Hackman when the strike ends and the regulars return only to have the owner demand Reeves be replaced by the high paid star.

This is a great football flick.

9. The Express (2006)

The Express tells the story of the life of Ernie Davis, who was the first African American player ever to win the Heisman Trophy (1961, from Syracuse).

Davis was drafted by the Redskins but then traded to the Cleveland Browns. Tragically, Davis would never play pro ball, as he died of leukemia in May of 1963 at the age of 23.

Not only is this film historically significant and moving, it is well made and a pleasure to watch.

Get it on Netflix, Amazon or rent it; you owe it yourself to watch this if you haven’t already done so.

8. Invincible (2006)

It’s 1976 and Vince Papale is down on his luck, way down: His wife has left him, his career is a bust and he works in a bar.

So what does he do?  Well, he attends an open tryout for the Philadelphia Eagles, where he catches the eye of Eagles coach Dick Vermeil.

The rest, as they say, is history, and this true story is transformed into a spectacular movie.

It’s the little guy rising to the top against all the odds, it’s Rudy without Notre Dame, it’s Hoosiers on an individual basis (and without that harsh teacher lady) and it’s Miracle without Al Michaels screaming at the end.

7. Friday Night Lights (2004)

Based on the book that followed the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers (from Odessa Texas) as they survive a season of major high school football in Texas, Friday Night Lights might be the best movie ever made about high school football.

Billy Bob Thornton portrays Permian coach Gary Gaines as he tries to juggle enough balls and dodge enough bullets to get the Panthers to the state championship.

This film is highly entertaining and does a great job of depicting the over the top, win at all costs, nature of big-time high school sports.

6. Brian’s Song (1971)

The Old Yeller of football films, Brian’s Song is a classic movie that transcends football and sports.

Starring James Caan and Billy Dee Williams Brian’s Song tells the story of Brian Piccolo, who was diagnosed with incurable cancer after joining the Chicago Bears. 

The story focuses on Piccolo’s (who graduated from Wake Forest) amazing relationship with teammate Gale Sayers, who selflessly helped Piccolo deal with his terminal illness.

Amazingly, this film was originally made as a TV movie and premiered in 1971 as ABC’s “Movie of the Week.”

Brian’s Song is indeed emotional, dramatic and heartbreaking, but the 1971 version was done in such a way to let the story speak for itself without trying to tell the viewer how he/she feels about it.

If you don’t want to be a better person after watching this movie, you need to sign up for Wayne Fontes’ sensitivity training course (which is held in the Pontiac Silverdome).

5. Highlight Reels (1869 – 2010)

If you really want to get fired up for the 2011 college football season, get on line and order up some delicious highlight reels featuring your favorite program.

Order a whole series or order the specific year that you remember as being the most inspirational, moving and heartwarming.

For me, it’s the 2008 Texas Tech Red Raiders; the miracle against Nebraska, the Harrell to Crabtree connection to beat No. 1 Texas, the thumping of Oklahoma State in the finest overall performance by any Tech football team, and yes, the Oklahoma game where the dreams of a great football people were squashed, scrapped and denied.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cheer, you’ll cry...and this is probably the only film on this list that you’ll watch over and over (and over again).

4. Rudy (1993)

Whether or not you like the Irish, Rudy is a great football flick.

Based on the true story of undersized Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, who dreamed of nothing more than playing football for Notre Dame, this movie makes a believer out of everyone.

Rudy sidesteps the odds, learning disabilities, lack of size, speed and short supplies of finances and familial support to achieve his ultimate dream of playing for the Irish.

In the end, the below-average academic kid from Chicago even graduates from Notre Dame.

Yes, it’s a little cheesy, and yeah you got to put up with some Notre Dame stuff, but this is one of the most inspirational movies ever made.

What can you do with your will power?

 “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve wanted to go to school here. And ever since I was a kid, everyone said it couldn’t be done. My whole life, people have been telling me what I could do and couldn’t do. I’ve always listened to them and believed in what they said. I don’t want to do that anymore.”

3. We are Marshall (2006)

We are Marshall tells the heartbreaking story of the 1970 Marshall football team that lost 37 players, five coaches, two trainers, 25 fans and the AD to a tragic plane crash.

The movie then takes the viewer on a memorable journey through the aftermath of the crash and how Marshall amazingly manages to overcome so many hurdles to field another football squad in 1971.

The most striking scene in the movie is the portrayal of the physical aftermath of the plane crash, which adequately depicts the tragedy without being grotesque.

This is a fascinating, moving story that deserves to be told and preserved.

2. The Blind Side (2009)

The remarkable story of Michael Lewis played out right under our noses (at least his career at Ole Miss). Even though we were eventually clued in to at least part of the story, until the book and movie came out, we had no idea how astounding his story really was.

Lewis somehow survived 17 years as a foster child in Memphis before being “found” by the wealthy Tuohy family from the “other side of the tracks.”

Lewis’ rise through football and life is extraordinary and completely transcends sports.

1. Remember the Titans (2000)

Based on a true story, Remember the Titans takes us back to 1971 Virginia. The film highlights racial issues and how they affected the core of sportsmanship and fairness.

This film has so many twists and turns and addresses so many topics it would be impossible to list them all here.

It’s educational, inspirational, entertaining, and above all, it is still primarily a football movie that celebrates the game itself and its power to change people and even institutions.

Remember the Titans is a must see.