THE TOP 10 FOOTBALL MOVIES OF ALL TIME
January 26, 2001
Ah, the Super Bowl! Ah, football movies! They only have one thing in common: they're hardly ever worth watching. However, if your pre-game or off-season football cravings can only be satisfied by a good football movie, you'll get a kick (get it?) out of any of the following:
10. Semi-Tough (1978) -- Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson lampoon both professional football and self-help groups -- and particularly "est", if any of you remember that -- in this mildly amusing comedy. "The Travelers Friend" is worth the price of admission.
9. The Best of Times (1986) -- Robin Williams and Kurt Russell try to relive -- and live down -- their Taft high school football careers by replaying their last game against dreaded Bakersfield High.
8. The Waterboy (1998) -- No Happy Gilmore, but for my rental fee, the second funniest football movie ever made.
7. Any Given Sunday (1999) -- Generally a dreadful movie, but it allows me to keep my job.
6. The Longest Yard (1974) -- Is it a prison movie? Or a football movie? And have there ever been better cheerleaders?
5. Knute Rockne, All American (1940) -- Pat O'Brien explains why Rudy goes to Notre Dame, with President Reagan as the Gipper.
4. Rudy (1993) -- Easily the sappiest football movie ever made, but if it can't inspire you to transcend your limitations, nothing can.
3. Horse Feathers (1932) -- The funniest football movie ever made. Chico: "Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, this time I think we go through the middle".
2. Remember the Titans (2000) -- Too new to be No. 1, but destined to be purchased by every high school football coach, and shown to every high school football team, for the rest of the eternity.
1. North Dallas Forty (1979) -- Nick Nolte and Mac Davis -- Mac Davis? -- deal with the business of professional football.
Stopped on the one yard line (in alphabetical order):