Hog Database

Sep 2 / Jacob

Ranking the Top 16 Football Movies

The Program
The Best football movies from the last 30 years.

The College Football season is almost here, and personally, I’ve waited long enough.  Every year, in the weeks leading up to the first kickoff in early September, I find myself seeking out any and all football movies to help me get through the “dog days” of July and August.  I can sit through just about any Football movie, but there’s no doubt that there are a few that stand out above the rest.  Now, it’s been done many times before, but while sitting through this year’s batch of football movies, I decided to make a list of my favorite Football Movies. To keep things simple, I made myself one rule… the movie had to be made within the last 30 years (sorry to all you “The Longest Yard” and “North Dallas Forty” lovers out there).
There are a couple movies that I’m pretty biased to…. “The Program” is my personal favorite movie, but I know that generally, most people wouldn’t rate it the best Football Movie.  To keep myself in check, I made a small rating system to even out the odds for the other films. To start things off, I made a list of what I thought were the 16 best Football movies.  I then made four categories:
  1. My vote: Ranked the movies from 1st to last.  Giving 16 points for my favorite, down to 1 point for what I thought was the worst.
  2. General Football fans: I created a poll on 4 college football message boards, I also posted a poll to the fans and followers of Hog Database on Facebook and Twitter.  Those results were added together exactly like my vote (the movie with the most votes received 16 points and so on…).
  3. Film Critic: I used Roger Ebert’s reviews when available and rewarded points based on his star system. Each 1/2 star would earn the movie 2 points… so a **** movie would earn 16 points.
  4. General Movie Fans: I used the IMDB.com user rating for each movie.  The highest rated movie received 16 points….. you get the picture.
There are 16 points possible in each category so a perfect score would be 64 points.  Now for the results…

#16 – Little Giants

Summary: Kevin O’Shea (Ed O’ Neil) is an early retired Football Star, who now coaches a pee-wee league team. When Kevin excludes his niece, Becky O’Shea (dispite her being the best player), she convinces her dad Danny O’Shea (Rick Moranis) to coach a pee-wee team, and beat Kevin’s team. Danny accepts in an attempt to show Urbainia that Kevin is not invincible, and that there is another O’Shea in town. Danny picks a team of players that have never been given a chance, and Danny no-longer wants to be Second Best. - Source:  IMDB

http://www.vimeo.com/6193802

“Rank | Points”

MePollsReviewsIMDBTotal
10 | 713 | 4* | 414 (5.6) | 318 Points

.

#15 – Leatherheads

Summary: Clooney plays Jimmy “Dodge” Connelly, captain of a struggling professional American football team in the 1920s (circa 1925), the Duluth Bulldogs. Dodge is determined to save both his team and pro football in general when the players lose their sponsor and the league is on the brink of collapse. He convinces a college football star, Carter “the Bullet” Rutherford, to join the Bulldogs, hoping to capitalize on Carter’s fame as a decorated hero of the First World War (like Alvin York, he single-handedly captured a large group of German soldiers).

In addition to his legendary tales of combat heroism, Carter has dashing good looks and unparalleled speed and skill on the field. As a result of his presence, both the Bulldogs and pro football in general begin to prosper…. - Source: Wikipedia

http://www.vimeo.com/6193897

“Rank | Points”

MePollsReviewsIMDBTotal
15 | 216 | 1*** | 1210 (6.1) | 722 Points

.

#14 – The Waterboy

Summary: 31-year-old waterboy, Bobby Boucher is constantly tormented by the team he works for until he is fired by the coach. He then finds a new coach to work for. Here he finds a new talent, tackling people by pretending they’re making fun of them. Soon, he becomes the best linebacker in college football, but he must keep it secret from his overprotective mother. – Source:  IMDB

http://www.vimeo.com/6194297

“Rank | Points”

MePollsReviewsIMDBTotal
11 | 65 | 10* | 413 (5.7) | 424 Points

.

#13 – Radio

Summary: Football coach Harold Jones befriends Radio, a mentally-challenged man who becomes a student at T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson, South Carolina. Their friendship extends over several decades, where Radio transforms from a shy, tormented man into an inspiration to his community. – Source: IMDB

http://www.vimeo.com/6194001

“Rank | Points”

MePollsReviewsIMDBTotal
16 | 115 | 2*** | 127 (6.9) | 1025 Points

.

#12 – The Best of Times

Summary: Robin Williams plays Jack Dundee, a thirty-something banker obsessed with what he considers the most shameful moment in his life; the moment that he dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the final seconds of the 1972 high school football game between Taft and their arch-nemesis, Bakersfield.

Since that game in 1972, Jack has found it impossible to forget his fumble. He works for his father-in-law, a.k.a. The Colonel, Bakersfield’s biggest supporter, at his bank, and is reminded by him almost daily, that it was his clumsiness and inability to catch a football that lost Taft its one chance for glory by finally beating Bakersfield, and how Taft would never do it again. – Source: Wikipedia

http://www.vimeo.com/6194160

“Rank | Points”

MePollsReviewsIMDBTotal
4 | 1312 | 5*.5 | 615 (5.5) | 226 Points

.

Related posts:

Pages: 1 2 3

Filed under College Football, HogTube

One Comment

leave a comment
  1. KBCraig / Feb 1 2010

    I’ve seen about half of those, and agree with most, but disagree with some (“Any Given Sunday” was pure crap).

    The amazing thing is that your list is 16-for-16 on Netflix, but 0-for-16 for Netflix “Watch Instantly”.

    Bummer. :-(

    I still added a couple to my DVD queue, though.

    Reply
Leave a Comment