America’s Last Two Teams Of Gladiators Are Ready To Take The Field!
That’s right: it’s the biggest day of the year Sunday – Super Bowl 59!
One of America’s most over-exposed teams of all time will face off against a team that has made it through a season filled with behind-the-scenes drama…so who will prevail?
The two-time defending Super Bowl Champions Kansas City Chiefs are looking to make NFL history: the ONLY team to ever win three Super Bowls in a row!
First, they must get past the Philadelphia Eagles, who are look to avenge a loss to the Chiefs two years ago – what an epic matchup! To honor those two teams, I’ve got some great NFL football movies!
First, a few important caveats: I can’t include one of my favorite football movies, “Friday Night Lights” – because it is about high school football – same thing about “Remember The Titans” with Denzel Washington – a football movie but not an NFL film…that said, let’s go to one of the greatest!
Even though it is one of Burt Reynold’s best movies, and a GREAT film, I wasn’t going to include “The Longest Yard” because it takes place in a prison…but Reynolds plays a disgraced NFL Quarterback so I squeezed it in! Burt plays a QB who ends up behind bars and must put together a squad of convicts to play against the prison guards…check out the trailer:
It’s a terrific football movie with an NFL connection…and here’s an uplifting tale of an unlikely NFL star:
“Invincible“
Here’s an uplifting film that celebrate the ability of anyone to succeed – and it’s based on a true story!
In the summer of 1976, 30-year old Vince Papale works as a bartender and plays football with his friends. Cue Mark Wahlberg, who gives a terrific performance as Papale, as the film documents his unlikely journey to the NFL!
Here is the trailer:
When the the new coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Dick Vermeil (played by Greg Kinnear), announces that he will hold open tryouts for the team, Vince reluctantly decides to give a try. Enter Greg Kinnear in another great performance, this time as the desperate coach…
Papale goes to the tryouts and amazingly, makes the team!
Although listed as Wide Receiver, Papale played almost exclusively on Special Teams. The only reception in his career came in 1977 on a 15 yard pass from Roman Gabriel.
This is a great, uplifting story, and the film had the support of the Philadelphia Eagles and the National Football League. That’s not always the case, as you will soon see.
Now, let’s go to one of the most successful romantic comedies of all time, which just also happens to be a great sports movie as well!
Jerry Maguire
You know this line:
“Show Me The Money!”
And you know this one as well:
“You had me at ‘hello’.”
OK, I know these are two of the most recognized movie lines in history, but there’s a reason: they speak to terrific characters who are compelling, funny, dramatic and poignant. And it’s about football!
Tom Cruise is Jerry Maguire, a slick and successful sports agent. Until one night he questions his purpose. His place in the world, and finally comes to terms with what’s wrong with his career and life. Oh, which promptly gets him fired…
Jerry ends up with only one volatile client Rod Tidwell, a veteran wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, who carries the NFL’s biggest chip on his shoulder.
Cuba Gooding Jr. deservedly won the Oscar for his supporting role as a player who wants a taste of fame and fortune before his career ends…leading to the now iconic conversation between Cuba and Cruise, where the player asks his Agent to step up and deliver for him:
Rod Tidwell: I wanna make sure you’re ready, brother. Here it is: Show me the money. Oh-ho-ho! SHOW! ME! THE! MONEY! A-ha-ha! Jerry, doesn’t it make you feel good just to say that! Say it with me one time, Jerry.
Jerry Maguire: Show you the money.
Rod Tidwell: Oh, no, no. You can do better than that, Jerry! I want you to say it with you, with meaning, brother! Hey, I got Bob Sugar on the other line; I bet you he can say it!
Jerry Maguire: Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. Show you the money.
Rod Tidwell: No! Not show you! Show me the money!
Jerry Maguire: Show me the money!
Rod Tidwell: Yeah! Louder!
Jerry Maguire: Show me the money!
Rod Tidwell: Yes, but, brother, you got to yell that shit!
FYI, the two most famous lines from the film, “Show me the money” and “You had me at hello”, are in the AFI’s top 100 movie quotes (at numbers 25 and 52, respectively).
The adorable little boy, Jonathan Lipnicki, showed up on the set one day telling everyone that, “the human head weighs eight pounds”. Cameron Crowe liked it so much he wrote it into the script.
Renee Zellwegger gets to deliver the film’s other signature line as Jerry rattles on for a full minute, only to be stopped short by her reply:
“You had me at ‘hello’.”
Yes, it’s a great romantic comedy as well, but it’s also a great movie about pro sports!
Finally, Jamie Foxx auditioned for the role later given to Cuba Gooding Jr.. don’t worry, Foxx shows up in his own classic NFL movie, thanks to Oliver Stone…
“Any Given Sunday“
“On any given Sunday you’re gonna win or you’re gonna lose. The point is – can you win or lose like a man?”
Leave it to Director Oliver Stone to take a look at the NFL-as-modern-day-Gladiators…an intense, in-your-face action movie…here is the trailer:
Oliver Stone of course also directed “Born On The Fourth Of July” and “Natural Born Killers”…what a surprise that the NFL had no interest in his take on their sport?
Aging NFL Coach Tony D’Amato – portrayed “at eleven” by Al Pacino – must overcome the injury to his star Quarterback by giving a shot to the coky young QB, Jamie Foxx.
This is a classic story, as Pacino must reevaluate his time-tested values and strategies and begin to confront the fact that the game, as well as post-modern life may be passing him by.
Adding to the pressure on D’Amato to win at any cost is the aggressive young President/Co-owner of the team, Christina Pagniacci, now coming into her own after her father’s death…yes, that’s Cameron Diaz as an NFL owner…
Director Oliver Stone tried and failed to get the National Football League’s permission to use real NFL team logos and stadiums for the film.
According to Stone, the NFL actively attempted to prevent players taking part in this project.
Made up team names or not, this monologue tells you all you need to know about how Stone equates modern football players with warriors:
“You find out life’s this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game – life or football – the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They’re in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that’s gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying!”
Yes, these NFL players were warriors…but what happened when these warriors refused to talk the field?
“The Replacements!“
That’s right: they got replacements! This 2000 film is based on the 1987 professional football players’ strike. When that happened, the NFL had to go out and find replacements, and in this case they did a great job!
Here is the trailer:
Gene Hackman plays the coach of the team, and Keanu Reeves is the “scab” who replaces the star QB. I have posted about Gene Hackman before, but his retirement from acting has really left a hole in film…he was so good at everything he did…
And I really like Keanu Reeves as well – he brings a natural likeability to his role here – a failed college QB who gets a shot, however briefly, at redemption…
The movie was loosely based on the 1987 NFL strike, specifically the Washington Redskins, who won all three replacement games that year without any of their regular players, going on to win Super Bowl XXII at the end of the season.
SEEING RED!
Then you have replacement linebacker Danny Bateman – played by Jon Favreau — A reserved, almost reticent man during normal interaction with people, but when placed in an adversarial situation, goes completely berserk, particularly if he sees the color red.
[Danny has tackled Shane during practice]
Jimmy McGinty: Good hit. Danny, in practice we don’t hit the guys in the red shirts.
Daniel Bateman: I know, Coach, but I see that red and I just wanna go after it, like a bull, you know?
A great movie about a unique side of the NFL…and speaking about a “unique” aspect of the game, how about this guy?
This NFL Quarterback wore a white mink coat on the sidelines of games – and engineered the single greatest upset in the history of the Super Bowl!
See the story of “Broadway Joe” Namath here:
Sine everyone watches the game, everyone eats as well – so why not honor the game by serving your guests this way?
With a “Super Bowl Food Fight!” Yes, Philadelphia Cheesesteaks take on Kansas City BBQ – it’s what I’m doing on Sunday, but perhaps you have more grandiose plans:
With a Super Bowl food stadium!
Click here to see some of the wildest ones I found online, plus recipes to make food for your favorite contender!
This was all about NFL movies, but here is my favorite sports film of all time:
Yes, that’s the iconic superstar Paul Newman playing hockey in one of the funniest films about sports ever!
Click here for the story of “Slap Shot!”
If you like these stories, PLEASE CLICK THE “LIKE” BUTTON SO I KNOW!
Also, why not sign up to receive emails whenever I post? It’s easy to do, I do NOT collect any information about you at all, there are absolutely NO ads of any kind, just stories about movies, music, books, food, travel and pop culture…
You can sign up by clicking on my blog here and see the note on the right!
Let me know if you are celebrating this year’s Super Bowl with a movie about football, and if you like this story please share on social media!
Categories: 70's Cinema, Action Films, Comedy Movies, Cult Movies, Film Fight Club, Great Films, Hollywood, Movies, Pop Culture, Sports, Sports Movies, Talent/Celebrities
johnrieber 
Slap Shot is the best! A few month ago there was a town event spelling bee, and team participants were encouraged to come in costume. Yes, I was the cowardly lion in our Wizard of Oz group, BUT another group all had glasses with the center taped up and wore hockey jerseys. The Hanson brothers! Thank goodness they still live on. The Longest Yard is a classic. I still crack up at ‘Spearchucker Jones’. And I agree with you that the best football movies are the high school ones. Thanks for this post, John.
LikeLike
I absolutely love THE LONGEST YARD, so I’m glad you snuck that in. When my wife and I started hosting live tweet movie events a couple of years ago, that’s one of the first movies we presented. And Stone did a good job with ANY GIVEN SUNDAY. I still want to see the Kurt Warner movie AMERICAN UNDERDOG. I like his story.
LikeLike
I love all of these, especially the longest yard!
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOVE that film and hate that they ruined it by making a remake with Adam Sandler!?!?!?!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I never watched that one luckily –
LikeLike
Oh, these are all classics. I really need to go back and watch Any Given Sunday. The trailer always gets me wanting more. In addition, I can’t explain it but I’m always drawn to the Replacements. A silly movie because it deals with the strike, but the humor and story have a way of pulling you in. Here’s another football movie from back in the day — NOrth Dallas Forty with Nick Nolte and Mac Davis. It definitely presents a darker view of professional football, but I always found it entertaining. It was the first movie or show that I saw that dealt with the sad realities of the game. The scene where Nick Nolte is bruised after a game sticks out in my mind. Great list.
LikeLike
The US Handegg Cup Final – forgive my yawns, we have proper sports here 🤣
LikeLiked by 1 person
John, I have never managed to understand the rules of American Football, so never bothered to watch any films about it. But I do love Slap Shot!
Best wishes, Pete.
LikeLike