JJ’s Five Favorite Football Movies (with Snack Pairings!) – KFGO News

Sports movies usually get the heart pumping and hold you on the edge of your seat.

They probably get a tear or two as well.

Football movies create a genre that create instant classics. From the moment ‘Rudy’ hit the big screen, Dads across the country knew they would see it multiple times and own it on tape too.

In no particular order, here are my Five Favorite Football Movies.

1. LITTLE GIANTS

I remember my dad watching this on TV and actually jumping out of his chair when the Little Giants make a big play at the end. The ultimate underdogs and a terrific pairing of Ed O’Neal and Rick Moranis. There are only a few moments that make this kid friendly and parent approved flick seem dated, but we can look beyond those for some great NFL cameos. Rentable on Amazon.

SNACK PICK: Baby Back Riblets

2. THE REPLACEMENTS

Gene Hackman! Keanu Reeves! A Strike! This movie follows the underdog story as well – but focuses on what makes a team. Before Moneyball, Gene Hackman starred in a movie that allowed a replacement coach to try something crazy during an NFL players strike…build a team with an English soccer player as a kicker, a sumo wrestler as a blocker and a barnacle scraper as quarterback. This movie is hilarious. I own it in THREE different formats! Rentable on Amazon.

SNACK PICK: Pickled Eggs (eat before they play their first game…)

3. DRAFT DAY

Full disclosure, I have watched all of five minutes of any NFL draft, but I have seen this movie at least a dozen times. The drama of the draft is hyped up to the level of any great suspense or thriller in recent memory. Kevin Costner shines. Rentable on Amazon.

SNACK PICK: Chips and Queso 

4. THE WATERBOY

Anyone who was a teenager in the mid-90s loves this Adam Sandler college football flick. Kathy Bates is hilarious as his swamp living mama. Henry Winkler proves he is so much more than the Fonz and you get to watch football glory in a movie that is as funny today as it was in 1998. On Netflix.

SNACK PICK: Chicken Wings in a Spicy Sauce

5. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

A great movie that reveals the rural love affair with high school football. This movie is about football, but it also is about the struggle for identity. The popularity of this movie had such reach that it was adapted into a hit television show. Rentable on Amazon.

SNACK PICK: Delivery Pizza and a six pack of cheap beer

Honorable Mentions:

North Dallas 40

Rudy

Remember the Titans

Big Fan