Football is a game of inches, and each of these films brings viewers one step closer to comprehending this complicated, beloved sport. The stories are varied, as are the characters, but whether the films are set on or off the field, based on history, fantasy, or a combination of the two, they all share a love and appreciation for the sport. So put on your jersey, grab some Gatorade, and prepare to be swept away by the best football movies of all time.
Best Football movies on OTT:
1. Little Giants (1994):
Year of release: 1994
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
With rules stating that each town is only allowed one team, it’s up to the Little Giants’ challenged players to defeat a stacked Cowboys team and prove they’re worthy of respect. Little Giants is not a highbrow comedy, but it is a gridiron film for underdogs, outcasts, and anyone who knows what it’s like to be underestimated.
2. Knute Rockne, All American:
Year of release: 1940
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
When it was released, the story of Rockne’s rise from Norwegian immigrant to Fighting Irish legend was adored by critics and fans alike, and while Reagan’s role as freshman halfback George Gipp was minor, he made a big enough impression to make “Win one for the Gipper” a pop culture quote for the ages. Knute Rockne is no Rudy, but as far as Notre Dame-related sports biopics go, O’Brien’s performance (and fake nose) make this one worthwhile.
3. North Dallas Forty:
Year of release: 1979
OTT Platform: Pluto TV
The North Dallas Bulls, like Varsity Blues, are led by a coach who sees his team as less than human — and is more than willing to offer their bodies as sacrifices to his winning streak. North Dallas Forty is a funny, fascinating, and far ahead-of-its-time look at professional sports.
4. The Blind Side:
Year of release: 2009
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
The film and its characters became embroiled in controversy after Oher, now an alumnus of both the University of Mississippi and the Baltimore Ravens, filed a lawsuit alleging that the Tuohys duped him into a conservatorship rather than adoption and exploited his likeness for financial gain. Although the family drama is more compelling than the plot, The Blind Side is still worth seeing if only to see Bullock’s flawless performance as Leigh Anne Tuohy.
5. Horse Feathers:
Year of release: 1932
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
In this century-old film about college football, the Marx Brothers combine sports and slapstick. The film, which features the group’s signature silly, physical, and often musical style, uses its 68-minute run time to stage a game between two fictional colleges, which is jeopardized when the president of a university (Groucho Marx) recruits two icemen (Harpo and Chico Marx) instead of the professional players he intended to hire.
6. Remember the Titans:
Year of release: 2000
OTT Platform: Disney+ Hotstar
High school football is a way of life in Virginia, and in Remember the Titans, the sport helps to bring a community together. This Disney film is a biographical drama produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and based on the true story of Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), a Black football coach tasked with integrating a 1971 high school team. However, thanks to its excellent cast of young Hollywood charmers, the film defies its heavy-handed messaging to produce moving, memorable moments — as well as some pretty good football plays.
7. The Longest Yard:
Year of release: 2005
OTT Platform: Paramount+
The remake, directed by Peter Segal and updated for the twenty-first century, features the same plot — a former football star (now Sandler) goes to prison and is recruited to lead a group of convicts in a game against the prison guards — but there are 100% more pop culture references this time. Reynolds plays convict Nate Scarborough, a former college football star turned inmate coach, and while his involvement isn’t enough to recreate the original film’s sense of danger and anarchy, seeing the veteran actor take the field is always a treat.
8. We Are Marshall:
Year of release: 2006
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
The drama follows the aftermath of a plane crash that kills 75 Marshall University football team members, including the majority of the team’s players, coaching staff, boosters, and trainers. With the team nearly destroyed, University President Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) is tempted to cancel the program, but a new coach (McConaughey) and pleas from the remaining players (one of whom is Anthony Mackie) persuade him to let the team continue.
9. Brian’s Song:
Year of release: 1971
OTT Platform: Tubi
Based on a true friendship story — and the tragedy that befell the entire Chicago Bears team when Piccolo was diagnosed with cancer in his mid-20s — the film celebrates the love and support between these two players without ever becoming overly sentimental or preachy. Brian’s Song, a charming bromance about two excellent athletes, is a piece of vintage TV cinema that still moves audiences today.
10. Invincible:
Year of release: 2006
OTT Platform: Disney+ Hotstar
Invincible is a true-life gridiron Rocky for fans of triumphant, heartwarming films like Rudy. EW’s critic calls it “a true-life gridiron Rocky.” Wahlberg is convincing as a rookie athlete suffering from imposter syndrome and a never-ending desire to succeed, and the film features a ’70s soundtrack that could turn a cynic into a nostalgist.
11. The Longshots:
Year of release: 2008
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Jasmine’s team is made up of a motley crew of untalented boys who don’t want to embarrass themselves by playing under a female quarterback, but who quickly change their tune once their team starts winning. The Longshots has its formulaic moments, juggling themes of family, confronting the past, and breaking down barriers, but the chemistry between Palmer and Cube — plus solid direction from Durst — makes it a win in our book.
12. The Waterboy:
Year of release: 1998
OTT Platform: Tubi
Until he gets tired of being bullied and snaps, revealing a previously unknown talent for sacking quarterbacks. Bobby, who has suddenly become a rising defensive star, must learn to stand up to his ultra-religious mother (Kathy Bates) and fight for the life he has always desired. The Waterboy, which also stars Henry Winkler, is a typical Sandler comedy: witty, quotable, anti-cerebral, and always entertaining.
13. The Express:
Year of release: 2008
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
The Express, a biopic based on the inspiring true story of college football legend Ernie Davis — the first Black player to win the Heisman Trophy — may be saccharine for some viewers, but that doesn’t take away from the power of its message. The film, directed by Gary Fleder, is set in the 1960s and stars Rob Brown as Davis, an aspiring young running back who is recruited by coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid) to play for Syracuse University, only to face racism and discrimination from the team’s fans when he commits.
14. Draft Day:
Year of release: 2014
OTT Platform: Max
Despite the fact that the film is a fictional account of the NFL selection process (and, according to some critics, not a realistic one), EW’s critic writes that “thanks to Costner’s sly, dry-aged charisma, it marches down the field and scores.”
15. Palmer:
Year of release: 2021
OTT Platform: Apple TV
Palmer isn’t your typical sports film, but football has a significant impact on the plot and characters. Eddie Palmer (Justin Timberlake), a former high school star athlete, moves in with his grandmother after being released from a 12-year prison sentence and attempts to rebuild his life. There, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with Sam, a young boy from a troubled home who is obsessed with all things feminine.
16. Varsity Blues:
Year of release: 1999
OTT Platform: Pluto TV
Mox must balance the pressures of pleasing his football-loving town and family while leading his team and pursuing his own academic goals. Van Der Beek perfectly captures his character’s charm, while Voight is terrifying as the Machiavellian coach whose “ends justify the means” philosophy inspires a team revolution.
17. School Ties:
Year of release: 1992
OTT Platform: Showtime
School Ties, one of Brendan Fraser’s breakthrough film roles, is a coming-of-age period drama set in the mid-1950s about one student’s battle with anti-semitism at an exclusive prep school. David Greene (Fraser) is a working-class Jewish teen who receives an athletic scholarship to St. Matthew’s Academy.
18. The Longest Yard:
Year of release: 1974
OTT Platform: Paramount +
Crewe soon gathers a team of prisoners to face off against the guards in an exhibition game, despite the fact that his cheating and celebrity work against him. Reynolds is fantastic as the morally compromised Crewe, who rediscovers his integrity and love of the game through his alliances with his fellow inmates. The Longest Yard is a dangerous film that combines violence, comedy, and cultural commentary.
19. Any Given Sunday:
Year of release: 1999
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Oliver Stone’s football opus set thousands of years after those historical fighters all perished, is arguably as action-packed and war-torn as his Vietnam epic, Platoon. Any Given Sunday, based on the fictional Miami Sharks, stars Al Pacino as an ageing coach desperately trying to keep his NFL team together while dealing with an aggressive owner (Cameron Diaz) who believes he’s lost his touch.
20. Heaven Can Wait:
Year of release: 1978
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Heaven Can Wait, a late-’70s screwball comedy that received nine Oscar nominations (including Best Picture), is unlike any other film on this list. This sports fantasy is directed by Warren Beatty, who also co-wrote the script with Elaine May and starred in the lead role. It tells the story of a Los Angeles Rams quarterback (Beatty) who is reincarnated as a recently murdered millionaire after a mix-up by his guardian angel (Henry).
21. Monday Night Mayhem:
Year of release: 2002
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Monday Night Mayhem, a TNT television movie released in the early 2000s, chronicles the 1970 launch of the historic sports show, dramatizing how it revolutionized how football is played, filmed, and commented on. John Turturro plays Howard Cosell, and John Heard plays legendary TV executive Roone Arledge.
22. Friday Night Lights:
Year of release: 2004
OTT Platform: Peacock
Friday Night Lights, based on the true story of a West Texas football team struggling to win a state championship in the late 1980s, was praised as a stirring and rousing sports drama, though critics noted that it avoided addressing the race relations depicted in the non-fiction book that served as source material. Connie Britton provides continuity as the coach’s wife in both the film and the TV series — though her talents are far better served in the latter — and an EW critic writes that “Billy Bob Thornton is splendid.”
23. Concussion:
Year of release: 2015
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Many football fans live for the game, but some players die for it. Concussion is based on true events and is set in the early twenty-first century. It follows Dr. Bennet Omalu (Will Smith), a brilliant Nigerian-American morgue pathologist in Pittsburgh. While examining the brain of a recently deceased professional football player, Omalu discovers CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a sports-related head trauma.
24. Rudy:
Year of release: 1993
OTT Platform: Peacock
Rudy Ruettiger plays the ideal Astin character, hellbent on making his dream a reality, and Angelo Pizzo’s script is guaranteed to hit an emotional home run with viewers. Rudy, the number two spot on this list, is an instant classic that will have you chanting his name through tears by the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm0pTMbDaMI
25. Jerry Maguire:
Year of release: 1996
OTT Platform: Amazon Prime Video
It’s the film that inspired a million quotes. Jerry Maguire’s script, written, directed, and produced by Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous), is based on two separate incidents that occurred in the ’90s: the 1991 release of a 28-page memo by Disney’s head of motion picture divisions, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the NFL’s introduction of free agency in 1993 (which created an experience for a player and his agent similar to the one depicted in the film).
So, this was all about the best Football movies of all time. Also read, the Must-Watch 5 cricket web series to watch before IPL 2024!
