15 of my favorite sports movies:
1) American Underdog– The true story of NFL MVP and Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, who went from stocking shelves in an Iowa supermarket to becoming a big-time star.
Best part of this movie is when they slide some real footage from NFL Films into the scenes at the end of the Rams Super Bowl win over Tennessee.
2) Moneyball— Beginning isn’t very good, the end sucks, but I’m an A’s fan and this movie is about how the 2003 A’s put together a team that won 20 games in a row, made the playoffs.
Only really bad thing about this movie is they made skipper Art Howe look like a bad manager, and he was anything but— you don’t win 20 games in a row by accident.
Movie is based on a book written by Michael Lewis, who also wrote The Big Short, The Blind Side and Liar’s Poker. He’s a great writer.
3) Blue Chips— Nick Nolte is a college basketball coach who used to win a lot; in order to start winning again, he has to decide whether to break the recruiting rules or not.
Bob Cousy is the AD; Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway are two of the recruits. Lot of cameos from basketball people; Jerry Tarkanian, Jim Boeheim, Rick Pitino, Dick Vitale.
4) For Love of the Game— Kevin Costner is a star pitcher for the Tigers who is at the end of his career; he has flashbacks throughout his last game.
Detroit’s manager in this movie is JK Simmons, who is a Tigers fan in real life; New York’s manager is the late Augie Garrido, one of the all-time great college baseball coaches.
5) Invincible— True story about Vince Papale, a 30-year old bartender who tries out for the 1976 Philadelphia Eagles and makes the squad as a special teams player.
Papale wound up playing three years with the Eagles; Mark Wahlberg plays him, Greg Kinnear plays coach Dick Vermeil, Paige Turco plays Mrs Vermeil, Elizabeth Banks a bartender where Papale was working before the football thing happened.
6) Hustle— A basketball scout discovers a phenomenal player while watching a game on a playground in Spain and sees the prospect as the scout’s chance to get back into the NBA.
Adam Sandler is the scout, Queen Latifah is his wife, Robert Duvall has a cameo as the owner of the 76ers; lot of former/present NBA players in this movie
Basketball scenes are really well done; the parts filmed in Philadelphia have a Rocky-like feel to them.
7) Fast Break— Gabe Kaplan manages a New York City deli until he applies for a job as a college basketball coach in Nevada. Bernard King, Michael Warren are two of his players; another one is a girl disguised as a guy.
Former UCLA coach Jim Harrick is the basketball advisor for this movie; he has a non-speaking role during the climactic game.
8) Any Given Sunday— Al Pacino is a pro football coach whose team is struggling; Cameron Diaz is the owner, Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx are two of the QB’s.
The third QB is Pat O’Hara, who was a backup QB in real life at USC, played in the Arena League for several years, was a QB coach in the NFL and has been a football advisor on ten different movies.
Miami Sharks play against four teams in the movie, all coached by NFL Hall of Famers.
9) Friday Night Lights— Billy Bob Thornton is a high school football coach in west Texas, where they take high school football very seriously. I think Thornton does the best job of portraying a coach in any movie on this list.
10) One on One— Robby Benson is a hotshot high school basketball player who gets recruited by a big-time college team, then finds himself in over his head.
Basketball scenes at the end were filmed in Colorado State’s arena, where the Rams still play.
The coach in this movie wasn’t great; he saw Henry Steele play in high school, and couldn’t tell that he was in over his head? Seriously?
11) He Got Game— Underrated movie about college basketball recruiting; a prospect’s father is in jail for killing the kid’s mother. The prison warden work-releases the father, and if he can get the kid to go to college where the governor wants him to go, the father gets off the hook.
Denzel Washington is the father, NBA star Ray Allen is the prospect, Ned Beatty is the warden of the jail. Jim Brown, Rick Fox are also in this movie, which is a little intense, but very well-done.
12) Major League— Female owner of the Cleveland Indians wants to move the team to Miami, so they field a team that is so bad that no one in Cleveland will go to the games, except they win.
(History shows that moving the team to Miami would’ve been stupid, anyway)
Bob Uecker should’ve won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Indians’ radio announcer Harry Doyle.
13) Bull Durham— Kevin Costner is a minor league catcher who is brought in to mentor a hot-shot pitching prospect. Tim Robbins is the prospect, Robert Wuhl is the pitching coach, Susan Sarandon mentors the prospect off the field.
Durham Bulls are now the AAA team for the Tampa Bay Rays.
14) The Way Back– A high school basketball star walked away from the game after high school, forfeiting his future. Years later, when he reluctantly accepts a coaching job at his alma mater, he gets one last shot at redemption.
Ben Affleck is really good in this; the basketball scenes are very well done. A good deal of this movie is sad, but it has a positive ending.
15) Draft Day— Costner does a lot of sports movies; he is GM of the Cleveland Browns in this one, Denis Leary is the Browns’ coach. Jennifer Garner is the Browns’ salary cap guru, and is dating Costner’s character.
The year this movie came out, NFL pushed back the draft so the movie could be promoted more, but Radio City Music Hall wasn’t available for the later date, which is why they started moving the draft around the country. Sometimes great ideas happen by accident.
