Football and Hollywood: A retrospective

When we talk about silent comedy stars, Harold Lloyd always arrives third behind Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Still, that means you are one of three legendary names people remember, and that means something. While he doesn’t hang off a clock in “The Freshman,” this football tale is one of his most-remembered films.

In “West Point,” William Haines plays a hot-shot Army cadet who joins the Army football team, back when it was THE team in the country. And he also finds love. That’s not what is important here. The woman he falls in love with is a promising young actress named Joan Crawford. Yes, that Joan Crawford.

Speaking of legendary old comedians, “Horse Feathers” can basically be pitched as “The Marx Brothers play college football.” This was back when Zeppo was still involved, as this movie came out the year before “Duck Soup.” While it’s not as fondly remembered as that one, it still made AFI’s list of the top 100 comedies of all time.

No relation to the current comedy website, we’re sure. Here we have a musical about a football player and a professor who fall for the same college girl. That professor, who is a drama teacher naturally, is played by Bing Crosby. On top of that, George Burns and Gracie Allen are in the film.

You want to talk about big comedy names? How about a movie starring The Three Stooges AND Lucille Ball. This was many years before “I Love Lucy,” so this is one of the first times people got a look at the iconic redheaded actress.

You know how there is a ton of debate these days about paying college athletes? Do you think this is a modern concept? Well “Saturday’s Heroes” is about a college football player, and later coach, who rails against colleges getting rich on football while athletes stay poor. Yes, this is a movie from 1937.

There are a lot of early movies about college football focusing on Army, Navy, or, oftentimes, the Army-Navy game. These were the two best teams in college football year in and year out, so that makes sense. Jimmy Stewart portrays a Navy player who gets dismissed from the school but then not only gets himself reinstated to play in the Army-Navy game but also gets his father reinstated with the Navy as well.

You know, we think this title could be seen as a double entendre. It’s a classic story about a down-on-his-luck coach who takes over a rundown team from “State College.” He puts together a ragtag team, though, including a female kicker who comes up big against the powerful Clayton program. You’ll never guess who wins the big game.

Rockne is one of the biggest names from the early days of football, so naturally he got a glowing biopic, even way back in 1940. The Notre Dame coach was played by Pat O'Brien, and Rockne gives the famous “win one for the Gipper” speech. Who played George Gipp in this movie? Some actor named Ronald Reagan.

This is a fun name for a movie, and it has quite the cast too. “Father Was a Fullback” stars Fred MacMurray, Maureen O’Hara, Jim Backus, Rudy Vallee, Thelma Ritter and a young Natalie Wood. It’s a flimsy ‘40s comedy, but it has its charms.

Not to be confused with the terrible Adam Sandler/Andy Samberg movie, this one featured a different comedic duo. That would be Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. By the way, this was actually the second college football movie called “That’s My Boy,” though that one was a drama from 1932.

Thorpe is one of the greatest athletes of his era; a true multi-sport star. He was also Native American, which is a vital part of his story. In this movie, he was played by Burt Lancaster. Lancaster is a great actor, but he also was 100 percent Scots-Irish.

You may remember “Bedtime for Bonzo,” where Ronald Reagan starred alongside a chimp. Well this time Reagan isn’t around, but Bonzo is back, and he’s playing college football. Does Bonzo get kidnapped before the big game, only to return to be the hero? Take a wild guess.

There’s a bit of a gap between “Bonzo Goes to College” and this film, as there was a bit of a dip in football movies. This film is based on a novel by William Peter Blatty, who wrote “The Exorcist.” Obviously, this story is a Cold War comedy about the CIA trying to get Notre Dame to throw a football game.

George Plimpton famously wrote a book in which he “tried out” for the Detroit Lions. The book was quite popular, which resulted in it becoming a movie starring Alan Alda as Plimpton. “Paper Lion” isn’t as successful as a movie, but it services the source material well enough.

By 1969, the production code that governed Hollywood was gone, so movies could delve into the muck a bit more — like, say, making a movie with Charlton Heston playing the quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, who's also an alcoholic having an affair. Actual members of the Saints appeared in the movie, and part of it was filmed at their field as well.

Yes, this was a TV movie, but it’s also one of the iconic football films, so we had to include it. For years, lame dudes would say stuff like “I never cry at movies, except ‘Brian’s Song’.” To be fair, it is a melodramatic, sad story. It’s based on the real story of Brian Piccolo, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer after joining the Chicago Bears.

Burt Reynolds made many a rollicking comedy in his glory days. “The Longest Yard” is one of those. Reynolds plays a former quarterback in prison who puts together a team of convicts for a game against the prison’s guards. The game gets crazy and violent — those guards really want to win — but this is a sports movie, so you can probably guess what the underdogs manage to do.

This one is just purely silly, but that’s why people still talk about it. A mule becomes the kicker for a football team. You know the whole “there’s nothing in the rulebook saying…” trope? It basically starts with “Gus.”

Talk about whiplash. We go from “Gus,” which is about a mule kicking field goals, to “Black Sunday,” which is about a terrorist attack at the Super Bowl. Yeah, it’s a lot more serious, and also there is no Don Knotts along for the ride.

Burt Reynolds is back! “Semi-Tough” is based on a novel by Dan Jenkins, a legendary sportswriter. He wrote a lot about golf, but here he penned a comedic, satirical story about football players for a made-up Miami team.

It’s a tale as old as time. Quarterback dies, but Heaven realizes it’s an accident. He can be sent back into a different body, in this case the one belonging to a wealthy old industrialist. In that body, he becomes a quarterback for the Rams. This may seem like a silly movie, but “Heaven Can Wait” was actually quite critically acclaimed and got nine Oscar nominations.

Peter Gent was a receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, and then he decided to write a novel loosely based on his life. That novel was “North Dallas Forty,” which was then turned into a movie with Nick Nolte as Gent. It’s kind of like the “Ball Four” of football.

“All the Right Moves” hits a lot of the clichés. Promising young football player hopes for a college scholarship to get him out of his dead-end town. He has a contentious relationship with his coach that threatens to ruin that. The reason we remember this movie is because it was one of the first films to star Tom Cruise, who had “The Outsiders” and “Risky Business” come out the same year.

There is a lot of thriller and romance movie aspects to “Against All Odds.” It’s not one of those football movies about the action on the field. However, it is about an aging receiver, played by Jeff Bridges, who finds himself doing a little private eye work and getting involved romantically with the daughter of the owner of his team. Also, Alex Karras, who was just elected to the Football Hall of Fame, has a role in the movie.

What if Goldie Hawn was the coach of a high school football team? That’s basically the entire premise of “Wildcats,” for better or worse. The movie is also notable for being the debut film for both Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes.

Apparently famed sportswriters like to write novels about sports, and sometimes those turn into movies. In this case, “Everybody’s All American” is based on a book by “Sports Illustrated” icon Frank Deford. Dennis Quaid is a college football star in 1950s Louisiana who moves on to a professional career. John Goodman also has a role.

You remember when SMU got the “death penalty?” Well that’s what happened to the Texas State University Fightin’ Armadillos. That leaves the team to rebuild from scratch, and naturally that results in a wacky collection of misfits coming together. Rob Schneider has a role. Kathy Ireland is the kicker. It’s a slight comedy, but football fans may like it.

Brendan Fraser stars as a talented athlete and scholar who goes to a fancy prep school but then deals with anti-Semitism. The movie has a great cast of rising actors. In addition to Fraser, “School Ties” features Chris O'Donnell and both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

David S. Ward is known more for his baseball movies, namely “Major League,” but he dipped his toe in the world of football as well. Ward, who also directed, tells a tale of a college football coach, played by James Caan, and his team. Halle Berry also has a role as a player's love interests.

We don’t need to explain this one to you, right? It’s a classic underdog story. Rudy wants to play for Notre Dame, but he’s a smaller guy. He gets on the team and gets into a game. Everybody is happy. The crowd chants, “Rudy.” You know the drill.

Speaking of underdogs, and we’re talking about sports movie so we are talking A LOT about underdogs, that’s true of the titular team in “Little Giants” as well. The difference here is that this is about pee-wee football and not college or the NFL. At least Rick Moranis is involved.

Jerry Maguire may be an agent, but there is a ton of football in this movie. That includes one of Maguire’s clients, Rod Tidwell, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. Gooding won an Oscar for this movie, though his career kind of hit the skids after that. Meanwhile, the man who played Maguire, Tom Cruise, has been doing just fine. You could say people have been showing him the money.

You know “Angels in the Outfield,” which is about baseball. Did you know there was a direct-to-video sequel about football? There is indeed, even though there is no NFL team called the Angels. At least Christopher Lloyd came back as the angel who loves to help sports teams.

“Happy Gilmore” worked, so Adam Sandler went back to the well for another sports comedy. Sandler starts as Bobby Boucher, a not that bright but well-meaning guy who just wants to be the waterboy for his local college team. Well it turns out when he gets angry he turns into the hardest-hitting linebacker in the world, which helps out his team once he takes the field.

First, Air Bud played basketball. The world was enraptured. So why not see if Air Bud could play other sports. One of those sports was football, where Air Bud tried his hand at being a receiver, even though he doesn’t actually have hands.

If you are of a certain age, you may have some affinity for “Varsity Blues.” It was a hit with a certain generation, given that it’s basically a teen soap opera in movie form mixed with football. Does it hold up? Not really, but we’ll always have James Van Der Beek drawling, “I don’t want your life!”

Oliver Stone is not subtle, and neither is Al Pacino. Imagine those two coming together for a football movie. That film is “Any Given Sunday.” It’s over the top and bombastic, but it also generally clicked with audiences and football fans.

“Remember the Titans” takes a complicated story and simplifies it into a by-the-numbers, feel-good story — but it seemed to generally make people feel good. Denzel Washington plays the new coach of a high school football team in Virginia. There are racial tensions. They are overcome. You’ve seen movies like this before but maybe not with actors as good as Washington in the lead.

Hey, we’ve got another ragtag team of football players coming together to overcome the odds. The NFL players are on strike, so teams are hiring replacement players to keep the season going. That includes Keanu Reeves as a former college star quarterback who never made it and then some other wacky characters, like a sumo wrestler and a chain-smoking soccer player. It’s actually a pretty funny sports comedy though, and it delivers what it promises.

Cuba Gooding Jr. is back, but he didn’t win an Oscar this time. Based on a true story, Gooding plays a mentally challenged man known as Radio who helps out a local football team. People grow to love him, he grows to love them, and you are supposed to be left feeling good in the end.

Before it was a TV show, and after it was a book, “Friday Night Lights” was a movie. As in all versions of the story, it’s about high school football in Texas, though this version skews closer to the book, which is non-fiction, than the TV show. While the show overshadows the movie, it has its own strengths and also has Billy Bob Thornton starring.

No, this isn’t a duplicate entry. “The Longest Yard” got remade. This time, it’s Adam Sandler making his second appearance on the list. He steps into the role that Burt Reynolds played in the original.

Vince Papale was a bartender who dreamed of playing in the NFL. Obviously, he had some skill, but he also had determination. He would eventually play three seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s an impressive story of triumph, and that’s why Papale got a biopic where he’s played by Mark Wahlberg.

Tragically, in 1970 an airplane carrying the Marshall football team crashed. Thirty-seven players died, along with five coaches, some boosters and a few others. The university was determined to keep the football team going, though, which fell on the shoulders of new head coach Jack Lengyel. It’s not a well-known story, but in terms of true stories of overcoming the odds, it’s up there.

In 2006 Dwayne Johnson was still getting billed as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and trying to make his way into film stardom. He made some movies that have been a bit forgotten, and a few of them involved sports. That includes “Gridiron Gang,” in which Johnson plays a man who puts together a football team in a juvenile detention center.

Hey, it’s Dwayne Johnson in another football movie. This time it’s a light family comedy though. He plays a quarterback who finds out he has a young daughter. The poster is Johnson in football gear next to a girl in a ballerina outfit. That gives you the gist of it.

Remember the old days of football? You probably do, because the first movies on this list were from that time. George Clooney stars in “Leatherheads,” which he also directed. It’s about football in the 1920s, and it’s a comedy as well. It’s like “Horse Feathers” decades later.

Michael Lewis’ book “The Blind Side” covers a lot of stuff about football, but the movie drills down on one specific element: namely, the story of Michael Oher, a homeless kid taken in by a family. The movie has problems, mostly of the “white savior” variety, but it gave Sandra Bullock an Oscar.

Kevin Costner is synonymous with baseball movies, but he’s not a one-sport man. In “Draft Day,” he plays the GM of the Cleveland Browns, as he prepares for the NFL Draft. The movie seems to have no sense of how the NFL or the draft actually works.

The film world can be weird. When the talented cast of “Balls Out,” which includes “Saturday Night Live” names like Jay Pharoah, Beck Bennett and Kate McKinnon, were making the movie it was a comedy called “Intramural” about a group of friends getting their college football team back together. When it came out, it had been redubbed “Balls Out” and repackaged as a raunchy comedy and included a poster that just featured the back of a woman in short shorts.

These days almost every football film is a documentary, and we didn’t consider those for our list. Even the narrative films are often based on true stories. Take, for example, “Concussion” where Will Smith played one of the doctors who blew the whistle on the dangerous concussion and CTE issues in the world of football, especially the NFL. Of course, all people seem to remember is the moment in the trailer where Smith angrily says, “Tell the truth!”

Near as we can tell, this is the most recent theatrical release about football to come out. It’s not exactly a big-name movie, but it does star Aaron Eckhart. He was Harvey Dent in “The Dark Knight,” so at least he’s a known name. This too is about a real person, this time Texas football player Freddie Steinmark, who is dealing with cancer.