Published Feb 1, 2026, 1:00 PM EST
Derek is the Training Lead for ScreenRant. Before his current position, he spent 20 years working in games, TV, and film while also writing for several entertainment sites.
Derek is also the co-host of three pop culture podcasts: Across the Omniverse, The Bad Batch, and Watch Men.
When the Super Bowl comes around, even people who never watch football get involved. Some may only watch for the commercials, while others just show up for the parties, but they soon find themselves invested in the game. The back and forth of the teams. The stories of the players. The struggle to be the best, even if just for a day. It's hard not to get invested in it all.
That is why sports movies are so popular. They contain all of the drama of the game, but with better camera angles, dialogue, and acting. Football movies in particular capture the audience's imagination. From heartwarming true stories to wild comedies, this sport is able to contain it all in a way that no other sport can.
A great football movie can shine a light on the dedication of a single person or celebrate the drive of the team or a whole community. It can bring the toughest, most stoic person to tears with a single touchdown.
5 Rudy
It's almost impossible to discuss sports movies and not bring up Rudy. The movie, based on the life of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, tells the uplifting tale of a man's drive to play football at the University of Notre Dame. Rejected by the school time and time again, Rudy never quits.
In the end, Rudy makes his dream come true. He plays in the last minutes of a game that is already decided, sacks the quarterback, and is carried off the field on his teammates' shoulders as the stadium fills with the cheers of the attendees and theaters filled with the sniffles of audiences crying tears of joy.
While Rudy takes some big liberties with the true story, it is nonetheless a moving tale told well. Sean Astin plays Rudy, and the same hopeful innocence that made him perfect for Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings is what makes him work so well here.
4 Any Given Sunday
Football is a hard and dirty game. The players, the coaches, and the team owners are all driven not only to be the best in the sport, but to get rich and famous while doing it. Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday is more interested in the drive for fame and money than in what happens on the field, painting a dark picture of the sport.
With an amazing cast led by Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Al Pacino, and Dennis Quaid, Any Given Sunday takes the stance that football was once an honorable game, but the sport has tarnished over time, thanks in no small part to its popularity and the billions of dollars that can be made off of it.
Stone's hyper style works well with football, and while the movie may be overly cynical for much of its runtime, there isn't a dull moment.
3 The Last Boy Scout
Tony Scott's action movies always had a visceral feel that no other director could capture, and Shane Black has written some of the greatest action movies of all time. Together, the two made The Last Boy Scout, a movie as witty as Black's best work and as in-your-face as Scott's best work.
In the movie, Bruce Willis is a beaten and tired private detective who works with a former football star, played by Damon Wayans, to find a killer and, with any luck, stop a plan to ruin football forever. Willis and Wayans work off one another perfectly, and the mix of action and comedy makes it a blast from beginning to end.
While The Last Boy Scout came out to mixed reviews and a lackluster box office, viewers have found the movie over the years, turning it into a well-deserved action comedy classic.
2 Draft Day
It's almost impossible to talk about sports movies and not bring up Kevin Costner. And while Costner is better known for starring in some of the greatest baseball movies of all time, he has ventured out to other sports as well. In Draft Day, Costner plays the general manager of the Cleveland Browns and shows that some of the best moves in the game aren't on the field, they're in the offices.
The movie, set during the first day of the NFL draft, isn't about winning a game; it's about outplaying your competitors to get the best players. Directed by Ivan Reitman, Draft Day is able to make player stats and phone calls over trades feel as impactful as any hit on the field. Along with Costner, the movie stars Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, and Chadwick Boseman.
1 Horse Feathers
Huxley College's football team can't win a game to save its life. In an attempt to turn things around, the school's less-than-honorable president, Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, decides to recruit professional football players to improve the team's prospects. In a bit of a misunderstanding, Wagstaff ends up recruiting Baravelli and Pinky, two ice deliverymen.
Horse Feathers is one of the best Marx Brothers movies, and with good reason. Along with the perfect wit of Groucho, the endless one-upmanship of Chico, and the physical comedy of Zeppo, the movie features the most hysterical football game ever played. It is also features the classic tunes "I'm Against It" and "Everyone Says I Love You."
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