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If New Year's Day has any meaning whatsoever past the notion that our lives, in a funny way, re-set to prepare for the next year, it means football. Not only are we as football fans treated to numerous college bowl games during this week, but also we are additionally treated to a slew of football-centered movies on cable television.
With that in mind, we thought that we'd list our favorite Top 5 football moves (in no particular order):
Any Given Sunday (1999)
Written and directed by Oliver Stone, and centering on a fictional Florida football team, the Miami Sharks, Any Given Sunday is a look at a struggling football team and their coach who might be past his prime. After some of his best players are injured, his third-string QB must enter the game. Playing a few games, the once-comfortable-on-the-sidelines third-stringer becomes a sensation in the league, eventually leading the team into the playoffs, although he has gone against his coaches playbook--inventing his own.
Rudy (1993)
Released into theater's in Fall of 1993, Rudy is the true story of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, a short, below-average janitor who wishes to play football at Notre Dame University. With commitment, passion, desire, and hard-work, Ruettiger makes his dreams come true. Rudy was shot on location at Notre Dame University, only the second time in the history of the school that a motion picture has been allowed to film there. The first? Knute Rockne, All American in 1940. The film has earned a loyal following in recent years, mostly through home video release and pay cable television.
The Longest Yard (1974)
Directed by Hollywood tough-as-nails movie director Robert Aldrich, The Longest Yard--the original version--not the Adam Sandler remake, follows a group of prison inmates who set up an exhibition on the football field in which they play their guards. Whereas, the Adam Sandler film is really rooted in slapstick stupidity, the original version of The Longest Yard, while offering meager comedy sensibilities is more of a man's man football movie, whereas, Sandler's variation, is for kids, or teens to say the least. What most don't know about The Longest Yard is that it was actually based on real events that occurred in 1942 in a German prison camp during the height of World War II. The movie was shot in an actual Georgia State Prison.
Brian's Song (1971)
Originally made-for-television in 1971, Brian's Song is the true story account of the friendship between two Wake Forest University football players, one, Brian Piccolo, the other, Pro Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers. Piccolo and Sayers are best friends, and the story of Brian's Song has to do with their friendship during Piccolo's bout with terminal cancer. Brian's Song is a tough movie to watch. Real men cry too, so don't be ashamed after you've watched this.
Everybody's All-American (1988)
Released in 1988, Everybody's All-American features actor Dennis Quaid as a 1950s college football superstar, who goes on to marry his school sweetheart and eventually gets drafted into the NFL. However, the once great college football star doesn't fare as well in the NFL itself, and he goes from being a once-admired athlete to a has been. Throwing his life into a downward spiral of anger and depression, Everybody's All-American covers 25 years in the life of one professional football player and that of his family, and how the pressures put upon athlete's to performance can destroy anyone as much as the success can immortalize them.