Are You Ready for... the Ten Best Football Flicks of All Time!

Banalities via flickr.

Football and movies. That's America.

​Football is back, damn it. So prepare to spend your entire weekend busy doing nothing but sinking lower and lower into your lazyboy -- so deep that your skin fuses to the leather and you need a spatula (grab the one you've been using to scoop nachos into your mouth) to separate yourself from it for a bathroom break.

We're fairly sure that the collective smarts of the country takes a massive dip during prime football watching hours on weekends. We don't have any proof, but try this: approach a male, 18 to 55, during a game, and ask him a question. Any question will do. We're pretty sure he'll either, 1. Ignore you completely, 2. Look at you with a confused expression as if to say, " Are you speaking human?" or 3. Fling nachos at you for making him miss valuable seconds of the game. Maybe the only thing that can detract your all American male from the game is a movie about the football. Here's our 10 favorites.

10. The Program (1993)


About a college football program rife with many of the real life issues that still exist. Namely, steroids, cheating on tests, and preferential treatment. James Caan is the coach, Omar Epps the up and coming running back, and Craig Sheffer as the star quarterback. The film sparked plenty of controversy when a scene depicting Sheffer laying down in the street in the middle of traffic was copied by foolish kids who ended up being killed. That scene was eventually cut from the movie.

9. Rudy (1993)


Rudy! Rudy! Rudy! Everybody knows of this movie, even if they didn't see it. Sean Astin stars as the title character whose too small and feeble to play for mighty Notre Dame. But he does anyway, working his puny ass off for years just for the chance to participate in a couple of plays in his last game ever. What a loser!

8. Brian's Song (1971)


Do not watch this after watching your team lose a game. The coupling of this tear jerker with anger is enough to make you lose your shit. Brian Piccolo was an average player with a big heart who died of cancer in 1970, at 26. He grew up in Fort Lauderdale (there's a park named after him) and his story and friendship with Hall of Famer Gale Sayers are the subject of this film.

7. North Dallas Forty (1979)


The first movie to give an inside look at the debauchery surrounding football. A youthful Nick Nolte stars as an aging wide receiver abusing painkillers to get through the season. It was based on a semi-biographical novel written by a former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver.

6. Any Given Sunday (1999)


An Oliver Stone film with an ensemble cast including Al Pacino as head coach of the Miami Sharks, Cameron Diaz as owner, Jamie Foxx as backup quarterback given a chance to shine when starting quarterback Dennis Quaid, James Woods as dirty team doctor and  on and on. Truthfully, the film was pretty sorry, but merits inclusion because of the big names and fact that it was filmed locally in the Orange Bowl before it was demolished.