By Steven Hartman · February 5, 2024
Football movies often center around a character or a team overcoming insurmountable odds and finding success. In fact, you can probably interchange any sport with football, and it will still work because it’s about the characters more than the sport. Audiences love sports movies because they can relate to characters and what they want to achieve—really, what’s the difference between a wannabe quarterback fighting the odds to achieve their goal and a fledgling lawyer proving themselves with an important case?
The following football movies to study before the Super Bowl vary in genre, themes, and whether they involve an individual player, team, or more behind-the-scenes. Also, pay attention to how many are true stories and what makes them different than a fictional tale.
Here are some football movie scripts you can read and inspirational football films to watch before the big game.
Read More: The Non-Sports-Fan Movie Fan’s Guide to The Big Game
Oliver Stone’s take on the overwhelming machine that is football, tackling everything from office politics to on-the-field triumphs and downfalls. With a stellar cast behind it, Stone crafts the tale of a failing fictional football team struggling to find their way forward after their star quarterback is taken out of a game and a third-stringer finds his chance to shine.
Screenwriting takeaway: Stone builds an ensemble film with lots of moving parts and larger-than-life characters. Pay attention to who the lead character of the scene is and what changes for them as the scene plays out.
Download the script!
Some romantic dramedies pierce through the football pads protecting a man’s heart and become a favorite film for everyone. Love, Actually is one. Jerry Maguire is another. Following a sports agent who experiences a career crisis, losing the high status of his personal and professional life, Jerry (Tom Cruise) embarks on his own with a single client and a previous office worker who believes in his mission.
It’s a behind-the-scenes look at agents and athletes in the world of professional football and how one agent regains his status while finding love along the way.
Screenwriting takeaway: Look for the behind-the-scenes story. Movies like Moneyball, Draft Day, and Bull Durham are other sports stories that pull back the curtain on what goes on regarding our favorite sports.
Download the script!
The Blind Side is a true story about a homeless teenager who struggled in school and life. It just so happens that Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) discovers Michael Oher’s (Quinton Aaron) potential and takes him under her wing. Michael moves in with her family, and from there, she hires teachers, helps build his confidence, and gives his coaches the ammo to let him shine on the field. He ultimately became the first-round draft pick for the Baltimore Ravens.
Screenwriting takeaway: Pay attention to the multiple conflicts between various characters, such as Tuohy’s interactions with Oher, her husband, her child, and others. And then Oher’s conflicts with those in his life.
Download the script!Read More: Real Drama: Scripts You Should Read If You’re Writing a Biopic
The 1970s were filled with athletes who were beaten down and experiencing personal crises. Rocky, for instance, had its lead character questioning whether they could even go the distance against boxing’s reigning champion. North Dallas Forty follows Phillip Elliot (Nick Nolte), a weathered football player who takes a few too many drugs and drinks a little too much to numb the bruises from the field and the effects of aging while playing a violent sport. Between two games (one week apart), Elliot begins to question his place on an evolving team and whether he should continue his professional football career.
Screenwriting takeaway: Focus on a single player and their journey through a specific time frame in their respective sport. North Dallas Forty is a snapshot of a week in football, whereas a movie like Bull Durham follows its protagonist through a single baseball season.
Sure, the concept isn’t realistic, but the smash hit that launched Jim Carrey into movie stardom (and co-stars Courteney Cox pre-Friends) centers around a pet detective tasked with finding Snowflake, the Miami Dolphins’ mascot, before their next game. While it’s far from the conventional football film, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective does use the NFL and the Miami Dolphins to help advance the story, which includes looking for a specific Super Bowl ring, a vengeful former kicker, and appearances by Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino.
Screenwriting takeaway: Think big! The screenwriters could have easily made a story around a billionaire’s kidnapped animal but instead went with a mascot of a major sports franchise.
Films have been a great way to show the history of integration in sports and the trials and challenges those working on the right side of history faced. Remember the Titans follows the first year of a Virginia high school’s integration as a newly-appointed coach (Denzel Washington) must bring together a diverse group of players and get them to work as a team.
Screenwriting takeaway: There is no “I” in team. Athletes must work together to succeed. This involves overcoming differences and accepting those you work with on the field. Failure to do so equals failure on the field. Success can translate to wins.
Invincible, another true story, starts with a dismal Philadelphia Eagles team ending an embarrassing season. Initially a publicity stunt, a new coach lets anyone try out for the team. Enter Vince Papale (Mark Wahlberg), a bartender who decides to give it a chance. He never gets cut and eventually becomes the sole open tryout player to make it on the team. It is the story of an everyday person who happens to find his way to greatness.
Screenwriting takeaway: The story of an every-person who can break into greatness makes for an engaging story, especially in sports. Other examples are The Rookie, Eddie the Eagle, and Brittany Runs a Marathon.
It’s the NFL draft day, and the general manager of the Cleveland Browns must make some life-changing decisions for both the team and the players. One player he could choose is the obvious winner, but the more questionable player could be the better option. But it’s not just choosing between A and B, but the consequences as his future is in jeopardy. The film shows the GM meeting with several people as he considers the advice from many experts and struggles to decide as the clock winds down.
Screenwriting takeaways: Deadlines are great. Not only should you have them for your writing, but give your characters a hard stop where they either win or lose, then throw a bunch of conflicts their way.
When four octogenarian Tom Brady fanatics head to the Super Bowl hoping to meet their hero, hilarity ensues. Based on a true story, the film takes four women out of a more comfortable lifestyle and puts them in the middle of the biggest day in sports. The comedy is a fish-out-of-water tale with the heart being four friends working together for something they love.
Screenwriting takeaways: Sports movies don’t necessarily have to be about the athlete, but the fans and what it means to them. Other examples include Silver Linings Playbook and Fever Pitch.
It’s no surprise that groundbreaking information about concussions and mental health unsurprisingly sparks controversy. Concussion shows the Goliath that a Pittsburgh doctor faces as he tries to share the results of CTE and its impact on players. Many players who receive continuous concussions later face mental deterioration, and this movie shows how one doctor tried to make a violent sport safer and force the NFL to recognize it has a role to play in the future of those who participate.
Screenwriting takeaway: The David vs. Goliath concept is a solid story. Other similar films include Erin Brockovich and Seabiscuit.
Download the script!
Blue-collar factory towns seem to be an ideal location for underdog stories to flourish. When people are down on their luck, determination makes for a great story. Rudy is another true story about a kid living in a steel mill town who dreams of playing football for Notre Dame.
Regardless of his short stature, Rudy (Sean Astin) will do anything to achieve his dreams. Never giving up, Rudy gets his chance and ultimately earns the respect of his teammates, who carry him off the field on their shoulders after he completes a crucial tackle.
Screenwriting takeaway: In a world where Marvel and DC boast extraordinary people doing superheroic things, find the stories where ordinary people accomplish extraordinary feats. Even Die Hard was a detective getting thrown into an impossible situation.
We Are Marshall is a true story about a tragedy that rocked a college campus and how they used football and community to persevere. When a plane crash takes the lives of most of the football players and coaches from Marshall University, the school decides to move forward and try to keep the football program alive.
Unlike many football films that bring together a group with differences, this movie shows how creating a team built in the aftermath of tragedy can deliver hope when all hope seems lost.
Screenwriting takeaway: If your script involves building a team, consider having everyone come together with something big they have in common versus building conflict through differences.
It’s hard to think of an NFL MVP Hall of Fame quarterback with a Super Bowl ring being an underdog, but, at one point, Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi) could barely get a spot on a pro team. American Underdog follows Warner’s journey of never giving up and always believing that something better lies ahead, for the most part. It takes the help of family, varying teammates, and coaches to guide him to success.
Screenwriting takeaway: In American Underdog, the protagonist is surrounded by a solid support group. Take a look at the supporting cast and how they are used to help or hinder the hero. Think about Rocky and how everyone from Adrian to Gazzo, the crime boss Rocky works for, has a way of encouraging him.
One of the first MTV Films to break through, Varsity Blues follows a group of immature high school football players in a town that loves the sport more than anything as they navigate the season with a tough-as-nails coach who places winning over the safety of his players. While filled with late-1990s toxic masculinity, the movie has several underlying themes that make it compelling and relevant 25 years later.
Screenwriting takeaway: It’s not easy creating so many characters with varying personalities, but Varsity Blues does it well. Watch how the characters are introduced, how they interact in different settings, and what makes them stand out. A non-sports film example with a myriad of characters is Ocean’s 11.
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Sports movies make for compelling stories, not because of the sport itself, but because of the characters. In all the movies mentioned here, a character rarely points out they want to be a football player—there is something deeper than that, such as determination, wanting to succeed against all odds, or showing that the team is greater than a single individual.
Football is a way to tell those stories, and it’s how audiences will relate to the characters makes it more than just a sports movie.
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