70 Fun Facts About Football Movie

In Remember the Titans (2000), which actor plays Coach Herman Boone?

Denzel Washington's Boone integrates a team on screen, but the real school had been integrated since it opened in 1965; the upheaval of 1971 was Alexandria merging its three high schools into one.

Remember the Titans ends on a last-play win, but how did the real 1971 state final end?

A shutout win, 27-0 over Andrew Lewis High, capped a 13-0 season with nine shutouts; the film moved the Titans' one close call, a 21-16 midseason escape against Marshall High, to the final.

Rudy (1993) was the first film Notre Dame let shoot on its campus since which earlier movie?

Knute Rockne, All American (1940) was the last; Rudy's closing scene, with Sean Astin carried off the field, was shot at halftime of Notre Dame's real 1992 home game against Boston College.

Which team does Rudy Ruettiger finally get to play against in the closing game of Rudy?

Georgia Tech was the real opponent too: Ruettiger made a sack on the final play of Notre Dame's 1975 home finale, but no player handed in a jersey, and coach Dan Devine wrote that he had let the film cast him as the heavy.

Friday Night Lights (2004) follows the 1988 Permian Panthers of which Texas town?

Odessa's real 1988 Panthers squeezed into the playoffs on a coin flip and lost to Dallas Carter in a semifinal, not in the state championship game the film stages.

Who plays Coach Gary Gaines in the film Friday Night Lights?

Billy Bob Thornton played Gaines for director Peter Berg, and Kyle Chandler's Coach Eric Taylor arrived with the 2006 TV series; the real Gaines went 16-0 and won the state title in 1989, the season after the one on screen.

In The Blind Side (2009), which character won Sandra Bullock the Best Actress Oscar?

Leigh Anne Tuohy. Bullock has said she repeatedly refused the film, and she only came round after a visit with the real Tuohy.

The Blind Side is based on a 2006 book by which author?

Michael Lewis. He and the father of the family that took Oher in had been longtime classmates at a New Orleans school, which helps explain his remarkable access.

In Any Given Sunday (1999), Al Pacino coaches which fictional pro team?

Miami Sharks. The NFL disliked Oliver Stone's script and withheld its team names and logos, so he invented a whole league for the Sharks to play in.

Which hip-hop star was first cast as quarterback Willie Beamen in Any Given Sunday before Jamie Foxx replaced him?

Sean Combs. Oliver Stone put him through screen tests, but the football crew said he could not throw convincingly, so Stone turned to Jamie Foxx, a former high school quarterback.

Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Oscar-winning Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire plays for which NFL team?

Arizona Cardinals. Tidwell's 'Show me the money' came from real Cardinals safety Tim McDonald, who used the line while shopping for a new contract in 1993.

Which real sports agent did Cameron Crowe shadow for months while researching Jerry Maguire?

Leigh Steinberg. Crowe trailed him to drafts and a Super Bowl while researching the script, though Crowe insists Jerry himself is pure fiction.

The Longest Yard star Burt Reynolds played college football for which school?

Florida State. A knee injury and then a car crash that cost him his spleen wrecked Reynolds's playing career there, and he turned to acting.

Mean Machine, the 2001 British remake of The Longest Yard with Vinnie Jones, switched the sport to what?

Soccer. Vinnie Jones was a real former professional, and British audiences already knew the title: the 1974 original was released there as The Mean Machine.

The 1971 TV movie Brian's Song is about Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers, teammates on which NFL club?

Chicago Bears. Weeks before Piccolo died in 1970, Sayers accepted the league's courage award and told the room it belonged to his teammate, the speech at the heart of the film.

Which Godfather star played dying running back Brian Piccolo in the 1971 TV movie Brian's Song?

James Caan. He said he refused the TV movie four times, fearing the stigma television carried for film actors, then earned an Emmy nomination for it.

In Varsity Blues (1999), Jon Voight's coach Bud Kilmer leads a team from which fictional Texas town?

West Canaan. The town is invented, but the title stuck: in 2019 the FBI code-named its college-admissions bribery investigation Operation Varsity Blues.

Who plays rebellious backup quarterback Jonathan 'Mox' Moxon in Varsity Blues (1999)?

James Van Der Beek. He only took up acting because a football concussion at 13 sidelined him for a year, and he landed the lead in his school's Grease instead.

Who plays head coach Jack Lengyel in We Are Marshall (2006)?

Matthew McConaughey. The 1970 crash killed all 75 aboard, and Lengyel rebuilt the team with freshmen after the NCAA waived its ban on them playing varsity.

Which Lost star plays assistant coach Red Dawson in We Are Marshall?

Matthew Fox. The real Dawson was not on the plane because he had driven to the game so he could go on to a recruiting trip, and he heard about the crash on his car radio.

Invincible (2006) tells of Vince Papale, a 30-year-old bartender who made which NFL team in 1976?

Philadelphia Eagles. The film leaves out that Papale had already played two seasons of pro football for the Philadelphia Bell of the short-lived World Football League.

Who plays Bobby Boucher's fiercely protective Mama in The Waterboy (1998)?

Kathy Bates. She threw the script in the trash after 12 pages, until her niece fished it out and told her who Adam Sandler was.

Who plays Coach Klein, the Mud Dogs' nervous head coach, in The Waterboy?

Henry Winkler. He got the part after phoning Adam Sandler to thank him for a name-check in 'The Chanukah Song' on Saturday Night Live.

ESPN's 30 for 30 film Year of the Scab follows the 1987 strike replacements of which eventual Super Bowl champion?

Washington Redskins. Their 3-0 strike team loosely inspired The Replacements (2000), yet most of the real replacement players waited until 2018 for Super Bowl rings.

In Little Giants (1994), the winning trick play is named after which historical event?

The Annexation of Puerto Rico. In 2011 the Carolina Panthers scored an NFL touchdown on a hidden-ball play, and coach Ron Rivera said the idea came from the film he had watched with his kids.

Which duo play rival pee-wee coaches and brothers Danny and Kevin O'Shea in Little Giants?

Rick Moranis and Ed O'Neill. The film grew out of a McDonald's Super Bowl commercial about pee-wee football: Steven Spielberg phoned its writers the next morning wanting his own Home Alone.

Kevin Costner plays the general manager of which team in Draft Day (2014)?

Cleveland Browns. Co-writer Rajiv Joseph was born and raised in Cleveland, yet he had at first avoided writing about his own team, saying the Browns were too close to his heart.

In Concussion (2015), Dr. Bennet Omalu's 2002 autopsy of which Steelers Hall of Famer led him to identify CTE?

Mike Webster. His brain looked normal when Omalu opened the skull, and the damage only showed after special sectioning and staining that Omalu paid for out of his own pocket.

Ernie Davis, first African American Heisman winner and subject of The Express (2008), played for which university?

Syracuse. Davis wore number 44 there, as Jim Brown had before him, and the number became so revered that the university had its ZIP code changed to 13244.

In Radio (2003), James Robert Kennedy befriends a high school football team in which state?

South Carolina. T. L. Hanna High in Anderson gave the real Kennedy permanent status as a junior, so he never had to graduate and leave the team.

Who played doomed halfback George Gipp in a 1940 football biopic?

Ronald Reagan. The role's deathbed line, 'win one for the Gipper', became his political catchphrase, and he was still using it as president more than forty years later.

In Heaven Can Wait (1978), Warren Beatty plays a backup quarterback for which team?

Los Angeles Rams. The film sends them to a Super Bowl against Pittsburgh, and about 18 months after its release the real Rams met the Steelers in their first Super Bowl, and lost.

Warren Beatty made Heaven Can Wait (1978) a football film only after which boxer passed on the lead?

Muhammad Ali. The 1941 original, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, had a boxer hero, and when his friend stayed in the ring Beatty switched to football, which he had played in high school.

Who plays painkiller-dependent receiver Phil Elliott in North Dallas Forty (1979)?

Nick Nolte. His character stands in for the novel's author Peter Gent, a real 1960s pro receiver who never played a down of college football and had starred in basketball at Michigan State.

Who directed and starred in Leatherheads (2008), a screwball comedy about 1920s pro football?

George Clooney. He said he rewrote all but two scenes of the 17-year-old script, and when a Writers Guild arbitration denied him a credit he gave up his full membership in protest.

Which stunt was cut from The Program (1993) after teenagers copied it?

Lying on a highway centre line. Within weeks of release one teenager had died and two were badly hurt copying the stunt, so the studio pulled the scene while the film was still in cinemas.

In Gridiron Gang (2006), Dwayne Johnson builds a football team from the teenagers at what kind of institution?

A youth detention camp. The film shot at the real Camp Kilpatrick near Los Angeles, and Johnson told the inmates he had been arrested several times himself before he turned 17.

In Facing the Giants (2006), what does blindfolded Brock carry in the death crawl?

A teammate on his back. Blindfolded so he cannot see the 50-yard target pass, he crawls all 100 yards, in a church-made film that cost about $100,000 and took over $10 million.

Who plays fading college football hero Gavin Grey in Everybody's All-American (1988)?

Dennis Quaid. A hit from former Patriots defensive back Tim Fox broke his collarbone and halted filming, and the shot of Quaid writhing in pain stayed in the finished film.

Necessary Roughness (1991) was inspired by the NCAA 'death penalty' handed to which real program?

SMU. The NCAA cancelled its whole 1987 season over a booster slush fund that paid players, and the school then chose to sit out 1988 as well.

Which two future stars made their big-screen debuts in Goldie Hawn's Wildcats (1986)?

Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. They first worked together here, and six years later they reunited as the hustling leads of White Men Can't Jump.

In All the Right Moves (1983), Tom Cruise's defensive back tries to escape which fictional Pennsylvania steel town?

Ampipe. The town is invented, but its hard times were not: the film was shot in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a real steel city where about one worker in four was unemployed at the time.

Semi-Tough (1977), starring Burt Reynolds, was adapted from which sportswriter's novel?

Dan Jenkins. His novel was a comedy about pro football stars, but the filmmakers added a whole subplot mocking 1970s self-help crazes such as est.

In Disney's The Game Plan (2007), Dwayne Johnson plays a star quarterback for which fictional team?

Boston Rebels. Johnson's own pro career was far shorter than his character's: the Calgary Stampeders cut him from their practice roster two months into the 1995 season, and he turned to wrestling.

American Underdog (2021) shows Kurt Warner stocking shelves at which supermarket chain?

Hy-Vee. Cut by the Packers in 1994, Warner worked nights at the Iowa store for $5.50 an hour, and within six years he was the most valuable player of a Super Bowl.

80 for Brady (2023) centres on the Patriots' 28-3 Super Bowl comeback against which team?

Atlanta Falcons. The film is inspired by a real club of Patriots fans in their eighties, Over 80 for Brady, but unlike its heroines the real women never made it to a Super Bowl.

Who plays writer George Plimpton in Paper Lion (1968)?

Alan Alda. At the real Detroit Lions camp in 1963 the writer ran five plays in a scrimmage and lost yardage on every one of them.

In Horse Feathers (1932), Huxley College's football rival is named after which scientist?

Darwin. The rivalry is an in-joke: biologist Thomas Huxley defended evolution so fiercely that he was nicknamed Darwin's bulldog.

Undefeated, 2012's Best Documentary Feature Oscar winner, follows a team from which city?

Memphis. The title is not literal: Manassas High had never won a playoff game in its 110-year history, and coach Bill Courtney was an unpaid volunteer who ran a lumber business.

Patton Oswalt's parking attendant in Big Fan (2009) is obsessed with which team?

New York Giants. When the team's star linebacker beats him into hospital, he refuses to press charges, because a suspension would cost his Giants their best defender just before the playoffs.

Harold Lloyd's The Freshman (1925) shot crowd scenes at a real 1924 game between which schools?

California and Stanford. Lloyd's crew shot on the Berkeley field at halftime of the real 1924 Big Game, then staged the game action later at the Rose Bowl.

Who plays Pat's superstitious bookmaker father in Silver Linings Playbook (2012)?

Robert De Niro. His character makes a parlay bet: his team must beat Dallas and his son's dance routine must average just 5 out of 10, and the couple score exactly 5.0.

In Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, ex-placekicker Ray Finkle missed a game-winning field goal for which team?

Miami Dolphins. Finkle blames holder Dan Marino for not placing the ball laces out, which is why both Marino and the team's dolphin mascot are kidnapped before the Super Bowl.

Who plays De La Salle High School coach Bob Ladouceur in When the Game Stands Tall (2014)?

Jim Caviezel. The film is less about the record 151 straight wins than the fall: the streak ended in September 2004 with a 39-20 loss to Bellevue of Washington.

Who wrote The Best of Times (1986), in which Robin Williams's banker restages a 1972 high school game?

Ron Shelton. He had spent five years as an infielder in the Orioles' farm system, and two years after this script he turned that life into his directing debut, Bull Durham.

Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998), which moves the dog from basketball to football, is dedicated to whom?

The original Buddy. The golden retriever kept shooting hoops even after losing a hind leg to cancer, and he died in his sleep in February 1998, six months before the sequel opened.

In Black Sunday (1977), terrorists plan to attack the Super Bowl crowd using what?

The Goodyear blimp. Goodyear lent its real airships, and the NFL let the crew film at the actual Super Bowl X in 1976 while the Steelers beat Dallas 21-17.

Who plays disgraced former football star Jimmy Dix opposite Bruce Willis in The Last Boy Scout (1991)?

Damon Wayans. Shane Black's script had sold for a record $1.75 million in 1990, but the record stood for only months before Basic Instinct went for $3 million.

Disney+'s Safety (2020) tells of Ray McElrathbey raising his brother while playing for which college?

Clemson. NCAA rules barred outside help for his 11-year-old brother Fahmarr as an improper benefit, until a September 2006 waiver allowed a trust fund to pay for the boy's care.

Which comedian plays Caretaker, the fixer who helps Adam Sandler build a team of convicts in The Longest Yard (2005)?

Chris Rock. The remake is set in a Texas prison but was shot partly in the vacant old main building of the New Mexico state penitentiary near Santa Fe, where a 1980 riot left 33 inmates dead.

Woodlawn (2015) casts Jon Voight as which legendary Alabama coach?

Bear Bryant. He signs Woodlawn's star runner Tony Nathan, who went on to start two Super Bowls, and whose 1974 showdown with rival Banks drew about 42,000 to Legion Field.

In The Replacements (2000), Keanu Reeves' Shane Falco quarterbacks which fictional Washington team?

Sentinels. Washington's team played its games in Baltimore: the football scenes were shot at the Ravens' PSINet Stadium.

Which producer, famous for blockbusters, made Remember the Titans for Disney?

Jerry Bruckheimer. Writer Gregory Allen Howard had shopped the story around Hollywood with no success before writing it on spec, and the film grossed more than $100 million in the US.

In which state were the Titans' home games in Remember the Titans actually filmed?

Georgia. The Virginia story was shot hundreds of miles to the south, at locations all around the state, including scenes on the campus of Berry College in Rome.

Where does Rudy enrol in the film Rudy while hoping to transfer into Notre Dame?

Holy Cross College. It was there that the real Ruettiger, whose poor school grades had kept him out of Notre Dame, learned he had dyslexia.

Which future comedy star plays Notre Dame tailback Jamie O'Hara in Rudy (1993)?

Vince Vaughn. He hit it off on the set with Jon Favreau, who went on to write Swingers (1996), and the role of Trent made Vaughn's name.

Although set in Louisiana, The Waterboy was mostly filmed in which state?

Kathy Bates had thrown the script in the trash before her niece spotted Adam Sandler's name and talked her into it.

Cameron Crowe developed Jerry Maguire (1996) for which star, who passed on the title role?

Tom Hanks. Crowe took so long over the script that by the time it was ready Hanks preferred to make his directing debut with That Thing You Do!, and the part went to Tom Cruise.

Which Bruce Springsteen song reached No. 19 on the Hot 100 in 1997 after featuring in Jerry Maguire?

Secret Garden. A 1995 single from his Greatest Hits, it was revived two years later by the film, and a radio station even cut a remix that mixed in lines of the film's dialogue.

In Netflix's Home Team (2022), Kevin James plays which NFL head coach, who helps coach his son's youth team?

Sean Payton. Suspended for the whole 2012 season over the Saints' bounty scandal, he spent it in Texas helping to coach his son Connor's sixth-grade team.