The 10 Best High School Football Movies of All Time

Football is easily the most popular sport in the country. (Sorry, baseball.) The sport easily engages fans on the field as much as it entertains them with stories on the big screen. From professional football films like Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday (starring Cameron Diaz and Al Pacino) and Jerry Maguire, to college football with Sean Astin's starring role in the Notre Dame football flick Rudy or Matthew McConaughey's We Are Marshall, you get inspired watching the team come together. Even Adam Sandler's The Waterboy gets audiences excited to follow the game.

Let's not forget the classic underdog stories like Keanu Reeves' The Replacements, The North Dallas Forty, or Mark Wahlberg making the Philadelphia Eagles in Invincible. You also have the popular youth football movie Little Giants starring Rick Moranis. Needless to say, there are tons of football movies out there because audiences love them.

High school football is equally full of heroes and powerful stories, so it's no wonder the great all American sport has its fair share of popular films on the big screen.

Here are our 10 favorite high school football movies of all time.

10. Wildcats 

Goldie Hawn stars at Molly McGrath who lands her dream job as the new coach for an inner-city football team. The film follows her and the team as they fight to win their final game.

9. All the Right Moves

Tom Cruise stars as Stefan Djordjevic and the football star of his team. What happens when he gets kicked off the team when all he wants to do is get out of his tiny town with a football scholarship?

8. Radio

This tearjerker follows Cuba Gooding Jr. as a high schooler with intellectual disabilities who befriends his school's football coach and gets to become an important part of the team.

7. Go Tigers!

This documentary follows the real-life team, the Massillon Tigers throughout a football season in their town in Ohio. The football program is very important to the town and it puts pressure on the stars of the team.

6. Varsity Blues

This classic football film starring James Van Der Beek (aka Dawson from Dawson's Creek) follows the underdog quarterback who finally gets his chance to shine on his Texas football team.

5. 23 Blast

Some of these stories are more powerful when you know they really happened. 23 Blast follows the true story of Travis Freeman, a high schooler who becomes blind and continues to play the sport he loves.

4. Undefeated 

This Oscar-winning documentary follows a North Carolina football team who had a 110-year losing streak that was turned around by coach Bill Courtney.

3. The Blind Side

Who could forget the movie that gave Sandra Bullock her Oscar? This true story follows Michael Oher who becomes a football player after being taken in by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy.

2. Remember the Titans

One of the all-time best football movies or sports movies ever made, Remember the Titans tells the story of an African American football coach played by Denzel Washington. While race seems to be an issue for players at the beginning of the film, Washington brings them together in this powerful Disney film.

1. Friday Night Lights 

This classic film that inspired the popular TV show of the same name follows a high school football team in a small town in Texas after their star quarterback is injured. Plus high school football finals are basically the NFL Super Bowl in this town so stakes are high.

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