5 High School Football Movies You Probably Dont Know

 School's back in session and fall is approaching. Which means its time for some football. While the NFL rules Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays for that matter. College Football owns Saturdays, and Friday nights belongs to high school football.

I started thinking about high school football movies. We all know Friday Night Lights, Varsity Blues, and Remember The Titans. What about those movies no one remembers? 

I'm here to share 5 high school football movies you may not know or remember.

5 Reggies Prayer

Let's start off the bat, this is not a good film but it meant well. Starring the late NFL great Reggie White, the very 90's B-movie film follows Reggie playing an version of himself. Never winning a pro championship and sensing there's a higher calling for him, he retires from pro football and coaches a high school team in Oregon. There he helps steer members of the team on the right path, and works to steer one in particular from a life of crime.

Mr. Miyagi himself Pat Morita is also in the film. Brett Favre makes a cameo, and wrestling legend the Big Show makes his film debut as the villain of the film.

Reggie's Prayer is available on Tubi.

4 Carter High

If you've seen Friday Night Lights, you know their championship opponents Carter High were the big bad thugs of the Texas high school football scene. At least that was the narrative that was portrayed during the film and in subsequent stories. This 2015 film starring Charles Dutton, Vivica A. Fox, and Pooch Hall. Show's the other side of the coin for Carter High School's football team that season. They were not all bad kids, but some got into some serious trouble and a grading scandal rocked the school and almost disrupted the entire season.

Carter High is available on tubi. 

3 Woodlawn

This 2015 film based on real events, follows former NFL player Tony Nathan's life story one season. When his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama integrated he and his teammates at Woodlawn had to lean on one another and faith. To overcome the hate and odds for a successful season. It's an inspirational film and displays a turbulent time in history through football.

Woodlawn is available on Tubi.

2 Johnny B Good

Johnny Be Good stars Anthony Michael Hall, Uma Thurman, and Robert Downey Jr. Although its considered a comedy and is very goofy in nature. It tells a cautionary tale about the college recruitment process of high school athletes. The lengths some schools will go to get a commitment from a player, and how many are always looking to get something out of the recruitment process.

Johnny Be Good is available on Tubi and Pluto.

1 All The Right Moves

This 1983 film was released as Tom Cruise's star was shining from Risky Business. In this movie he stars as a high school standout dreaming of a scholarship offer. So he can escape his small economically depressed town, and achieve career goals he's set out for himself. That all is at risk when he clashes with his coach played by Craig T. Nelson and realizes not everyone in town has the same ambition he does.

Sadly All The Right Moves is currently only available on streaming platforms to rent.

Read More

5 Best Fictional Football Players

 Football season is now in full swing, in addition to writing about 5 underrated football movies. I dug a little deeper and looked at football players in movies. Here are 5 of the best fictional football players in TV and film.

5. Smash Williams

Brian Williams nicknamed "Smash" was the flashy yet hard running star running back of the Dillion Panther's in the Friday Night Light's TV series. Loosley based on Boobie Miles, Smash is a complex teenager who gets to display throughout his three season run on the show. While on the field with the ball in his hand's, The Panther's always were in the game with a chance to win. Despite some setbacks his skills allowed him to walk on to the team at Texas A&M in the series.

4. Shane Falco

Shane Falco was a scab hired to finish out a strike shortened season in 2000 The Replacements. A college football star who flamed out, he used his second chance to rehabilitate his playing style and career. He had the arm and the heart, he just had some mental issues he had to work through and get's to show his talent in leading a team full of scabs to 3 of 4 wins in a faux NFL.  

3. Alvin Mack

Alvin Mack was the middle linebacker for Eastern State University Timberwolves in 1993's The Program. Much like in real life defensive players don't get as much shine, but he was the heart of the defense. Riling his teammates up, and racking up the tackles on a path to the NFL, he struck fear in his opponents mostly through shit-talking  A game changer on defense, if he were a real person he would be in the conversation as one of the best linebackers ever.

2. Becky "Ice Box" O'Shea

Yes, she's a girl. Yes, it was pop warner football but Becky O'Shea changed the momentum of the game for the Little Giants in the 1994 film. She was arguably the best overall player on the field on both sides of the ball, playing linebacker and quarterback for the team as she spearheaded a comeback against the more talented Cowboys. The fact her putting down the pom poms and following her heart of being a football player, changed the game. Showed how much of a impact she made on the field.

1. Willie Beamen

Steamin Willie Beamen though a fictional player probably inspired guys like Cam Newton, Deshaun Watson, and Lamar Jackson. A backup quarterback for the Miami Shark's in 1999's Any Given Sunday, he is soon given the starting spot and never let's it go. He had a dizzy and dazzling style of play and was dangerous with his legs and his arm. He was also brash and hard-headed but stood on his morals, and his quick rise to fame got in his head. Evident by his commercial , despite all that he was a playmaker on the field and one that was a highlight every time he touched the ball.

Read More