The great Inside Texas movie draft

RT, Ian, and LC were overwhelmed with an uncharacteristic wave of confidence, optimism, and love so we thought we’d post our opinions about football movies to y’all in order to – “regain a broken spirit.” 

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This Saturday (03/08/25) at 9 am (CST) RT, Ian, and LC will post to the youtubes our very first IT Football Movie Draft. Which we’ve already recorded and can not will not change. 

To best prepare you to crush any shred of self worth we might have left we have included below an inconclusive sampling of our BIG BOARDs to give you an idea of what films we are considering for our teams. 

Each of us will select one film from the following categories…

• High School Football Film
• College Football Film
• Professional Football Film
• Football Adjacent Film. This is a movie that either lives out of the other three categories or football is a “feature” of the film but not necessarily the driving force – Think Jerry Maguire or Top Gun: Maverick. 

What films are you taking in each category?

High School Football Film

Varsity Blues (1999) “I DON’T WANT. YOUR LIFE!” Every young athlete has wanted to tell their dad that exact thing, just like every locker room dreamed of tossing their coach out on the street and taking control of the game yourself. Lot of protein in that whipped cream concoction. – RT Young

Remember The Titans (2000) Can football defeat racism? Shane Gillis has argued as much and Remember the Titans is one of his main points. A football-crazy town in Virginia integrates black students at football power TC Williams and the town is united over the efforts by their boys to come together as a team. – Ian Boyd

Friday Night Lights (2004) The book about the 1988 Permian Panther season out in Odessa, TX is a must-read for fans of football, the resulting TV show was a hit, but the movie about those 88 Panthers and their drive to win State is an efficient hit on most of the big themes and emotions that come from small towns, football, and the chase for meaning. – Ian Boyd

LUCAS (1986). Story of young love and the classic Hollywood trope of the attraction between cheerleaders and football players. Google it.  Corey Haim plays the titular character whose unrequited love of Goonies Alum Kerri Green drives a paint by numbers zero to hero “should be” film of the week.  This film also marked the debut of kleptomaniac Wynona Ryder. – LC

Gridiron Gang (2006) – “BET Hip Hop Award for Best Movie” nominee (lost to Stomp The Yard) features Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a film with an original conceit. The Rock plays an adult who uses sports to reach troubled youth and in the process comes to the conclusion that it was in fact the kids that saved him and not the other way around.  – LC

The Blind Side (2009) – Due to evolving trends in the NFL, there’s few things more valuable than a big, wide, powerful blocker to protect everyone’s star quarterback. But big Michael Oher may do more than protect the Tuohy family and their favorite school Ole Miss, he might just steal their hearts…wait…is this a high school football movie or a college football movie? Tune in Saturday to see great minds debate the topic. – Ian Boyd

College Football Film

The Program (1993) – The SEC in the 1990s, dramatized. – RT Young

Necessary Roughness (1991)

The Waterboy (1998) Adam Sandler plays Bobby Boucher, a simple son of the swamp, intent on correcting the wrongs of the past and providing high quality H2O to the local college football team in Louisiana so their players don’t share the same fate as his late father (allegedly). After discovering football as a way to unlock hidden stores of rage and resentment against his Oedipal mother (played by Kathy Bates) and a harsh world he is able to have a nice coming of age breakout story…at age 31. There’s still hope for some of y’all as well. – Ian Boyd

Rudy (1993) Daniel Ruettiger grew up in Northern Illinois believing the height of the human experience was to play Notre Dame football and he wanted it more than anyone in the world. The problem? He’s five-foot-nothing, 100’n’nothing, and not the brainiest student either. Sheer force of will (and a terrific backing score) drives him to chase the dream anyways… – Ian Boyd

We Are Marshall (2006) – I’m genuinely a little shocked there aren’t more sports films in the Matthew McConaughey cannon. We are Marshall follows the very tragic and very real loss of a majority of The Thundering Herd football team in a 1970 plane crash. – LC

“Everybody’s All-American” (1988)  Based on Frank DeFord’s novel. Captured a consistent theme of how an athlete handles the trappings of fame. Deep cast of Timothy Hutton, John Goodman, Jessica Lange and Fox News correspondent Dennis Quaid. – LC

Like another Notre Dame propaganda film which could be drafted (1940) “Knute Rockne All American” Future President Ronald Regan plays the dying George Gipp. His famous line “Win one for the Gipper.” is cemented in Notre Dame lore.  – LC

Professional Football Film

The Longest Yard (1974) LC thinks this is a pro football movie. He is wrong. – RT Young

Any Given Sunday (1999) How long do we think Steamin’ Willie Beaman lasts in Albuquerque? Doesn’t seem like a cat who would be fond of The Land of Enchantment. – RT Young 

Semi- Tough (1977) Dan Jenkins’ awesome novel on screen is a hell of a good time. – RT Young

The Replacements (2000) One of my favorite arguments I’ve ever gotten in was when my best friend and I argued with his dad for two solid hours about whether or not The Replacements was a documentary. – RT Young

Draft Day (2014) “So I’m trying to figure out why I gotta give away the future of the franchise and then sit around trying to teach some rookie, I don’t know, everything! You know? I’m talking shifts, plays, protections, snap counts, alerts, check-with-me’s, Double X, jet, ice cream, 36, counter naked waggle at 16-9 Tennessee Free. Know what I’m saying?”

Draft day is a hilarious and entertaining movie that gets a lot of little details wrong (was this a winning trade in the end?) but perhaps gets the biggest things right. Owners want splashes, coaches want to win now, fans want hope, how does a General Manager keep everyone on board but still do the right thing? – Ian Boyd

The Longest Yard (2005) Did this movie really need to be made when we already had the original? Questionable, yet it’s hard to beat Adam Sandler running through the main beats while getting surprisingly good performances from non-actor celebs like Nell and Michael Irvin. – Ian Boyd

Brian’s Song (1971) ABC movie of week.  Stars Billy “Lando Calrissian” Dee Willams as former KU Running back Gayle Sayers and James Cann as Brian Piccolo. Based on the very true bromance between Chicago Bears team mates. Piccolo’s cancer diagnosis becomes the narrative device to highlight the racial tensions of the time in a, shockingly, genuine way. The film never gets preachy or overly – sentimental – LC

Disney’s Invincible (2006) Marky Mark plays Vince Paple, a Philadelphia native, who when challenged by his wife to better provide for his family decides to take up professional football.  The delusional absurdity of cinema is on full display here as Mark Wahlberg’s five foot eight inch stature attempts to convince us he is just like the very real six foot two protagonist.  – LC

Concussion (2015)  The film that brought the term Chronic Tramatic Encephalopathy into the mainstream and painted the NFL in a less than heroic light.  The Fresh Prince of Bell-Air stars as a doctor hellbent on making the game we cheer for morally questionable.  – LC

Football adjacent Film

80 For Brady (2023)

Revenge of the Nerds (1994)

Little Giants (1994) Lot of overlap between this picture and “Revenge of the Nerds.” Rick Moranis’ Heisman-winning older brother won’t let Rick’s tomboy daughter play pee wee football so the overlooked would-be football greats collect all the misfits around town, some wisdom from John Madden, and take on the exclusivist Pee Wee team. The most true to life details is the team with the Cowboys jerseys loses. – Ian Boyd

Forrest Gump (1994) – What kind of bag does Oregon drop on Forrest to get him to hit the transfer portal in the offseason in the NIL era? – RT Young

Wedding Crashers (2005) – The PS2 Lord that I was at 15 felt seen by the popularization of the Hot Route. Pair Bradley Cooper with Terry Tate Office Linebacker and you’ve got a hell of a second level on defense. – RT Young

Jerry Maguire (1996) UT grad Renée Zellweger  (1992 – BA in English Lit) stars as single mother to a precocious product of a broken prophylactic and a loyal assistant to Jerry Maguire. Jerry is an Agent with a heart – which is how you know this is a fiction.  – LC

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The Dark Knight Rises (2012) – Hines Ward can’t outrun the hijinks of Bane in this all-time classic  football film – LC

The Last Boy Scout (1991) – Tony Scott (Director) and Shane Black (Writer) combine to shepherd the tale of football and suspense. If you’ve not seen this – watch the first 5 minutes .- LC