Football Football Football

My life completely revolves around football. I have played football since I was 7 years old and I haven't stopped since. My Dad coaches for Assumption College, my Uncle coaches for Wagner University, and I play football here at Ithaca. Every time my family gets together for the holiday's it pretty much all we talk about. I love the game and what is has taught me. On the eve of our sixth game of the season, I decided to pop in one of my favorite football films, Friday Night Lights. This got me and my roommates in a debate over our top three football movies of all time. After a long discussion I finally came up with my list.

1.) Friday Nights Lights  is my number one football movie. The Texas football scene is the perfect setting for a football movie. Billy Bob Thornton fits the role of Coach Gary Gaines perfectly. This movie depicts the life of a high school football player in an environment that loves it's local team. My favorite character in this classic film is Don Billingsley played by Garret Hedlund. Billingsley is the teams fullback and is a typical football meat head. He loves football, beer, and girls. Everything else in his life pretty much goes to the wayside. The group of characters in this movie are what makes it so relatable to football players like myself. This is the reason why FNL is number one on my list.

2.) Coming at number two, directed by Oliver Stone, is Any Given Sunday. Any Given Sunday takes a look at football at the professional level. Al Pacino is the lead actor and plays the role of coach. In one of my favorite sports movie moments, Pacino delivers the goods in an epic speech during halftime of a pivotal game. The movie takes a look at athletes with money and what they chose to do with that money. Also, the movie goes into the business aspect of professional sports which is interesting to look at. Any Given Sunday is great for the drama of what it means to be on a professional sports team. My favorite character is "Steamin'" Willie Beamen. The third string QB who is forced to start after array or injuries turns in the star who you can't help to root for. That is why Any Given Sunday comes in at number two on my list.

3.) The Disney film, Remember the Titans comes in at number three at my list. The cast is lead by Denzel Washington who plays Coach Boone. Coach Boone has just taken over at a high school which has just been racially integrated. Boone challenges the team throughout the movie to become one team. Throughout many hardships the Titans starts to realize that they can't win if they don't accept each others differences As the racial barrier is divided the wins starts to pile up in this heart warming story. That is why this movie comes in at number three on my list.

Honorable Mentions: The Program, Rudy