Fansided

25 best sports movies, ranked by the dust in your eye

By Mario McKellop

Denzel Washington motivates football players in a scene form the film 'Remember The Titans', 2000. (Photo by Buena Vista/Getty Images)
Denzel Washington motivates football players in a scene form the film 'Remember The Titans', 2000. (Photo by Buena Vista/Getty Images) /
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15. Friday Night Lights (2004)

Directed by Peter Berg
Starring Lucas Black, Derek Luke, and Billy Bob Thornton

Although it has since been overshadowed by its NBC TV series of the same name, Friday Night Lights is one of the best sports movies of the 2000s.

Set in late ’80s Odessa, Texas, the film chronicles a season in the lives of the Permian High School Panthers. Led by Coach Gary Gaines (Thornton), the team thrives with running back James “Boobie” Miles (Luke) as its star cornerback. However, after Miles is put on the shelf due to a bad tackle at a pre-playoff game, the team’s hopes of becoming statewide champions are suddenly endangered. Consequently, Odessa holds Gaines responsible for the injury, meaning the coach has to find a way to rewrite his playbook to save the season as well as his job.

Friday Night Lights is a captivating film because it highlights how something as relatively inconsequential his high school football can be the end-all-be-all. For Miles, football is a way forward, a brighter future for himself and his family. For Coach Gaines, it’s how he puts food on the table. And for the town of Odessa, it’s a kind of community religion and a key piece of civic identity.

Although nominally a story about a real-life high school football team, the film is also a story about sports in America. As such, Friday Night Light will feel incredibly resonant to anyone who grew up in an area where football players and coaches were venerated as heroes. So much so that when the team succeeds, you can’t help but cheer for them. And when they fail, you can’t help but weep along with them.