Top 5 Football Movie Speeches

It's halftime. Your team is down by 3 touchdowns. You're the underdog. You shouldn't even be in this game for crying out loud. You're tired, exhausted, beat-up and worn down. What are you gonna do?

Well, luckily Coach is equipped with a full string orchestra and some of Hollywood's best screenwriters! Unless you went to my school, then in that case Coach is equipped with a substance abuse problem and a speech impediment- oh middle school how I miss thee.

Anyways, here are the top 5 adrenaline amping, gut-wrenching, fist-pumping, game-winning movie football speeches of all time:


Remember The Titans- "The Night They Played The Titans"

You know the saying: "Offense wins games, Defense wins Outback Gift Cards"..."Err, I mean championships." Listen as Coach Yoast (played by a crazy eyed Bill Patton) demands his defense to become an iron curtain. It's short, but his message is simple: Make sure they remember the night they played the Titans.




Brian's Song- "Billy Dee Cries"

Okay, so this isn't really a motivational win-the-game moment, but I had to include Billy Dee's speech from Brian's Song. It's impossible to not cry during his stirring acceptance speech- unless of course you cannot relate to the human condition and if that's the case, then you are a robot and I will not speak to you. Unless it is to negotiate a peace treaty between the human race and the cyborgs.



The Replacements- "Pain heals. Chicks dig scars."

"Glory Lasts Forever." Keanu Reeves knocks this moment out the park- watch for his stumble as he gets up in the huddle- as he delivers three simple sentences to his troops. Simple but incredibly true. The Replacements also gets extra points for Gene Hackman's "There is no tomorrow for you. And that makes you all very dangerous people" speech that takes place 15 minutes earlier. Great lines from a goofy film.




Any Given Sunday- "Peace By Inches"

When Oliver Stone made Any Given Sunday, he didn't make a football movie. No, he made a battlefield war epic that just happened to take place on a football field. Pacino's phenomenal "Peace By Inches" speech is everything that movie represents: larger-than-life, earth-shattering and heart-pounding. Everything in life is about inches- the tiniest of moments.



Friday Night Lights- "Perfect"

Peter Berg directed what I consider to be not only of the greatest football films of all time, but one of the greatest sports movies of all time- and in my humble opinion one of the greatest films. Don't worry, I'll get to that point in a later post titled "Friday Night Lights- Great Movie or the Greatest Movie". This speech is pretty much the exact opposite of Pacino's: it is real and subtle and low-key. And that is why it is fantastic. This could be taken from any high school coach's locker room. If you ask any athlete that's ever played any sport- excuse me, that's ever LIVED any sport- they will tell you Being perfect is not about a scoreboard. It's about leaving everything on the field. It's about walking away without regrets. About raising you head high. It's about seeing this movie because it is so freaking good!

There you go. Tune in next week for the "5 Most Awkward Sports Movie Moments of All Time"