Best Sports Movies of All Time

Top 25 Sports Movies

25. 'Friday Night Lights'

It's 'Varsity Blues' plus better acting and directing, minus the whipped cream bikini. With this true-life tale, director Peter Berg paints a moving (and disturbing) portrait of '80s small-town Texas: Racism still rages, the economy is ailing and the hopes of an entire community ride on high school football.

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Universal Pictures

24. 'League of Their Own'

A movie about an all-female baseball league formed during WWII isn't exactly the norm for sports flicks -- but that's what we dig about it. With stellar turns from Madonna and Geena Davis and one of the longest on-screen urination scenes in history (courtesy of Tom Hanks), this film is rousing, charming and funny.

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Everett Collection

23. 'Miracle'

The U.S. hockey team's unlikely triumph over the Ruskies in the 1980 Olympics is one of the greatest sports stories of our time, and this Disney-on-ice version (don't worry, there's no singing) would move the biggest, baddest penalty-minute leader to tears. (FYI, that's a five-minute major for crying like a baby.)

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Chris Large, Disney

22. 'Bang the Drum Slowly'

Known for its ability to induce the "man-cry" (grown men trying desperately to fight off tears -- and failing), this baseball flick about a pitcher (Michael Moriarty) who befriends a terminally ill catcher (Robert De Niro) illuminates the true meaning of the term "teammates."

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Everett Collection

21. 'Chariots of Fire'

Yeah, so it beat out 'Reds' for the Oscar; but there's more to this film than its underdog status. In portraying the rivalry between two wildly different British runners -- one an upper-class Jew, the other a Scottish missionary -- the film captures the passion to compete that goes beyond money, class or fame. And don't forget that theme song.

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Everett Collection

20. 'The Bad News Bears'

There's not an ounce of sentimentality in this comedy about a team of foul-mouthed misfits and their alcoholic manager, and that's what makes it great. One by one, 'Bears' takes aim at three sacred institutions -- sob-story sports flicks, treacly kids' movies and the hell of Little League -- and the result is a down-and-dirty delight.

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Everett Collection

19. 'Breaking Away'

Though ostensibly about aspiring bike racers, this affecting drama is really concerned with how racing is seen as a way to escape the confines of a small town -- in this case, Bloomington, Ind., where the four heroes are derisively called "Cutters" by the college kids there. And so it's a universal theme, played out on two wheels.

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Everett Collection

18. 'The Set-Up'

One of the first truly great sports movies, Robert Wise's 1949 film noir about an over-the-hill boxer (Robert Ryan) who refuses to take a dive despite dire consequences is one of those classic pictures that surprises us with its intensity and timelessness. We'd say it knocks us out, but we'd never go down so easily.

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Everett Collection

17. 'When We Were Kings'

The documentary covering 1974's "Rumble in the Jungle" -- a championship match set up by Don King between Muhammad Ali and then-champ George Foreman -- fulfills the promise of its subject. Ali (stripped of his title for conscientiously objecting to the Vietnam War) is in his way as important as MLK. A king? Certainly.

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Everett Collection

16. 'Brian's Song'

Two movies are guaranteed to make men sob: 'Old Yeller' and this made-for-TV biopic about Brian Piccolo, a football player with cancer (James Caan), and his roommate, Hall of Famer Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams). It's not just about sports, it's about an extraordinary friendship -- and you'll need a whole box of Kleenex for the end.

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Everett Collection