Friday Night Lights easily blew by The Program to advance to the elite 8 of our BGN Greatest Football Movie Of All Time tournament. Today's matchup features Brian's Song vs Knute Rockne, All American.
If 10 people were asked to name the first football movie that came to their mind, I'd bet that at least 7 of them would say Brian's Song, which is something considering that it's a made for TV movie. Like a lot of the movies in this tournament, this is an inspirational true story... but it might be more inspirational and more true than all. It is based on the real-life relationship between teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers and the bond established when Piccolo discovers that he is dying.
Knute Rockne, All American is a 1940 film which tells the story of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne. While there's a pretty good chance you haven't seen this movie, you've probably heard its most famous quote, "Win one for the Gipper." The quote from movie was used in Ron Reagan's presidential campaign since Reagan played George "the gipper" Gipp in the movie. This is also the only movie on our list to be deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.