Judge & Jury: And the Oscar for Best Football Movie Ever Goes to ... ?

Q: The Academy Awards were held last Sunday, with a litany of Oscars handed out for the year's best achievements in film. But we wanted to award one more. So we will, by asking this: Which movie deserves the Oscar for BEST FOOTBALL MOVIE EVER?

THE JURY

JACK SILVERSTEIN, Chicago’s sports historian.

“The first movie that comes to my mind with this question is actually Diner. It's not just a perfect examination of fandom, but, set in Baltimore in December,1959, it gives us the first season after ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played’ and hence the Star Gate-level leap in our collective obsession with the NFL, overtaking boxing and baseball as the heart of American sports fandom. As for a depiction of a football team, for me, it's not a movie but a TV show: the one season of ESPN's Playmakers.”

UPTON BELL, former NFL executive and son of former NFL commissioner, Bert Bell.

“I agree with Jack that Diner is not a football movie per se. Diner captures everything I experienced during my 10 years in Baltimore with the Colts. The town was totally in love with the Colts like no other city. I spent many nights in that diner called the Fells Point Diner where late-night talk was the Colts. The scene in the movie where Eddie gives his fiancé a test on her knowledge of the Colts to determine if he would marry her is hilarious. I saw the first Sudden Death game that made the Colts and the NFL. This movie is a love letter to the team and the city. But the best movie that depicts a football team would be Remember the Titans or Brian’s Song. “

KEN CRIPPEN, founder and lead instructor, Football Learning Academy.

“I am going to pick Jerry Maguire. Lots of classic lines and a movie that you can watch multiple times without getting tired of it. While not specifically a football movie in the minds of some, I would have Concussion as honorable mention for personal reasons”.

IRA KAUFMAN, Hall-of-Fame voter, Tampa.

“I'm going with North Dallas Forty, a thinly veiled satire of the Dallas Cowboys and America's fascination with pro football. It's laugh-out-loud funny at times, coupled with dramatic moments dealing with health risks to players and hypocrisy in the executive suite. Terrific acting by Nick Nolte, Mac Davis and Dabney Coleman as a spineless owner. As the late Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, ‘The football scenes are brutally real and the locker room scenes are totally authentic.’ “

BARRY WILNER, At-large Hall of Fame voter.

“Remember The Titans. And not the Tennessee Titans.”

JIM CAMPBELL

“With so many to choose from, I’ll pick the one I simply enjoyed most. That would be Leatherheads. It was a long time coming, but was eventually produced. George Clooney played a Johnny Blood-like character, which may be the main reason I like it. It also gave those of us who are interested in the ‘rag days’ of the NFL a vivid picture of what it was like. Uniforms, etc. very authentic. I’m give my left arm for one of those leather helmets.”

GEORGE BOZEKA, president, Pro Football Researchers Association.

“I consider Brian's Song to be the best football movie ever made. When it came out in 1971 on the old ABC Movie of the Week, I was in high school in Canton, Ohio. It was all we talked about the next day. Based on Gale Sayers' book, I Am Third, and featuring James Caan as Brian Piccolo, Billy Dee Williams as Sayers and Jack Warden as George Halas, the film has been hailed as one of the greatest television and sports movies of all time. It told the tragic story of Piccolo's fight with terminal cancer and his friendship with Sayers. Caan, Williams and Warden all gave excellent performances. The Emmy and Peabody Award-winning film dealt with the themes of race, death, and friendship with grace and intelligence creating an unforgettable experience for viewers. As Williams once stated in The Hollywood Reporter, ‘What made this movie work was the relationship between these guys and the way it touched people’s lives...For some, the movie was a religious experience.’ ”

JOHN McCLAIN, Hall-of-Fame voter, Houston.

“Brian’s Song. The original with James Caan and Billy Dee Williams as Bears’ RBs Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers. I was in high school when it was an ABC Movie of the Week in 1971. It still brings tears to my eyes today. And it was an incredible experience to be able to talk to Sayers about it decades later in Canton.”

THE VERDICT

The variety of responses we have here I expected. What I didn't was the shout-out to the Baltimore Colts’ football quiz from Diner. Great segment from a great film. What I also didn't expect was that three of my favorites – We Are Marshall, Everybody’s All-American and The Best of Times weren’t mentioned by anyone.

And where was Rudy? No, I never saw it but I’ve heard enough about it that I thought it might find its way in here. Also thought Jerry Maguire would pull more than one vote.

I was wrong.

But what did … more than others …was Brian’s Song, and I get it. Granted, the margin was thin. It won only two-and-half votes from our eight jurors, but its story was compelling – especially if you were old enough to remember the 1960s. I was, and what made the story so absorbing is that it bridged social, racial and cultural divides that characterized that era.

Plus, it wasn’t fiction. Anyone who paid attention to pro football knew just who Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo were. All they had to do was read the papers or, if they had the Bears broadcast in their area, watch them on TV. What they didn’t know was the depth of their friendship and love for each other, both of which are front and center in the movie.

As George Bozeka said, it "dealt with the themes of race, death, and friendship with grace and intelligence creating an unforgettable experience for viewers."

Bingo.

The film was broadcast in the 1970s (1971) when made-for-TV movies were popular, and it was an immediate success … and still is … because it wasn’t so much a story about football as it was the humanity of the game. Sayers and Piccolo were running backs competing for the same job. One was black, the other was white. So they should have been rivals. But they weren’t. They became the best of friends, especially after Piccolo was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

He died in 1970 at 26.

The cast was superb, with Billy Dee Williams (Sayers), James Caan (Piccolo) and Jack Warden (George Halas) perfectly cast, and the story unforgettable – so much so that two or three generations later, we’re still talking about it.

Was it a great movie? Not sure there is one about football. But it was a good one … a really good one … that deserves to be celebrated. John McClain is right: Over 50 years after it was made, it will still make you cry. Tragedy is something all of us experience in life. What it may not provoke, however, is a bond like the one shared by Sayers and Piccolo -- two young men who, through tragedy, became more than teammates.

So the Oscar for BEST FOOTBALL MOVIE goes to …

Brian’s Song.