Top 250 Movies Like Play By Play

A list of the best movies similar to Play By Play. If you liked Play By Play then you may also like: 23 Blast, Ultimate X: The Movie, Undefeated, Varsity Blues, The Waterboy and many more great movies featured on this list.

TV show

A coming of age comedy about an ESPN sportscaster who looks back on his life in the 90s and gives the play-by-play of his adolescence.

23 Blast

When a high school football star is suddenly stricken with irreversible total blindness, he must decide whether to live a safe handicapped life or bravely return to the life he once knew and the sport he still loves.

Ultimate X: The Movie

Made-for-IMAX documentary about the athletes of ESPN's Summer X games, including skateboarders, BMX riders, motocrossers, and street lugers.

Undefeated

Set against the backdrop of a high school football season, Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin’s documentary UNDEFEATED is an intimate chronicle of three underprivileged student-athletes from inner-city Memphis and the volunteer coach trying to help them beat the odds on and off the field. For players and coaches alike, the season will be not only about winning games — it will be about how they grapple with the unforeseeable events that are part of football and part of life.

Varsity Blues

In small-town Texas, high school football is a religion, 17-year-old schoolboys carry the hopes of an entire community onto the gridiron every Friday night. When star quarterback Lance Harbor suffers an injury, the Coyotes are forced to regroup under the questionable leadership of John Moxon, a second-string quarterback with a slightly irreverent approach to the game.

The Waterboy

Bobby Boucher is a water boy for a struggling college football team. The coach discovers Boucher's hidden rage makes him a tackling machine whose bone-crushing power might vault his team into the playoffs.

We Are Marshall

When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.

Wildcats

Molly is a high school track coach who knows just as much about football as anyone else on the planet. When a football coach's position becomes vacant, she applies for the job, despite snickers from fellow staff members and her former husband.

Without Limits

The film follows the life of famous 1970s runner Steve Prefontaine from his youth days in Oregon to the University of Oregon where he worked with the legendary coach Bill Bowerman, later to Olympics in Munich and his early death at 24 in a car crash.

Woodlawn

Love and unity in a school torn by racism and hate in the 1970s. A gifted high school football player must learn to embrace his talent and his faith as he battles racial tensions on and off the field.

Napoleon Dynamite

A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.

North Dallas Forty

A semi-fictional account of life as a professional football player. Loosely based on the Dallas Cowboys team of the early 1970s.

Rise and Shine

The college president, the head cheerleader and a gambling gangster try to keep a flunking football star in the game

Rudy

Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team.

Johnny Be Good

It's recruiting time and despite being short and scrawny, Johnny Walker is America's hottest young football prospect. His dilemma: should he take one of the many offers from college talent scouts or should he attend the local state college with his girlfriend and give up his football career?

Just Wright

A physical therapist falls for the basketball player she is helping recover from a career-threatening injury.

Air Bud: Golden Receiver

Josh and Buddy move from basketball to football in this first of several sequels to the original Air Bud.

All the Right Moves

Sensitive study of a headstrong high school football star who dreams of getting out of his small Western Pennsylvania steel town with a football scholarship. His equally ambitious coach aims at a college position, resulting in a clash which could crush the player's dreams.

Angels in the Endzone

The football team Jesse is on is terrible, and after the death of his father Jesse quits the team. Then angels come to help the team get better and nobody can see them but Jesse's little brother.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

Georgia Nicolson is fourteen, lives with nosey parents who don't understand her, an annoying three year old sister and has to wear a beret to school. She would, however, rather be blonde, have a smaller nose and a boyfriend. Revolving around her hilarious journal entries, prepare to be engulfed in the world of the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager.

The Best of Times

A small-town loser determines to have one more shot at the big time by winning a football game.

Big Fan

Paul Aufiero, a 35-year-old parking-garage attendant from Staten Island, is the self-described "world's biggest New York Giants fan". One night, Paul and his best friend Sal spot Giants star linebacker Quantrell Bishop at a gas station and decide to follow him. At a strip club Paul cautiously decides to approach him but the chance encounter brings Paul's world crashing down around him.

The Big Green

In a depressed Texas town, British foreign exchange teacher Anna attempts to inject some life into her hopeless kids by introducing them to soccer. They're terrible at first, but Anna and her football-hero assistant whip them into shape. As they work overtime, the pair help kids build their self-esteem and also get involved in solving family squabbles.

Big Wednesday

Three 1960s California surfers fool around, drift apart and reunite years later to ride epic waves.

Breaking Away

Dave, nineteen, has just graduated high school, with his 3 friends, The comical Cyril, the warm hearted but short-tempered Moocher, and the athletic, spiteful but good-hearted Mike. Now, Dave enjoys racing bikes and hopes to race the Italians one day, and even takes up the Italian culture, much to his friends and parents annoyance.

Bring It On

The Toro cheerleading squad from Rancho Carne High School in San Diego has got spirit, spunk, sass and a killer routine that's sure to land them the national championship trophy for the sixth year in a row. But for newly-elected team captain Torrance, the Toros' road to total cheer glory takes a shady turn when she discovers that their perfectly-choreographed routines were in fact stolen.

Gus

The California Atoms are in last place with no hope of moving up. But by switching the mule from team mascot to team member, (He can kick 100 yard field goals!) they start winning, and move up in the rankings, Hurrah! The competition isn't so happy.

Ice Princess

With the help of her coach, her mom, and the boy who drives the Zamboni machine, nothing can stop Casey from realizing her dream to be a champion figure skater.

Invincible

Inspired by the true story of Vince Papale, a man with nothing to lose who ignored the staggering odds and made his dream come true. When the coach of Papale's beloved hometown football team hosted an unprecedented open tryout, the public consensus was that it was a waste of time – no one good enough to play professional football was going to be found this way.

The Game Plan

Bachelor football star Joe Kingman seems to have it all. He is wealthy and carefree, and his team is on the way to capturing a championship. Suddenly, he is tackled by some unexpected news: He has a young daughter, the result of a last fling with his ex-wife. Joe must learn to balance his personal and professional lives with the needs of his child.

The Comebacks

A comedy that spoofs the inspirational sports movies, The Comebacks tells the story of an out-of-luck coach, Lambeau Fields, who takes a rag-tag bunch of college misfits and drives them towards the football championships. In the process, this life-long loser discovers that he is a winner after all by redeeming himself, saving his relationship with his family and friends, and finding that there is indeed, no "I" in "team"!

The Last American Virgin

The friendship of a group of young friends struggling with teen sex, drugs, and work is jeopardized by a romantic interest which may turn pals into bitter rivals.

Get Real

Steven spends his school days longing for all-star athlete John. But John has a gorgeous girlfriend, and Steven is still in the closet about being gay. The only one who knows the teenager's secret is his friend Linda. After a curious run-in with John in a public restroom, Steven starts to wonder if the jock is straight after all. When they start a romance, it threatens to expose the truth about both of them.

Too Many Girls

Mr. Casey's daughter, Connie, wants to go to Pottawatomie College and without her knowledge, he sends four football players as her bodyguards. The college is in financial trouble and her bodyguards use their salary to help the college. The football players join the college team, and the team becomes one of the best. One of the football players, Clint, falls in love with Connie, but when she discovers he is her bodyguard, she decides to go back East. The bodyguards follow her, leaving the team in the lurch.

Hearts in Atlantis

A widowed mother and her son change when a mysterious stranger enters their lives.

An Education

Despite her sheltered upbringing, Jenny is a teen with a bright future; she's smart, pretty, and has aspirations of attending Oxford University. When David, a charming but much older suitor, motors into her life in a shiny automobile, Jenny gets a taste of adult life that she won't soon forget.

Splendor in the Grass

A fragile Kansas girl's unrequited and forbidden love for a handsome young man from the town's most powerful family drives her to heartbreak and madness.

Ernest Goes to School

Jim Varney's recurring dim-bulb character Ernest P. Worrell returns in this film as a school janitor seeking to obtain a high school diploma.

Facing the Giants

A losing coach with an underdog football team faces their giants of fear and failure on and off the field to surprising results.

Good News

At fictitious Tait University in the Roaring '20s, co-ed and school librarian Connie Lane falls for football hero Tommy Marlowe. Unfortunately, he has his eye on gold-digging vamp Pat McClellan. Tommy's grades start to slip, which keeps him from playing in the big game. Connie eventually finds out Tommy really loves her and devises a plan to win him back and to get him back on the field.

Horse Feathers

Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley U, hires bumblers Baravelli and Pinky to help his school win the big football game against rival Darwin U.

Blue Crush

Nothing gets between Anne Marie and her board. Living in a beach shack with three roommates, she is up before dawn every morning to conquer the waves and count the days until the Pipe Masters competition. Having transplanted herself to Hawaii with no one's blessing but her own, Anne Marie finds all she needs in the adrenaline-charged surf scene - until pro quarterback Matt Tollman comes along...

Teen Wolf

When a shy teenager's new-found powers help him score at basketball - and with the popular girls - he has some pretty hairy decisions to make.

Little Giants

When Danny O'Shea's daughter is cut from the Peewee football team just for being a girl, he decides to form his own team, composed of other ragtag players who were also cut. Can his team really learn enough to beat the elite team, coached by his brother, a former pro player?

School Ties

When David Greene receives a football scholarship to a prestigious prep school in the 1950s, he feels pressure to hide the fact that he is Jewish from his classmates and teachers, fearing that they may be anti-Semitic. He quickly becomes the big man on campus thanks to his football skills, but when his Jewish background is discovered, his worst fears are realized and his friends turn on him with violent threats and public ridicule.

Lucas

A socially inept fourteen year old experiences heartbreak for the first time when his two best friends -- Cappie, an older-brother figure, and Maggie, the new girl with whom he is in love -- fall for each other.

The Slaughter Rule

A young man finds solace with a young woman, his mother, and a high-school football coach who recruits him to quarterback a six-man team.

Division III: Football's Finest

This ensemble comedy follows the Pullham University Bluecocks, a small liberal arts college with a Division III football program (the lowest division in the NCAA). When the head coach unexpectedly dies, the future of the flailing football program is in jeopardy, as they have not had a winning season in decades. In a desperate attempt to create some media attention for the athletic program and the university, President Georgia Anne Whistler hires known lunatic and felon, Coach Rick Vice, for what could be the football programs final season.

Winter Break

Viscerally experience a "year off" in Aspen, Colorado with a group of recent college grads who have elected to defer graduate school and career opportunities to ski, snow-board, climb, party, fall in love and basically live life to its absolute fullest out in this spectacular mountain town.

The Sixth Man

A college athlete returns from the dead to help his brother's basketball team win the NCAA title.

Gridiron Gang

Teenagers at a juvenile detention center, under the leadership of their counselor, gain self-esteem by playing football together.

Home Team

Two years after a Super Bowl win when NFL head coach Sean Payton is suspended, he goes back to his hometown and finds himself reconnecting with his 12-year-old son by coaching his Pop Warner football team.

Hoop Dreams

Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white suburban school well-known for the excellence of its basketball program. Gates and Agee dream of NBA stardom, and with the support of their close-knit families, they battle the social and physical obstacles that stand in their way. This acclaimed documentary was shot over the course of five years.

The Longest Yard

Pro quarter-back, Paul Crewe and former college champion and coach, Nate Scarboro are doing time in the same prison. Asked to put together a team of inmates to take on the guards, Crewe enlists the help of Scarboro to coach the inmates to victory in a football game 'fixed' to turn out quite another way.

Palo Alto, CA

On their last night of Thanksgiving break, four old friends, now all college freshmen, realize their small town has more meaning than they ever imagined.

Playing for Keeps

A former sports star who's fallen on hard times starts coaching his son's soccer team in an attempt to get his life together.

The Program

Several players from different backgrounds try to cope with the pressures of playing football at a major university. Each deals with the pressure differently, some turn to drinking, others to drugs, and some to studying.

Safety

The story of Ray-Ray McElrathbey, a freshman football player for Clemson University, who secretly raised his younger brother on campus after his home life became too unsteady.

All Things Fall Apart

50 Cent stars as gifted college running back Deon in this touching drama. Deon's world turns upside down when an unexpected crisis jeopardizes his professional ambitions -- and causes him to look at himself and his life in a new way.

The Longshots

The true story of Jasmine Plummer who, at the age of eleven, became the first female to play in Pop Warner football tournament in its 56-year history.

Brian Banks

An All-American football player's dreams to play in the NFL are halted when he is falsely accused of rape and sent to prison.

Soccer Mom

A warm-hearted comedy about a compulsive soccer mom who masquerades as a famous Italian soccer star hired to coach her daughter's floundering soccer team, then struggles frantically to keep her wacky charade going long enough to see the girls win their big tournament.

Stick It

Haley is a naturally gifted athlete but, with her social behavior, the teen seems intent on squandering her abilities. After a final brush with the law, a judge sentences her to an elite gymnastics academy run by a legendary, hard-nosed coach. Once there, Haley's rebellious attitude wins her both friends and enemies.

Times Square Playboy

A stock broker's small-town best friend thinks the bride-to-be and her family are gold-diggers so he does everything he can to prevent the wedding.

Fantasy Football

Callie A. Coleman discovers she can magically control her father, Bobby’s performance on the football field. When Callie plays as her dad, Bobby is transformed from a fumblitis-plagued journeyman to a star running back bound for superstardom alongside his daughter and wife Keisha.

Father Was a Fullback

Coach George Copper's college football team is losing game after game, much to the dismay of stiff-and-stuffy but influential alumni Roger Jessup, and also having trouble at home with his oldest daughter, Connie. The team keeps losing and Coach Cooper is about to lose his job as his efforts to win the last game of the season, against the team's Big Rival, end in disaster. But, unknown to he and his wife, Elizabeth, Connie has sold an article, called "I Was a Bubble Dancer" to a 'True-Confession" magazine, and the girl-who-couldn't-get-a-date becomes suddenly popular and, because of her, the high-school football star from another town decides to play his college-ball for Coach Cooper. Jessup is forced to keep Cooper on as the school's football coach.

My All American

Freddie Steinmark, an underdog on the gridiron, faces the toughest challenge of his life after leading his team to a championship season.

The Weekend

In the spirit of "Superbad" and "Dazed and Confused," "The Weekend" relishes the moments that made being a teenager so excruciatingly painful and fantastic. Over the course of a single weekend, various teenagers discover that, perhaps, they don't yet have it all figured out: Rich kid Jacob throws an elaborate weekend party, Benjamin thinks he's going to marry his hesitant girlfriend...

Anderson's Cross

Nick Anderson, Kevin Daniels, and Tracey Green do everything together. They are the best of friends, and yet they couldn't be more different. Neighbors from adolescence, they finish each other's thoughts and sentences, joys and pains, happiness and tears. Using Nick's house as their own members only clubhouse, they escape into their own world of contentment. Yet the inevitable intrusion of others tests their stability in ways never imagined.

The Guy Who Came Back

Former football star Harry Joplin is down on his luck, both in his career and in his married life. He seems convinced of his own unworthiness, but a chance to play in a charity football game helps him see his life in a new light.

Underdogs

The story of a small-town high school football team in rural Ohio destined to play their cross-town rival, a perennial powerhouse, while standing up for an entire community.

Ashby

When new kid in town Ed Wallis is given an assignment to interview an older person, he turns to his mysterious neighbor, Ashby Holt for help. That new connection leads to unexpected journeys for both of them, as Ashby – who turns out to be a retired CIA assassin – deals with a terminal prognosis, and Ed deals with adjusting to life with his newly single mom and developing relationship with a brainy classmate, Eloise.

Picture Day

A rebellious teenager forced to repeat her last year of high school is caught between adolescence and adulthood - and between two very different male admirers.

Comeback Season

First Down. Second Chance. Skylar is a star quarterback of his football team. He's got the skills, the looks, and the girls. His next-door neighbor, Walter is a loving husband, good father and all-round decent family man. When their worlds start to crumble they find themselves in jail together and suddenly these former enemies must rely on each other to rebuild their lives...

America Brown

A coming-of-age drama that centers on a young quarterback from West Texas, a priest in New York, and the two women in their lives.

Draft Day

At the NFL Draft, general manager Sonny Weaver has the opportunity to rebuild his team when he trades for the number one pick. He must decide what he's willing to sacrifice on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with NFL dreams.

Swing That Cheer

Undeniably talented on the gridiron, Bob Potter is equally undeniably an arrogant pain in the posterior. So swell-headed does Potter become that he can never admit to himself that his blocking-back teammate Larry Royal is equally responsible for Bob's success. To teach his pal a lesson, Larry feigns an injury and pulls out of the Big Game, forcing Bob to have a go at it alone.

Heroes of Dirt

Passionate BMX dirt jumper, Phin Cooper, wants nothing in life but to attain fame in his sport. After missing a competition when he lands in jail for unpaid citations, he is court-ordered for community service and reluctantly mentors one of the toughest boys, Blue Espinosa. As Phin leads the troubled teen on exciting adventures of riding dirt trails, big jumps and cityscapes, Blue becomes more than an obligation - an unlikely friend whose secret world of drug trafficking threatens Phin's ultimate dream. Featuring some of the best stunts in dirt jumping by legendary pros and hardcore locals, Heroes of Dirt is more than adrenaline rush. It embarks on an unforgettable journey into real significance, and the price it takes to get there.

Greater

The incredible true story of the greatest walk-on in the history of college football.

Harmon of Michigan

A former University of Michigan football star (Tom Harmon) rejects an opportunity to play professional football. Instead, he marries his college sweetheart (Anita Louise) and begins a career as a college football coach.

P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang

Summer, 1948. 14-year-old Alan has just three wishes: that there will be lasting peace, that England will win the Ashes, and that he will finally kiss classmate Ann. So when he's cast opposite her in a play that requires a kiss and England seem to be doing well in cricket, life couldn't be better.

Adult Interference

When he's sentenced to 90 days of house arrest, Bo meets Elliot, the awkward kid who lives across the street. While bonding over football, these unlikely friends teach each other a little bit about growing up and what it means to be a man.

Second String

American football coach Chuck Dichter has worked wonders with the Buffalo Bills, and is even confident to crown his career with a Super Bowl victory, but before the play-offs an oyster food-poisoning wipes out his first team for a month. Dan Heller, an insurance salesman and former college quarterback, who was hired -relactantly, but his wife twisted his arm- just for practice, now has to captain and train a bunch of rookies and old-timers against the hardest adversaries. Dichter decides to sign up triple Super Bowl-winner Tommy Baker in Dan's place...

Gridiron UK

Based on a true story in 1985. Derek is a dreamer and a loser. No matter how hard he tries he fails at everything he attempts. Determined to show the world he can succeed at something he forms an American Football team in a country dominated by Soccer, Rugby, Cricket and Fish & Chips. His desire to succeed consumes his life and he is blind to see that his success will lead to him losing everything.

Hold 'Em Jail

Two yokels are framed and sent to prison, but wind up playing football on the warden's championship team.

The Book of Manning

Explores the personal and professional life of former NFL and Ole Miss quarterback Archie Manning and how the sudden loss of his father impacted his life and the way he and his wife Olivia raised their three sons.

Michigan vs. Ohio State: The Rivalry

Steeped in a rich tradition dating back to their inaugural meeting in 1897, this rivalry extends beyond the pursuit of a Big Ten title, and is renewed each year through the pageantry and colliding cultures that distinguish the two schools.

A Game of Honor

A never-before-seen look at the incomparable Division I football programs at The U.S. Military Academy at West Point and The U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis revealing the dedication, discipline and determination required to make the journey from military training, to an elite classroom education, and onto the football field.

O.J. Simpson: Juice on the Loose

An independently produced sports documentary on the career of O.J. Simpson, (#32) the upcoming running back for the Buffalo Bills football team.

Lombardi

This compelling documentary explores the fascinating career and life of football's most revered coach, Vince Lombardi.

26 Years: The Dewey Bozella Story

Dewey Bozella’s life changed forever when he was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for a murder he did not commit. Throughout his 26 years behind bars, Bozella found strength and purpose through boxing, becoming the light heavyweight champion of Sing Sing Prison, and made it a goal to be proven innocent and box professionally once he was released. ESPN Films chronicles Bozella’s journey from prison cell to professional boxer.

Shutout! The Battle American Women Wage to Play Baseball

An exploration into the struggle American girls and women have faced trying to play their country's national pastime from 1931 to the present day. The story is told by players, coaches, umpires, and parents from age 9 to 90, celebrates those who've succeeded in spite of crippling gender bias, and considers the path forward to make the game accessible to all women across the USA.

Street Dreams

Derrick Cabrera, like all skateboarders, dreams of being sponsored one day. He has all the talent in the world to make it happen but some major roadblocks to overcome before he can make the dream a reality.

Everybody's Talking About Jamie

Jamie is 16 and lives on a council estate in Sheffield. Jamie doesn't quite fit in. Jamie is terrified about the future. Jamie is going to be a sensation. Supported by his brilliant loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness, into the spotlight. Sixteen: the edge of possibility. Time to make your dreams come true.

South of the Moon

South of the Moon is the story of a young boy and his uncle, one dealing with the complexity and confusion of adolescence, the other with the pain and torment of regret.

Young Hearts

Two young neighbors embark on a first love relationship in which they struggle to remain kids amid the complexities of modern adolescence.

Blood Sport

A searing commentary on the "win at all costs" mentality of American high school sports. David Lee Birdsong is the smalltown quarterback hoping to escape with a college scholarship and a pro career. David's father is the overbearing taskmaster vicariously living through his son. The third side of the triangle is Coach Marshall, a hypercritical and cruel man who sees David as the key to his future success. David's lockstep commitment to his father and coach is altered when he witnesses a teammate die after a grueling practice.

Return to Campus

A 55-year-old former high school football player finally gets to fulfill his life-long dream and play in the big game in this autobiographical fantasy.

Kelce

An intimate and emotional documentary that chronicles Philadelphia Eagles team captain and All-Pro center Jason Kelce’s 2022 season, which began with him confronting one of the most challenging decisions any professional athlete will ever face—is now the time to hang it up?

Sort results by:

X close
Clear filters
...