Ask most guys what their top five favorite movies are of all time and you every single one will have at least two or three sports movies in his top five. Me, personally, I have three in my top five—Bull Durham, Jerry Maguire, and The Replacements (I laugh my behind off every time the sumo wrestler runs the ball and scores)
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There is just something about sports movies that we find endearing. We are drawn to them, almost like moths to a flame (or one of them cool looking bug zappers that hung in the back yard when we were kids).
· Who can resist the lure of an underdog like Rudy getting to dress for Notre Dame?
· Even though we know that Texas Western wins the national title in 1966, who’s not on the edge of their seat watching the end of Glory Road?
· Who didn’t choke up a little bit when the Jamaican Bobsled team carried their sled across the finish line in Cool Runnings?
· Did anyone else try to build something to see if they would come (Field of Dreams in case you didn’t know)?
The list of sports movies that have become almost iconic and a part of our culture is endless. Who wants to bet that there will be another remake of the Bad News Bears by 2025 (you did good Billy Bob, but Walter Matthau nailed it)? Or what about The Longest Yard? Is it just me or is it funny every time you hear some huge dude say, “I think I broke his freakin’ neck?”
Okay, Mr. Blogger Man, you’ve named some cool movies, but that doesn’t explain the title. So why do we like sports movies so much?
That’s easy. I think that people want to believe that good can triumph over evil. I think they want to believe that if you want something bad enough, and put
in the work you can achieve the unachievable. We want to believe that the dream can happen.
But they can do that with stuff like the Lion King or Beauty in the Beast—ooh! Or when the geek gets the girl in Can’t Buy Me Love!
The difference is that most of us have not dreamed about becoming a king in Africa or about dancing with a tea set. We have all played sports though.
Sports is where many of us started to learn the life lessons that eventually help us turn into functioning adults. That’s where we got to see how important it is to work together as a team. It’s there that we learned how to overcome mistakes and move on. It’s there that we learned that just
having fun with friends is a lot more important than what the scoreboard says.
The thing that sucks about sports is that we all tend to grow older and can’t continue to play them like we want or used to. That’s where movies come in hand.
When we see Crash Davis hit a home run, we think we’re him. When Shane Falco punches the jerk in the bar, we are him (when he does the electric slide in jail, we are glad we are not). When we see Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy get a 12 on the final hole of the Masters, we are him.
For a moment, we get to be the professional that we all wanted to be; we get to be a kid again (but without having to put in hours at the driving range, batting cages, gym, trainers, or doctor’s office that the pros do).
Not a bad trade off if you ask me.