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Last night, the heavily favored Friday Night Lights took down Leatherheads. That means that Friday Night Lights moves on to the next round in our greatest football movie tournament along with The Bindside, Remember The Titans, Rudy, Brian's Song and The Waterboy.
Tonight's match up contains one of my personal favorites. Tonight, you vote between No. 7, We Are Marshall, and No. 18, The Program.
A little about the match up:
We are Marshall is the true and tragic story of the November 1970 plane crash that took the lives of nearly every member, both players and coaches, of Marshall University's football team. The following spring, Nate Ruffin, a player who missed the flight due to an illness, convinced the board not to cancel the 1971 season. The college petitioned the NFL to allow freshman to play football and hires head coach Jack Lengyel who shows a football team and an entire university that winning isn't everything.
Matthew McConaughey is in the movie.
When you take that field today, you've got to lay that heart on the line, men. From the souls of your feet, with every ounce of blood you've got in your body, lay it on the line until the final whistle blows. And if you do that, if you do that, we cannot lose. We may be behind on the scoreboard at the end of the game but if you play like that we cannot be defeated. Now we came here today to remember six young men and sixty-nine others who will not be on the field with you today, but they will be watching. You can bet your ass that they'll be gritting their teeth with every snap of that football. You understand me? How you play today, from this moment on is how you will be remembered. This is your opportunity to rise from these ashes and grab glory. We are...
The Program is a story about several college football players and the pressure that they feel while playing for a major college program, the ESU Timberwolves. Some of the players turn to drinking and drugs while some turn to school to help them get through. The movie mostly follows head coach Sam Winters, Heisman candidate quarterback Joe Kane and freshman running back Darnell Jefferson.
Matthew McConaughey is not in the movie.
I don't know, its the battle, the going to war with the other guys, hanging together, having our own dorm, staying in hotels the night before the games, setting ourselves apart, being different than everybody else, having a chance to be somebody, to do something that people look up to you for, your strength, your courage, not everybody can play football... were the lucky ones
Will The Program upset We Are Marshall or will Matthew McConaughey move on to the next round?