Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice and ESPN’s Mina Kimes break down the 1999 movie starring Jamie Foxx, Dennis Quaid and Al Pacino – and how the themes carry over to this day. Hear the full conversation on “Football 301” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
View more
Video Transcript
Number 8, and this has a lot of football detail parts better than you would think, is Any Given Sunday.
Advertisement
Im way higher on my list.
OK, OK, I actually felt a little low on this, but great movie.
Got to watch it again, actually.
But even as a kid growing up in locker rooms.
That actually got NFL locker rooms more head-on, like they nailed what a locker room is like more than any other movie or TV show I’ve ever watched, uh, the good and the bad.
I like it for the reason you just said, which I actually think it really captures pro football better than anything else on my list.
That’s fiction.
The whole dynamic, the central plot of the movie, the older white quarterback, the young Black quarterback is just something we’ve seen play out in such a similar fashion across the NFL over the years.
Advertisement
Aspects of that change and that decision and all the drama that comes with it is really accurate.
The sort of monologue of sorts that Jamie Foxx gives to him in his house when he goes to Al Pacino’s for dinner about being a Black quarterback and race and how he is like the best.
Thing I’ve ever seen on race and football of all time.
It’s so well done and so well written and so well performed, um, and so prescient too because this movie came out, like, you know, a long time ago and it’s still to me like super resonant.
I, I, I was shocked when I rewatched it, how modern it felt and how much it’s like stood the test of time.
Advertisement
No, it’s a great point because especially then when it came out.
That, I mean, they captured the feel of early ’80s football better than anything.
Thisyou gotta remember this was the ‘He Hate Me’ XFL.
This was the penalties, this was the throat slashing, this was, it was so aggressive then, you know, like it was just, I mean, yes, it’s always gonna be a physical sport and everything, but just the, there’s a scene in that that I feel is more real than anything is when they’re battling about who plays the music in the locker room.
And it’s a switch between rap and just like crazy hard rock, that is more real than anyone will ever think.