Top Five Sports Movies to Binge During Quarantine

I said yesterday that this whole coronavirus quarantine pandemic had all of us missing sports. I stand corrected. I REALLY FUCKING MISS SPORTS. Playing ten games of FIFA a day just is not cutting it for me right now, and I need some real-life action to look forward to.

Hollywood movies might not be "real-life", but I am going to run with it because I know it will keep me, and hopefully some of you entertained. So here we go, my list of the top five sports movies to binge during quarantine.

#5: Bull Durham

An absolute classic, I could watch this movie every day of my life and never get tired of it. Its the tale of a veteran minor league catcher (Kevin Costner) and his attempts to settle down a young, prospective pitcher with the help of a team groupie that he might end up falling for (Susan Sarandon).

It is a movie full of laughs, and really is one of Costner's best. If you like baseball, this movie does a great job depicting the minor leagues and the grind that comes along with it, especially when you are a jobber there for your entire career. It is not my absolute favorite sports movie, but it is surely up there with the best.

#4: Rocky IV

Personally, this is my favorite Rocky movie, because it simply had everything. It was David vs Goliath, USA vs The Soviet Union, and life vs death. At the beginning of the film, Rocky's close ally Apollo Creed is killed by Russian fighter Ivan Drago in the ring. To avenge his death, Rocky comes to the rescue and defends his world championship in the Soviet Union.

This was actually one of the worst performing Rocky movies in the box office, but was such a good storyline, especially in 1985. It even built up the story for Creed II, where Apollo Creed's son Donnie fights Drago's son Viktor.

#3: Glory Road

On a more serious note, Glory Road takes on the journey of the Texas Western Minors in the 1966 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, which they won over Pat Riley's Kentucky Wildcats. The Minors were a team with an all African-American starting lineup, and received hate all over the country for it.

It is a story of racism, hardship, and coming together when times are rough, even if your skin color or backgrounds are not the same. Josh Lucas absolutely is a star as the lead, playing head coach Don Haskins, and the movie also features Jon Voight as opposing coach Adolph Rupp.

This movie might not be a classic for most, but it should be.

#2: Coach Carter

Going back to back with basketball movies, Coach Carter is a legendary Samuel L. Jackson movie about the coach of the Richmond High Oilers in 1999. Head coach Ken Carter made national news in real life when he suspended the undefeated team for not upholding their academic and behavioral contract they signed at the start of the season.

Carter did not just want to make his team better basketball players, but better people as well, and that is an outlook more youth coaches should have when leading a team. By the end of his tenure, he got most of his players to college to further their education where some also played basketball.

This movie is the ultimate sports drama that takes on every high school issue and portrays it with a star-studded cast including the likes of Channing Tatum and Ashanti.

#1: Moneyball

This was very easy for me. Probably more easy than it should have been. I have watched this movie so many times, I can probably recite it to someone (ask my girlfriend). But that is what makes it so great; the acting by Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill in this movie makes this so re-watchable.

Pitt plays Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane, while Hill plays his assistant as they tackle building a new roster the year after losing Jason Giambi, Jason Isringhausen, and Johnny Damon in free agency. It highlights the stories of players like Scott Haddeburg, David Justice and Chad Bradford as they led the team to an AL West title.

While they fell to the Twins in the playoffs, this is a great behind-the-scenes story of a front office in major league sports. Better yet, a front office that changed baseball and sports forever, with the use of advanced analytics.