16 sports dramas to stream if your interests lean more drama than sports
While we would never in good faith recommend The CW series "Riverdale" beyond its first season, there is a line in the third so brilliantly absurd that it deserves recognition. Archie Andrews, who winds up in a juvenile detention center, encounters another inmate who says he was forced to drop out of elementary school "to run drugs to support my nana." After absorbing this information, our benevolent hero replies, "That means you haven't known the triumphs and defeats, the epic highs and lows of high school football."
Setting aside the mental gymnastics required to understand why this is how Archie chose to respond, there is some truth to the statement that anyone who has seen even the pilot of "Friday Night Lights" can vouch for. Depicted on-screen, it's not just the physicality of sports that makes them "epic," but the tension inherent to any form of competition. There's a spectacle to everything involved, whether the tempestuous nature of the athletes themselves or the tomfoolery involved in their contract negotiations.
As professional games are mostly back in full force on television, here are several sports dramas readily available to stream if your interests lean more drama than sports.
HBO Max
"Chariots of Fire" (1981)
This best picture Oscar winner is a classic example of how far-reaching sports dramas can be: "I have no interest in running and am not a partisan in the British class system," Roger Ebert wrote in his four-star review. "Then why should I have been so deeply moved by 'Chariots of Fire,' a British film that has running and class as its subjects?" The movie, which also won an Academy Award for its memorable score, finds commonality in how a Christian Scot and the Jewish son of a Lithuanian immigrant triumph as athletes.
"Ford v Ferrari" (2019)
This James Mangold film zooms through its 152-minute runtime, the bulk of which is spent dramatizing the joint efforts of American automotive designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and British driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) to design a new car for Ford Motor and defeat Enzo Ferrari's team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1966. There's a dash of personal drama related to Miles's struggle to provide for his family, but most of the thrills come from Shelby and Miles's gusto and commitment to the sport.
"Friday Night Lights" (2004)
"The best sports movie for years, as it's not about sport at all," reads Empire magazine's review of Peter Berg's book adaptation. Before our beloved Coach Taylor came Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton), a man in charge of leading a football-obsessed Texan town's high school team to victory. Gaines is tasked with handling a whole lot more than that, of course, given the volatility of teenagedom.
"He Got Game" (1998)
This Spike Lee joint contains a strong performance from Denzel Washington as a man jailed for manslaughter who is offered a shortened sentence in exchange for successfully talking his son (Ray Allen), a top college basketball prospect, into signing with the governor's alma mater.
On the film's 20th anniversary, Vanity Fair's K. Austin Collins wrote that it "combines prison melodrama, domestic soap opera, ESPN-esque hype reels, and the monied aspirationalism of '90s hip-hop videos to bear on a plot that twines the moral redemption of a black American felon - and the reconciliation of a father and son - with a loaded racial critique of the commerce of basketball."
"Ballers" (2015)
How about a TV show, to mix things up? "Ballers" is a dramedy, if you will, about a retired NFL player (Dwayne Johnson) who pivots to managing the finances of other football players. While the show suffers in some ways - take the plentiful comparisons to "Entourage" to mean what you will - it thrives on the charisma of its performers. Grantland's review compared it to "a good 90 percent of professional football teams: occasionally exuberant, often baffling, but always totally watchable Sunday entertainment."
Netflix
"High Flying Bird" (2019)
Despite its title, "High Flying Bird" flew somewhat under the radar early last year. That's for shame, as the Steven Soderbergh film, his second shot on an iPhone, offers an incisive take on the business of basketball that also manages to convey the quick maneuvering of sports agent Ray Burke (André Holland) through Soderbergh's innovative filmmaking. The result is hectic and cerebral, making for a compelling ride.
"Uncut Gems" (2019)
Yes, "Uncut Gems" is more likely to be classified as a crime thriller. But one of its many conflicts involves the inability of New York jeweler Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) to quit gambling on basketball, in this case pawning off Kevin Garnett's NBA championship ring and betting thousands of dollars on how well he plays for the Boston Celtics. The Safdie brothers tell Howard's story at lightning speed and somehow stretch the anxiety of a high-stakes play to last the duration of a feature-length film. It's stressful, but great.
Hulu
"Bull Durham" (1988) and "Field of Dreams" (1989)
Both available through Hulu's Starz add-on, "Bull Durham" and "Field of Dreams" make for a weekend-friendly Kevin Costner double feature - or even a triple feature, if you opt to toss a few dollars toward 1999's "For Love of the Game." In "Bull Durham," Costner plays a veteran baseball catcher who helps a rookie pitcher (Tim Robbins) prepare for the major league. In "Field of Dreams," which has an added fantasy element to it, he plays an Iowa farmer who, convinced a voice in his corn field instructed him to, builds a baseball field on his land and eventually welcomes onto it the ghosts of Chicago White Sox players who were banned from the sport for allegedly throwing the 1919 World Series.
"Fighting With My Family" (2019)
2019 was a great year for Florence Pugh, between her lead role in Ari Aster's "Midsommar" and Oscar-nominated turn as Amy March in Greta Gerwig's "Little Women." In her third film from last year, Stephen Merchant's "Fighting With My Family," she plays English wrestler Paige, who travels to the United States to train in the hopes of fighting in the WWE. Paige, whose real name is Saraya, comes from a family of wrestlers, and the film also depicts her brother's struggle to achieve the same sort of success.
"Skate Kitchen" (2018)
The HBO series "Betty" spun off creator Crystal Moselle's film, which follows Long Island teenager Camille (Rachelle Vinberg) as she sneaks off each day to hang out with Skate Kitchen, a collective of female skaters in Manhattan. Moselle cast real skaters and based the story off Vinberg's own experiences. She explores their emotional bonds, as well as Camille's strained relationship with her mother.
"Friday Night Lights" (2006)
Two years after the film's release, Berg developed "Friday Night Lights" into an NBC drama that lasted five seasons. Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his wife, Tami Taylor (Connie Britton), remain at the heart of the series, which is notable for how it fleshes out most of its other characters as well. Some of the Dillon Panthers stick around, like fan favorite Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), while others come and go. But they take with them the work ethic and empathy their coach helps them develop. Texas forever, as Riggs would say.
"Pitch" (2016)
Though it lasted only a season, the Fox drama "Pitch," co-written by "This Is Us" creator Dan Fogelman, attracted a fan base that still hopes for a revival. The series enters on Ginny Baker (Kylie Bunbury), a pitcher who becomes the first woman to play for Major League Baseball. Naturally, it explores her personal and professional relationships, such as with team captain Mike Lawson (Mark-Paul Gosselaar).
Amazon Prime Video
"A League of Their Own" (1992)
There has never been a bad reason to revisit this Penny Marshall classic, but stressful times like these make comfort movies all the more appealing. The film depicts a fictionalized version of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, focusing on multiple players (Geena Davis, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Lori Petty) and a brash manager (Tom Hanks), who delivers the iconic line, "There's no crying in baseball!" Amazon recently greenlit a series adaptation starring Abbi Jacobson and Chanté Adams, among others.
"Creed II" (2018)
The "Creed" franchise all but cemented Michael B. Jordan's stardom, which arguably began with his role in the later seasons of "Friday Night Lights" and picked up steam from there. The second installment might not reach the stature of the first, which was directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler, but it appeals to our affinity for nostalgia by once again having Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) train Adonis Creed (Jordan), the son of his former rival - this time, to face off against the son of "Rocky IV" antagonist Ivan Drago.
Disney Plus
"Miracle" (2004)
"Miracle," which is also streaming on Netflix, stars Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks, head coach of the U.S. men's ice hockey team that, against odds, beat the Soviets to win gold at the 1980 Winter Olympics. While some critics believed the film's cliches held it back, others, such as The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday, praised the "terrific performances and dizzying action" that made it through. She added, "Reproducing every bruise, blowup and body-check and getting right up on the ice and into the fray, the movie brings the audience back to 1980 with bone-crunching verisimilitude."
For those who grew up with Disney Channel Original Movies, and who wish to return to that specific strain of cheesy drama, Disney Plus also carries the likes of "Brink!" and "Full-Court Miracle."