Pick-Six: Top sports movies of all time

With the release of the highly hyped Rocky “sequel” Creed, I figured it’d make sense to make my second Pick-Six column about the top six sports movies of all-time.

I know everyone will have different opinions on this, so keep in mind this is one man’s opinion on endless amounts of sports movies that have been released. I know I missed a lot, and maybe my order is off, but everyone has their own thoughts (just Google “Top Sports Movies of All-Time” and see how many different opinions there are). Here are my top six:

#6. Warrior

This movie to me is one of the most underrated of all-time. It may be an overreaction to put this on the list of top six, and I know no one else will agree, but I honestly couldn’t think of what movie would sneak into the final spot and this one kept coming to mind. Tom Hardy is an absolute animal, and Joel Edgerton does an amazing job on the other side of the equation to make this a perfect film. It’s rare to find a fighting movie that has a good back story to it rather than a huge focus on the brutality, but this film has a nice balance of both. These were Hardy and Edgerton’s dream roles, and I was happy to give them the high honor of appearing on this week’s Pick-Six.

#5. Major League

You know there are some great movies out there when Major League is only at the number five spot. I re-watched this on Netflix the other night, and loved it just as much as every other time I’ve seen it. It’s the only comedy on the list, and it’s one of the few funny sports movies that actually does a good job of mixing everything together, with Happy Gilmore being the only other solid sports comedy in my opinion. It was really one of the first baseball movies I ever saw, and an all-star cast makes this a movie to remember. I still get chills when Jake Taylor stands up in the locker room and tells the team that “there’s only one thing left to do.” I’ll let you finish the rest.

#4. Rocky

Another tough decision here, as Rocky is obviously a classic. However, I think my top three, in my opinion, are a lot stronger. Rocky was a one-of-a-kind flick, as there aren’t many high quality boxing movies out there. Sylvester Stallone made a masterpiece with Rocky, and the birth of two sports stars in Rocky and Apollo Creed made for a great series of movies. I know there are some amazing movies in the whole series, but I chose to just put the first Rocky in to celebrate the birth of the whole story.

#3. Moneyball

Personally my favorite sports movie of all-time, Moneyball honestly caught me by surprise in my first watch. No one expected a whole lot from it except for those who read the book, but it delivered big time to everyone who watched it. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill were gold throughout the movie, and Chris Pratt wins “Most Underrated Performance of the Century” for his role as Scott Hatteberg. The walk-off he had in “The Streak” part of the movie is my favorite in any movie ever, and I could honestly watch this movie over and over again without getting sick of it. People may not agree with how high this made it on the list, but it took a lot on my part to not put this movie in all six spots.

#2. Rudy

You knew this was coming. Rudy is, in my opinion, the best football movie of all-time. There have been many amazing football movies, but Rudy is the true underdog story that any movie-goer would love. Watching Rudy take hit after hit in practice hurt my heart just as hard as it must’ve hurt him, and I wanted to get up out of my seat to give my imaginary jersey to the coach when everyone else was. Great movie, great story, and well-deserving of the second spot on the list of all-time sports movies.

#1.  Miracle

America. I don’t know if you can call yourself a sports fan if you haven’t seen this movie. I know a lot of people aren’t hockey fans, but you just have to be an American to love this film. It’s such a nice look at an amazing, true story, and will make you cry so many times in joy and sadness. To me, even though it’s not my favorite sports movie of all-time, you can’t argue about how good this movie is, and I truly think this is the best all-around sports movie of all-time. If you haven’t seen it yet, go rent it right now and bring a box of tissues so you don’t spill tears on your American flag.