Yes, we’re drifting a bit on NFL Thursday this week, but everyone deserves a mental break, right? This article last fall always stuck with us, so we wanted to re-visit it a week before Halloween—no significance, whatsoever. And no, Draft Day doesn’t make the cut, because as entertainingly fun the movie is, the premise is weak overall—and the climactic moments are completely ridiculous … and they would never happen. Nope.

Also, we don’t consider Jerry Maguire to be a football film, really, as good as it is: it’s more of a movie about a guy re-discovering himself, really—football is just the setting, as the story could have been easily told with baseball, basketball, or hockey as the setting, too. Trust us: we’ve been teaching college English classes for a quarter century now. With that caveat out of the way, here is our list of the Top 10 football movies. Enjoy!

10. The Blind Side
The star has faded on this one a bit thanks to the recent controversy surrounding the accuracy of the narrative. Yet it’s a feel-good movie which everyone wants to believe is a true story to the letter. And despite all the accolades thrown at Sandra Bullock? It’s little Jae Head here stealing all the scenes as the “little brother” of the family. Here’s one for you, too: he’s now 27 years old. Oh, how time flies, doesn’t it? Cruel.

9. Heaven Can Wait
This is a loose remake of a famous movie from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and no one was ever going to buy scrawny Warren Beatty as an NFL quarterback. Yet it all works for cheesy reasons, one of which is an improbably love story and also the feel-good dynamic of a seemingly good person getting what they deserve despite being dealt a raw deal. Besides, it has the Los Angeles Rams winning the Super Bowl, too.

8. School Ties
Maybe it could be argued that football is just a setting for this movie, too, although we’d counter that the setting is actually the private prep school. Either way, the cast is full of faces you’ll recognize, and the anti-Semitic nature of the narrative plays out well in contrast to the tough football framework that most of the cast is part of at the educational institution in question. There’s humor, sadness, reality, and charm, too.

7. Rudy
Alright, we all know the story now how some of the ending is totally fabricated for Hollywood. So be it. Yet, there is a message in this movie that is truly factual and accurate: don’t ever give up on your dreams, even if that wishful desire happens to be playing Notre Dame football when you have basically zero talent to do so. That’s what makes this movie just like Rocky for boxing, or even Miracle for hockey. Anything can happen.

6. We Are Marshall
One of the forgotten stories of college football, until this movie was made, was the tragedy of the Marshall University football team. Some of the acting is a little over the top, but the cast really is top notch. All communities need to heal after tragedy, and it’s hard to watch the trailer for the film without getting a little teary. Some faces that became famous otherwise are in this movie, too, which always makes it fun to watch.

5. The Express
Ernie Davis was a revelation to the sport of college football, in ways so many people have forgotten since he passed away long before his time. The first Black player to win the Heisman Trophy vote, he had battles to fight on and off the field. Rob Brown is amazing in the title role, and you may recognize him from other sports movies he did, like Finding Forrester and Coach Carter. Typecast? Perhaps, but he did it impressively.

4. Brian’s Song
We’re talking the original version here, and while James Caan really feels way too old for his role, and come to think of it, so does Billy Dee Williams (long before he did The Empire Strikes Back). But the story is what matters here, and this is a timeless one of bonding and friendship in sport. Of the films on this list, seven of them are based on true events, and we think those films carry some magic that is hard to replicate in fiction.

3. Remember the Titans
There are so many great things to say about this film, we don’t know where to start; the young actors who would go on to greater things; the heart-warming and -wrenching story of integration at the core of action; and the understanding that human beings can overcome their differences to rise above the fray around them and make the world a better place. Sports have that ability, of course, and football is this messenger.

2. Little Giants
We interrupt all the seriousness of this list to provide the awesomely fun story that has nothing to do with reality. And just ignore the semi-silly cameo by John Madden and others; it’s buffoonery. But we digress: this is such a fun ride through a specific dynamic of childhood that none of us can resist its charm. The end result is both predictable for the genre and so unrealistic as to induce eye rolls, but it works because … yeah.

1. Friday Night Lights
Based on a true story, this is a hard look at America in many ways most of us don’t want to know or see. A small town in Texas lives and perishes with its high school football team in a way most of us cannot comprehend if we’re from different parts of this nation. But these kids are real; their stories are legitimate; and we go for the ride with them as they fail, grow, succeed, thrive, and (almost) win it all. Spoiler alert.