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70 free Football Movie trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Football movies are their own genre, with their own rituals: the underdog tryout, the halftime speech, the last-second play. This quiz covers 61 of them, from the Marx Brothers' Horse Feathers and Harold Lloyd's The Freshman through Brian's Song, North Dallas Forty and The Longest Yard, on to Rudy, Remember the Titans, Friday Night Lights, The Blind Side, The Waterboy and recent true stories like American Underdog, Safety and 80 for Brady. The questions go beyond who starred in what. You will be asked which real NFL team the Replacements were based on, why the league would not let Leatherheads use the Duluth Eskimos' name, what scene was cut from The Program after copycat accidents, which Super Bowl Black Sunday filmed at, and how many games De La Salle really won in a row. Easy openers sit beside questions built to stump people who host movie nights every Sunday. Every answer has been checked against a source, and each question shows its citation and a short explanation once you answer. Play it before the game, at a tailgate or in a movie-trivia round, and share your score.
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Q 01In Remember the Titans (2000), which actor plays Coach Herman Boone?
Denzel Washington
Boone took over the newly integrated T. C. Williams team in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1971, with Will Patton playing assistant Bill Yoast.
Q 02The real 1971 T. C. Williams Titans finished 13-0 and how many of those wins were shutouts?
Nine
The team ended the season ranked second in the nation, a run the film compresses into a single dramatic championship push.
Q 03Rudy (1993) was the first film allowed to shoot on the campus since which 1940 movie?
Knute Rockne, All American
Sean Astin plays Rudy Ruettiger, and the score is by Jerry Goldsmith, who also scored Hoosiers for the same director and writer.
Q 04Which team does Rudy Ruettiger finally get to play against in the closing game of Rudy?
Georgia Tech
The real Ruettiger recorded a sack in that 1975 game, and Kobe Bryant later said he watched the film repeatedly for motivation.
Q 05Friday Night Lights (2004) follows the 1988 Permian Panthers of which Texas town?
Odessa
The film is drawn from H. G. Bissinger's 1990 book, and the real Boobie Miles appears on screen as an assistant coach.
Q 06Who plays Coach Gary Gaines in the film Friday Night Lights?
Billy Bob Thornton
Kyle Chandler played a different coach, Eric Taylor, in the later TV series; the film was directed by Peter Berg.
Q 07Sandra Bullock won the Best Actress Oscar for The Blind Side (2009). Which character does she play?
Leigh Anne Tuohy
Bullock turned the role down three times before accepting a pay cut in exchange for a share of the profits, and the film went on to gross over $300 million.
Q 08The Blind Side is based on a 2006 book by which author, also known for Moneyball?
Michael Lewis
Michael Oher chose Ole Miss, the Tuohys' alma mater; in 2023 a judge ended the conservatorship the family had held over him.
Q 09In Any Given Sunday (1999), Al Pacino coaches which fictional pro team?
Miami Sharks
Oliver Stone invented the AFFA league because the NFL refused to let him use real teams and stadiums.
Q 10Who was originally cast as quarterback Willie Beamen in Any Given Sunday before Jamie Foxx took the role?
Sean Combs
Reports said Combs could not throw a football convincingly, though scheduling was the official reason; Will Smith and Chris Tucker both passed on the part.
Q 11Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Oscar-winning Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire plays for which NFL team?
Arizona Cardinals
The character was inspired partly by Tim McDonald, a client of the real agent who served as the film's technical consultant and who has a cameo.
Q 12Which real-life sports agent was the main inspiration for the character Jerry Maguire?
Leigh Steinberg
Cameron Crowe wrote and directed the 1996 film, which grossed about $273 million and gave the world 'Show me the money'.
Q 13The Longest Yard star Burt Reynolds played college football for which school?
Florida State
Injuries ended his playing days; the film was shot at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville with help from then-Governor Jimmy Carter.
Q 21Invincible (2006) tells of Vince Papale, a 30-year-old bartender who made which NFL team in 1976?
Philadelphia Eagles
Mark Wahlberg is 5 ft 8 in; the real Papale stood 6 ft 2 in. Greg Kinnear plays coach Dick Vermeil.
Q 22In The Waterboy, how many straight games had the SCLSU Mud Dogs lost before Bobby Boucher joined?
40
The film's $39.4 million opening was a November record at the time, and it went on to gross over $190 million worldwide.
Q 23Who plays Coach Klein, the Mud Dogs' nervous head coach, in The Waterboy?
Henry Winkler
Kathy Bates plays Bobby's fiercely protective Mama, and the Mud Dogs win the Bourbon Bowl 30-27 on New Year's Day.
Q 14Mean Machine, the 2001 British remake of The Longest Yard with Vinnie Jones, switched the sport to what?
Soccer
In the 2005 American remake, Adam Sandler took over as Paul Crewe while Reynolds returned as the coach.
Q 15The 1971 TV movie Brian's Song is about Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers, teammates on which NFL club?
Chicago Bears
James Caan and Billy Dee Williams starred, and the film drew a 48 percent audience share, then a record for a made-for-TV movie.
Q 16Brian's Song was adapted from Gale Sayers' autobiography, which has what title?
I Am Third
The film won five Emmys, including a supporting-actor award for Jack Warden as coach George Halas.
Q 17In Varsity Blues (1999), Jon Voight's coach Bud Kilmer leads a team from which fictional Texas town?
West Canaan
The 2019 college-admissions bribery investigation was codenamed 'Varsity Blues' after the film.
Q 18Pro wrestler Jon Moxley took his ring name from a mishearing of which Varsity Blues character?
Jonathan Moxon
A ring announcer said 'Moxley' instead of 'Moxon' and the mistake stuck; James Van Der Beek played the rebellious backup quarterback.
Q 19How many people died aboard Southern Airways Flight 932, the 1970 crash behind We Are Marshall?
75
The dead included 37 players, five coaches and 25 boosters; Matthew McConaughey plays Jack Lengyel, the coach hired to rebuild the program.
Q 20Which director, known by a single three-letter name, made We Are Marshall?
McG
The film cost $65 million and grossed only $43.5 million; Matthew Fox co-starred as surviving assistant coach Red Dawson.
Q 24Which team won all three replacement games in the 1987 NFL strike and then the Super Bowl?
Washington Redskins
Keanu Reeves plays Shane Falco, an ex-Ohio State quarterback who choked in the 1996 Sugar Bowl, with Gene Hackman as his coach.
Q 25In Little Giants (1994), the game-winning trick play is named after which historical event?
The Annexation of Puerto Rico
The play was inspired by Tom Osborne's fumblerooski, and John Madden made his feature-film debut in the movie alongside Emmitt Smith and Bruce Smith.
Q 26Which duo play rival pee-wee coaches and brothers Danny and Kevin O'Shea in Little Giants?
Rick Moranis and Ed O'Neill
Shawna Waldron's Becky 'Icebox' O'Shea is cut from her uncle's team for being a girl, which sets the plot in motion.
Q 27Kevin Costner plays the general manager of which team in Draft Day (2014)?
Cleveland Browns
The script was originally set with the Bills; the film topped the 2012 Black List and was Ivan Reitman's final feature as director.
Q 28In Concussion (2015), Dr. Bennet Omalu's 2002 autopsy of which Steelers Hall of Famer led him to identify CTE?
Mike Webster
The film grew out of a 2009 GQ article titled 'Game Brain'; leaked Sony emails showed the script was softened toward the NFL.
Q 29Ernie Davis, first African American Heisman winner and subject of The Express (2008), played for which university?
Syracuse
Davis was drafted into the NFL but died of leukemia at 23 without playing a pro game; Dennis Quaid plays coach Ben Schwartzwalder.
Q 30In Radio (2003), James Robert Kennedy befriends a high school football team in which state?
South Carolina
The film came from a 1996 Sports Illustrated piece by Gary Smith; Kennedy got his nickname from his love of listening to the radio.