20 best movies like Friday Night Lights (2004)

Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team.

Teenagers at a juvenile detention center, under the leadership of their counselor, gain self-esteem by playing football together.

A young coach turns a losing high school football program around to go undefeated for 12 consecutive seasons.

Surfer Jay Moriarity sets out to ride the Northern California break known as Mavericks.

The life story of Brazilian football legend, Pele.

In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship.

In this uplifting film based on a true story, coach Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard) shocks the community and changes lives when, aided by a local janitor (Bernie Mac), he sets out to form Philadelphia's first black swim team. But the odds are against them as they battle rigid rules, racism and more.

Inspired by the true story of Vince Papale, a man with nothing to lose who ignored the staggering odds and made his dream come true. When the coach of Papale's beloved hometown football team hosted an unprecedented open tryout, the public consensus was that it was a waste of time – no one good enough to play professional football was going to be found this way.

The story of U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson from his young days in West Texas to the White House.

A track coach in a small California town transforms a team of athletes into championship contenders.

Love and unity in a school torn by racism and hate in the 1970s.

Sensitive study of a headstrong high school football star who dreams of getting out of his small Western Pennsylvania steel town with a football scholarship. His equally ambitious coach aims at a college position, resulting in a clash which could crush the player's dreams

A young man finds solace with a young woman, his mother, and a high-school football coach who recruits him to quarterback a six-man team.

A native-American lacrosse team makes its way through a prep school league tournament.

When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.

High school basketball is king in small-town Indiana, and the 1954 Hickory Huskers are all hope and no talent. But their new coach -- abrasive, unlikable Norman Dale -- whips the team into shape ... while also inciting controversy.

Haley is a naturally gifted athlete but, with her social behavior, the teen seems intent on squandering her abilities. After a final brush with the law, a judge sentences her to an elite gymnastics academy run by a legendary, hard-nosed coach. Once there, Haley's rebellious attitude wins her both friends and enemies.

A star quarterback gets knocked out of the game and an unknown third stringer is called in to replace him. The unknown gives a stunning performance and forces the aging coach to reevaluate his game plans and life. A new co-owner/president adds to the pressure of winning. The new owner must prove her self in a male dominated world.

After the tragic death of star volleyball player Caroline "Line" Found, a team of dispirited high school girls must band together under the guidance of their tough-love coach in hopes of winning the state championship!

True story of boxers Joe Louis and Max Schmeling and their enduring friendship.

From Oscar and Emmy award winning filmmakers, Red Army highlights the Soviet Union's legendary and enigmatic hockey training culture and world-dominating team through the eyes of the team's Captain Slava Fetisov, following his shift from hockey star and celebrated national hero to political enemy. The film turns a unique lens on the social and cultural transformation of the Soviet Union leading up to the fall of Communism, mirroring the rise and fall of the Red Army team. A film by Gabe Polsky and Executive Producers Werner Herzog and Jerry Weintraub.

Based on a true story, in which Richmond High School head basketball coach Ken Carter made headlines in 1999 for benching his undefeated team due to poor academic results.

A former youth boxing champion, Jimmy McCabe is a man in search of hope but looking in all the wrong places. When he hits rock bottom he turns to his childhood boxing club and the only family he has left: gym owner Bill corner man Eddie and promoter Joe. Back in training, years after anyone thought he was a contender, he risks his life, as he tries to stand tall and regain his place in the world.

This is the story of a teenager named Gracie Bowen, who lives in South Orange, New Jersey, is crazy about soccer, as are her three brothers and former soccer star father. Although Gracie wants to join her brothers and father in the nightly practices, she is discouraged by everyone except her elder brother, Johnny. Her father does not believe that girls should play soccer and tells her that she is neither tough enough nor talented enough to play with the boys team. Undeterred, Gracie finds reserves of strength she never knew existed, and persists in changing everyone's beliefs in what she is capable of, including her own. She faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer. But as the beautiful and strong person that she has always been but she also brings her family together in the face of their own tragedy.

The youngest son of an alcoholic former boxer returns home, where he's trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament - a path that puts the fighter on a collision course with his estranged, older brother, an ex-marine with a tragic past.

The coach of a women's swim team parlays her success into an opportunity to build her school's men's golf team.

A former high-school football star loses his shot at a college scholarship due to a devastating gridiron injury, but gets a second chance at living his dream.

A teenager overcomes odds to run a 4-minute mile race.

A losing coach with an underdog football team faces their giants of fear and failure on and off the field to surprising results.

Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.

Two brothers fight to escape a violent and poor neighborhood in Caracas by playing soccer. Daniel wishes to play professionally while Julio supports the family with dirty money. The opportunity of a lifetime comes when a talent scout invites them to the Caracas Football Club. The boys' mother dies in a shootout forcing each brother to decide what it is more important to them:family, revenge, or achieving their dreams.

It's the true-life story of legendary track star Steve Prefontaine, the exciting and sometimes controversial "James Dean of Track," whose spirit captured the heart of the nation! Cocky, charismatic, and tough, "Pre" was a running rebel who defied rules, pushed limits ... and smashed records ...

A book-smart teenager joins his school's wrestling team as a way to reunite his surviving family members, who split apart after the death of his father, a college wrestling legend, 10 years ago.

Freddie Steinmark, an underdog on the gridiron, faces the toughest challenge of his life after leading his team to a championship season.

Based on the incredible true story, The Express follows the inspirational life of college football hero Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy.

Oversized African-American, Michael Oher, the teen from across the tracks and a broken home, has nowhere to sleep at age 16. Taken in by an affluent Memphis couple, Michael embarks on a remarkable rise to play for the NFL.

In 1980, the United States Ice Hockey team's coach, Herb Brooks, put a ragtag squad of college kids up against the legendary juggernaut from the Soviet Union at the Olympic Games. Despite the long odds, Team USA carried the pride of a nation yearning for a distraction from world events. With the world watching, the team rose to the occasion, prompting broadcaster Al Michaels' now famous question to the millions viewing at home: "Do you believe in miracles?" Yes!

A semi-fictional account of life as a professional Football (American-style) player. Loosely based on the Dallas Cowboys team of the early 1970s.

A darkly comic swamp noir story of two best friends set in the late 1980s. Based on the novels by Joe R. Lansdale, the series follows Hap Collins, an East Texas white boy with a weakness for Southern women, and Leonard Pine, a gay, black Vietnam vet with a hot temper.

Senna's remarkable story, charting his physical and spiritual achievments on the track and off, his quest for perfection, and the mythical status he has since attained, is the subject of Senna, a documentary feature that spans the racing legend's years as an F1 driver, from his opening season in 1984 to his untimely death a decade later.

A combination "before the rage" and "after the rage" of world middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta's tumultuous life and times.

A skilled young hockey prospect hoping to attract the attention of professional scouts is pressured to show that he can fight if challenged during his stay in a Canadian minor hockey town. His on-ice activities are complicated by his relationship with the coach's daughter.

Quadriplegics, who play full-contact rugby in wheelchairs, overcome unimaginable obstacles to compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Maddie is a teenage girl dealing with addiction who has a reputation as a party girl who doesn’t think she has a problem, until she’s confronted one day by her school guidance counselor and is forced to choose between expulsion and rehab. Maddie makes the difficult decision to live with other recovering addicts at a sober living facility while facing the daily pressures of her teenage life. Based on the popular young adult novel by Blake Nelson.

A biopic of 20-year-old Francis Ouimet who defeated his golfing idol and 1900 US Open Champion, Harry Vardon.

The true story of a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African American college students into an historical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite.

A Taiwanese high school baseball team travels to Japan in 1931 to compete in a national tournament.

Based on the incredible true story of Jesse Owens, the legendary athletic superstar whose quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy. Starring Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons, Carice Van Houten and William Hurt - Race is an enthralling film about courage, determination, tolerance, and friendship, and an inspiring drama about one man's fight to become an Olympic legend.

A chance encounter with a stranger changes the life of a college gymnast.

Wyatt Earp is approached by a journalist for an interview about how he became a famous sheriff. Earp told the story of how he was a fearless U.S. Marshall. If 27-year old Wyatt Earp comes out that his first girlfriend Dora Hand was murdered. Together with his friend Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Bill Tilghman and Charlie Bassett he goes hunting for the perpetrator ...