RDHHH's Great Sports Movies: The Program

With all this talk of movies and awards and how hard it truly is to be a pimp, we thought it might be nice to share with you some of our favorite sports movies of all time. Some of them are great, some of them are really bad (but that's what makes them great).

The Program

Possibly the worst movie on the list, but I hold a special place for it in my heart. It has everything: controversy (They pulled a scene from the movie that showed players being initiated by laying down in the middle of a busy street.), ridiculously huge hits, and G 'n R.

The official tag line was: "Pressure surrounds them. Competition divides them. Talent unites them. A story of what it takes to survive..." With a tagline like that, it's a wonder this hasn't appeared on one of those AFI lists. I keep thinking to myself what comes after the elipse? The cast of characters just begs for a sequel. James Caan, Halle Barry, Omar Epps, plus unforgetable characters like Alvin Mack, Joe Kane, Lattimer, Bud-Lite Kaminski, Ray Griffin: Starting Tailback!

I think the sequel could be huge. We revisit the guys 10 years later and find them in varying states of success and failure. Alvin Mack has done the impossible and come back to be a star in the NFL, signing a record endorsement deal with Adidas. Joe Kane went Marinovich, and is fighting his way back to playing form. Lattimer is still chucking coeds across rooms, although they're now Arena league groupies and instead of dorm rooms it's a room at Motel 6. Lattimer spent time in the XFL where he was known as "He Inject Me". Coach Winters has moved into the pro ranks and is building a dyansty-like team a la Belichick. Oh man I think we could write a gem.

All in all, I think this quote pretty much conveys my feelings about this gem of a film:

Coach Winters: We gotta ring that bell! We gotta to ring that championship bell!
Steve Lattimer: Ding motherfu**ing dong!

Ring it loud indeed!