Football may not have started out as America’s pastime, but over the last few decades, it’s hard to deny that it’s become the country’s favorite sport. The stakes and strategy also lend the sport perfectly to storytelling. It makes sense that TV networks would try to find as many ways as possible to build shows around it, or at least find a way to make football a part of the story.
Many have tried to make a good football show, and, perhaps amazingly, not many have had long-term success. That said, we did find five fantastic football series that broke through the defense with their unique premises, crossed the goal line, and found the promised land.
5. All American
Our first entry on the list, “All American,” burst onto the scene back in 2018 and told the story of a Black high schooler who gets recruited out of the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles to play for Beverly Hills High School. The show revolves around Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), loosely based on real life football star Spencer Paysinger, fitting in with his new, more affluent surroundings.
While the show undoubtedly uses football as the throughline to tell its story, what makes the series so good is that it doesn’t rely on football to move the plot along. Instead, “All American” focuses on the relationships that star linebacker Spencer James has to balance, including living with his coach’s family, staying connected to his family back in Southern Los Angeles, and his new teammates.
The show was a hit with both critics and audiences, and isn’t just one of the best football-related shows, but considered one of the best sports shows, period. The series is ending after an eight season run on the CW. Don’t worry, though — if you missed it, you can binge the entire series on Netflix.
4. Hard Knocks
In the world of sports broadcasting, there is no such thing as too much access. Fans crave it, and sports channels now need enough content to cover their 24/7 news cycle. Enter HBO and “Hard Knocks,” which premiered in 2001. The concept was simple: Pick an NFL team and cover them from top-to-bottom during the off-season. In a deal made with the NFL, camera crews got unprecedented access to be flies on the wall during practices, team meetings, and other instances the casual fan never got to see.
The show was instantly a huge success. In fact, it became so much of a success, teams stopped wanting to be a part of it. Apparently, having your dirty laundry aired in front of millions of people while you’re preparing for a new season doesn’t sit well with team executives. Bailing on the show got so bad that, in 2013, the league’s owners actually had to a pass a rule that would allow them to force teams to participate if they fell under certain guidelines.
3. The League
While “The League” isn’t technically about football, this FX comedy is about the next best thing: Fantasy football. The show centers around one particular fantasy football league with an insanely dedicated group of players who stop at nothing to win the league’s coveted trophy, named after their high school valedictorian. What lands this show on the list is the unique way it uses professional football as the glue keeping this disparate group of hilarious friends together, plus its use of comedic actors with strong improv backgrounds, making it one of the best improvised shows of all time.
For seven seasons, “The League” not only gave us an all too real look at what some of us fantasy footballers go through every year, it was jam packed with cameos of actual NFL players who often hilariously got roped into the shenanigans of the group. From filming an adult movie in Deion Sanders’ loft, to stealing breast milk from Jay Culter’s baby, this show stopped at nothing to make us all realize that you have to be a little crazy to play fantasy football.
2. Coach
In the ’90s, football and sitcoms were two of the most watched types of programs on television, yet they rarely appeared together, except for a few examples. At the top of that short list lives “Coach,” the long-running sitcom starring Craig T. Nelson as the tough, but fair, coach of the fictional Minnesota State football team. Surrounding him was his dimwitted coaching staff played by Jerry Van Dyke and Bill Fagerbakke, and his wife, played by Shelley Fabares. The result was comedy gold.
“Coach” ran for nine seasons, finishing in the top 20 multiple times. The show’s popularity spiked in Season 6 when the writers decided to give the football team a crack at a national championship. Footage of an actual game between Wisconsin and Minnesota was used to depict the fictional Pioneer Bowl between Minnesota State and another fictional school, West Texas State, with Minnesota State taking home the title.
In a case of fiction mirroring real life, the show decided to mix things up for its final two seasons, with Nelson’s character leaving his school behind for a better-paying job in the professional ranks. That, and moving the show’s time slot to Monday nights, led to a sharp drop in ratings.
1. Friday Night Lights
At the top of our list sits not just one of the best football series ever made, but what many consider one of the greatest shows of all time. Based on the movie of the same time, “Friday Night Lights” remains the gold standard for sports in television. Where the movie was based on the true story of an actual high school team’s run to the Texas state championship, the TV version is located in the fictional Texas town of Dillon, and follows the lives of the players, coaches, and families that make the team so successful.
The realistic portrayals of teen drama — including tackling hot-button issues like racism, class warfare, and small-town politics — won audiences and critics over from the beginning. It also managed to feature breakout performances of some of today’s biggest stars, including Michael B. Jordan, Jesse Plemons, Taylor Kitsch, and Minka Kelly. Although the show only ran for five seasons, it made the playbook for creating compelling sports-related television.
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