Portrayals of high school football in movies, television, and literature

Hollywood portrayals of HS football, whether comedies or dramas, often portray the game at the center of a small town's existence and the focus of its attention.

• All the Right Moves - A 1983 film about a Western Pennsylvania football player desperate to earn the scholarship that would enable him to escape his economically depressed town.
• American Dreams - Character "JJ" Pryor was a star HS football running back, and many of the early episodes centered on his games.
• The Best of Times - A 1986 film based on an actual rivalry and game between small town Taft (CA) High School (Wildcats) and the larger and highly successful Bakersfield (CA) High School (Drillers) who actually have the California high school record for most wins, most section titles, and most State titles.

• Bleachers - A novel published in 2003. It tells of the fictitious Messina High School football team and its coach, Eddie Rake. Rake with 418 wins, 61 losses, and 13 state championships under his belt is on his deathbed, and many of his former players return to Messina to say goodbye.
• Dazed and Confused - A 1993 film set in Texas in 1976. It is not a true high school football movie, but the main character Randy "Pink" Floyd, played by Jason London, is the starting quarterback at his high school and most of his friends play football as well.
• Facing the Giants - A 2006 film.
• Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream - a book about the 1988 season of Permian High School in Odessa, Texas as they made a surprising run toward the state championship. In the end, however, the underdogs lost in the state semi-finals to Carter High School of Dallas. This book ultimately spawned two other media properties:
  • Friday Night Lights - A 2004 film whose plot is very similar to that of the book.
  • Friday Night Lights - A television series, inspired by the above film, that began airing in 2006.
• Go Tigers! — A 2001 documentary on the Ohio rivalry between Massillon Washington High School and Canton McKinley High School.
• Gridiron Gang - A 2006 film.
• Johnny Be Good - A 1988 film.
• Lucas - A 1986 film about the coming of age of a small, intellectually gifted boy; one subplot revolves around his efforts to join the school's football team.
• Married... with Children - A 1987-1998 TV series which featured, Al Bundy, a middle-aged Chicago area, shoe salesman whose lifelong claim to fame was playing running back at (fictitious) Polk High and scoring "4 touchdowns in one game."
• Nike's Football is Everything television and print ad campaign of 2006 featuring numerous NFL stars and coaches as members of the fictional Marlin Briscoe High School Hawks football team.
• Radio - A 2003 film based on the true story about T.L. Hanna High School football coach Harold Jones and a mentally-challenged young man James Robert Kennedy, nicknamed "Radio" who becomes the team manager.
• Remember the Titans - A 2000 film based on the actual story of the 1971 team of T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia.
• The Season - a 1999 ESPN television documentary of Eastern Pennsylvania's North Penn High School.
• Two-A-Days - MTV reality television documentary about the 2005 and 2006 football seasons at Hoover High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama.
• Varsity Blues - A 1999 film.
• Wildcats - A 1986 film in which Goldie Hawn plays the daughter of a noted football coach who becomes head coach at an inner-city high school.