Greatest Sports Movie Characters

How good are sports films? A View from the Top loves a good sports film almost as much as it loves live sport itself. The genre is split into two camps; films based on a true story and straight out Hollywood fiction.

While there is no doubt films like Remember the Titans, Glory Road and We are Marshall are some of the best sports films of all time, right now we’re going to bring to you the Greatest Fictional Sports Characters of the last twenty years (plus Rocky).

While we might all love Gary Bertier and Julius Campbell keep in mind they haven’t been considered for this list.

I've gone a less than traditional podium finish, with a top two that I am most certain a lot of people won't agree with. But you know what? I don't care. Read the banner above - Often conflicting opinions that are always right. 

As always if you don't agree with AVFTT let me know in the comments at the bottom of the page.

10. Rocky’s Opponents

Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago (Tommy Who and Antonio Tarver don’t make the list) are some of the coolest anti-heroes in all of sport. All bad and all beaten by Balboa, they play their role in the huge success of the Rocky franchise. As characters they are impossible to split.

9. Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell Sports Characters

These two play so many great sports characters that you just have to make room for them in the Top Ten but including one over the others just wouldn’t be fair. Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore and Bobby Boucher paved the way for Ricky Bobby, Jackie Moon and Chazz Michael Michaels of Will Ferrell fame to delight crowds.

8. Rod Tidwell

The Arizona Cardinals wide receiver from the movie Jerry Maguire, Rod Tidwell was a preview of what to expect in the NFL over the next two decades. Tidwell has served as the prototype flamboyant wide receiver as the sports world has watched fiction form fact through the career of Terrell Owens. Hell Chad Ochocinco even admits to modelling his personality on Tidwell.

I am a valuable commodity! I go across the middle! I see a dude coming at me, trying to kill me, I tell myself "Get killed. Catch the ball!' BOO YA! Touchdown! I make miracles happen!

7. Tony D’Amato

Do yourself a favour and watch this speech. By the time this speech ends I’m ready to chew concrete.

6. Patches O’Houlihan

The Tommy Raudonikis of the Dodgeball world mentors the Average Joes in his own unique kind of way. The ever so obvious ‘if you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball’ is Patches’ coaching philosophy in a nutshell.

Necessary? Is it necessary for me to drink my own urine? No, but I do it anyway because it's sterile and I like the taste.

5. Gordon Bombay

The story is familiar. Man does wrong. Man sentenced to community service and ordered to coach a little league team. Man is changed by the experience. 

While Rod Tidwell might have inspired a generation of brash American footballers the Bombay coached Mighty Ducks actually paved the way for their own professional sports franchise the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the NHL. The Bombay coached multi ethnicity and gender Mighty Ducks always find a way to overcome their larger and completely male opponents. 

Bombay and 'The Mighty Ducks'

4. Rocky Balboa

The original underdog Balboa kick started and continues to define the sports film industry. The first sports movie to win an Oscar for Best Picture the Rocky character isn’t the most talented or gracious but he just never stops trying, and that’s why people love him. Routinely voted amongst the Greatest Film Characters of All Time he just misses out on a podium to finish here.

3. Shooter McGavin

If ever there was a sports character I wish existed it is Shooter McGavin. Played to perfection by Christopher McDonald, Shooter is the perfect sports villain - a complete jackass, Shooter would rather see his closest opponent kicked off the Tour then rise to the challenge of beating him. In spite of this Shooter remains one of the most arrogant and charismatic fictional sports character of all time. I would sit and watch Shooter play 18 holes week after week purely for the entertainment value.

2. Kenny ‘Squeak’ Scolari

Squeak is a little bitch and I love him. This is what it means to be a part of a team. Your teammates can put shit on you and its all good, because well you’re on the team. Squeak wasn’t even that good a BASEketball player but he’s the type of morale boosting little bitch you’d want on your team.

#1 Lance Armstrong

Just kidding, Lance Armstrong has nothing to do with sports. He was a drug addict, you know those people that wear lycra and ride bikes from drug clinic to drug clinic, yeah one of them.

#1 Shane Falco

Shane Falco is my favourite sports movie character of all time. I see a lot of myself in Shane Falco. He never made it as a pro - neither did I. He plays quarterback - the American football equivalent of the position I've played most of my life - halfback and well he gets the girl. 

You can’t help but love Shane ‘#16 in your programs #1 in your hearts’ Falco. He’s the College football failure that finds himself cleaning shit off the bottom of boats before the Washington Sentinels call him in after their players go on strike. Finally ‘Footsteps’ Falco gets his chance in the big league.  Danny Bateman  and Nigel Gruff are some other memorable characters from The Replacements but predictably Falco is the hero in the movie’s final game. Just because you know its coming though, doesn't make it any less satisfying.