Bowl Season Counterparts in Film Awards

There are two things I love watching during this time of year: college football bowl games and award ceremonies.

Both are exciting in their own right. Bowl games, big and small, often provide some thrilling postseason moments making for great entertainment even if your team isn’t playing.

Award season, meanwhile, are celebrations of great films and offers a bit of competition to the world of movies, making for really good drama.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that the two seasons have something in common, which is that they’re not created equal. As the award season goes on, the prestige of the ceremonies increases. It’s the same way with bowl season.

With college football, there are six games, called the New Year’s Six, that are considered the best bowls, and include the two semi-finals to qualify for the national title game. In award season, meanwhile, the major awards often include the guild ceremonies and the Oscars, which happen late in the season.

With that in mind, I decided to match which game equates best to an award ceremony in the season.

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Great (fictional) coaches in sports movies

The NCAA Final Four and Frozen Four both take place in the next week.

Then, the NBA and NHL playoffs are right around the corner. As is the NFL Draft, with the Super Bowl in the rear view. Simply put, there are a lot of sports events taking place this time of year.

With that in mind, I decided to take a look at some of the best fictional coaches featured in sports movies. I mean completely fictional, too, so no made up coaches for films inspired by true stories.

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REVIEW: ‘American Underdog’ let down by overstuffed story, weak script

Greatest Show this is not.

“American Underdog” tells the story of Kurt Warner. A man who, despite many setbacks, managed to earn a roster spot on a National Football League team, the St. Louis (now Los Angeles) Rams, and lead them to a Super Bowl championship.

Warner is portrayed by Zachary Levi, and the film follows how he played at the University of Northern Iowa, met his wife Brenda (Anna Paquin) and worked to make an NFL roster, mainly by building highlights in the Arena Football League.

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REVIEW: Despite problems, ‘Mighty Orphans’ still cross the goal line for the win

I guess now I know who to thank for the high scoring Big 12 games on Saturdays.

Luke Wilson is Coach Rusty Russell in “12 Mighty Orphans.” As the name implies, the movie centers on a group of orphans who live at a Texas home for children and teenagers without families. Sadly, their home has seen better days and one of the educators, Frank (Wayne Knight), mistreats the students.

However, their fortunes begin to change when Russell arrives at the school in the midst of the Great Depression, along with his wife Juanita (Vinessa). On top of both Russells being teachers, Rusty also has experience as a football coach. He decides to apply that and forms a team. As orphans, though, the unit has to fight for respect both on and off the field.

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Super Bowl LIV Movie Trailers

Over the course of the Super Bowl where the vaunted San Francisco 49ers defense took on the high powered Kansas City Chiefs offense, viewers were shown several previews for upcoming flicks

The previews shown were from movies ranging from action to family.

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