What do you get when you combine the magical realm of cinema with the adored game of American football? A top 10 list of movies you should probably watch instead of studying for finals.

Whether they're based entirely on true stories or contrived for your personal entertainment, these films have a way of bringing the theatrical and athletic members of your family together through tears, laughter, and phenomenal soundtracks. Unfortunately, there are too many spectacular football movies to fit into this small list, but that doesn't diminish those other films' greatness. Anyways, without further ado...

10. We Are Marshall (2006)

Based on the true story, this film focuses on the Marshall University (Huntington, WV) football team and their rebuilding mission following the loss of over 75 players, coaches, and boosters in a tragic plane crash on November 14, 1970.

Jack Lengyel, played by Matthew McConaughey, joins the program at its most devastated state with the formidable task of turning morale around and recruiting an entirely new roster of players (while having to compete for recruits with near-by West Virginia).

Lengyel, along with Assistant Coach Red Dawson and University President Donald Dedmon are able to scrape together a "young thundering heard" and despite their inexperience, frustrations with the NCAA, and their traumatic wounds as a school and a community, Marshall achieves the unthinkable: a win against Xavier University during their first home game of the season.

McConaughey's uplifting performance wins over the audience and the smaller plot lines within the larger story will pull on the heart-strings. The actual football itself isn't that impressive, but the movie itself will probably make you cry. And like most illustrious sports movies, although you may know the story and that they ultimately do win a game, you'll still root anxiously as the seconds wind down on the play clock.

9. Friday Night Lights (2004)

Not to be confused with its sister TV-show series which came out in 2006, this movie follows a small Texas town high school football team with a long-standing tradition of winning.

The economically struggling town looks to its 'Friday Night Lights' for a source of happiness and hopefulness, so you can imagine that shit hits the fan after all-star tailback and team MVP, Boobie Miles suffers a career-ending injury in the season's first game. Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) must find a way to inspire his players to overcome adversity in order to preserve the program's and the community's sanity and spirit.

The movie has more (and higher caliber) football than the TV show, and some pretty awesome inspirational speeches (this is where the quote "perfection is being able to look your friends in the eye and know you did everything you could not to let them down" comes from).

8. The Replacements (2000)

Switching it up a little with a movie definitely not based on a real story, this comedy involves a professional football team, the Washington Sentinels, must turn to replacement substitutes, whom they bring in from off the street (or off the boat in the case of the main character Shane Falco‒ Keanu Reeves), to stand in for the actual team members while they go on strike against the league and management.

Gene Hackman plays former coach Jimmy McGinty who must oversee a team full of oddballs and misfits (like a grubby English pub owner, Nigel "The Leg" Gruff, and a Japanese sumo wrestler, a deaf tight end, and a speedy stock boy at a mini mart) to finish out the rest of the season.

Falco, who pretty much threw in the towel on life after he choked in his final game as an All-American quarterback at Ohio State, must summon the confidence and courage to lead a team who nobody believes in. Along the way, he falls for head cheerleader Annabelle Ferrell (Brooke Langton) who strings together a team of strippers to replace the professional cheerleaders who are also on strike.

You'll instantly fall in love with this hilarious band of brothers, especially after scenes like the infamous "I Will Survive" dance sequence in jail or the 'puking huddle'. The music is corny but enjoyable, the acting by Reeves and some of the other side actors are sometimes iffy, but overall, the movie is a must-see for any comedy or football fanatics.

7. Undefeated (2011)

This Oscar-winning documentary proves how "football doesn't build character; football reveals character" in a challenging and poignant manner.

The true underdog story follows an inner-city squad at Manassas High School in North Memphis who hadn't won a playoff game in 110 years. Coach Bill Courtney joins the team in 2004 with the hope of turning the program around and setting some of the troubled players' on the team lives on track.

The film focuses on their 2009 season, with a roster where not a single player's parents attended college, but where every player had a least one parent serve jail time. Most of the players do not have their fathers in their lives and are dealing with emotional demons that most average football coaches do not have to deal with in one kid, let alone the whole team.

However, a few of the seniors have opportunities to play in college, and Bill Courtney does just about everything he can to make sure they maintain that chance. The profile of the three main players focused on in the film, OC Brown, Montreil "Money" Brown, and Chavis Daniels, who all have their plethora of familial, emotional, and medical issues they must try to overcome, are powerful and vulnerable and prove a lot about how the movie's title is not about football, but rather life.

6. The Longest Yard (2005) (or the 1974 version)

Look, I was born in 1999, I've only seen the re-make with Adam Sandler. But, I've been told by my parents that "the original is better", so you can pick whichever adaptation you want to try out.

Anyways, just like "The Replacements", this too is a comedy certainly not grounded in reality. After NFL quarterback Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler) ends up in jail following a drunken episode and accusations of point-shaving, the prison's warden, Rudolph Hazen (James Cromwell) coerces him into forming a make-shift football team of inmates to play against a team of prison guards in order to boost the guards' confidence.

Crewe enlists his friend 'Caretaker', played by the always beloved Chris Rock, and former NFL-star Nate Scarborough (Burt Reynolds) to help coach and manage the team in the hopes to upset the guards. The inmates are able to bring together a group of prisoners including 'Cheeseburger Eddy' (Terry Crews) and speedster Earl Megget (Nelly), and despite their differences and character flaws, the team, known as "The Mean Machine", are not too bad at football.

The guards attempt to sabotage the cons whether that be through the taking of steroids, the flooding of their practice field, or even murder, but the prisoners aren't easily defeated. There's a cornucopia of crude, slapstick, and cheesy comedy, but it won't get old no matter how many times you watch it.

5. Brian's Song (1971)

This is actually an Emmy-award winning TV-movie (ABC Movie of the Week) that recounts the true story of two teammates and friends on the Chicago Bears, Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams), the first interracial roommates in the National Football League.

The two's friendship blossoms throughout the movie and they both become standout players on the team despite having to compete for similar positions, and most obviously, being of different backgrounds and races.

However, unfortunately, Sayers learns from his coach, George Halas, played by Jack Warden, that Piccolo has developed an aggressive form of terminal cancer. The heartbreaking deterioration of Gale's best friend will take you on an emotional rollercoaster especially after his emotional speech to his team after receiving the "George S. Halas Most Courageous Player Award".

The chemistry between the two men is undeniable and their ability to look past the racial tensions of their time and coexist as equals and brothers is admirable and now as important as ever in our current climate.

4. Rudy (1993)

Based loosely on the now-motivational speaker, but former Fighting-Irish football player Rudy Ruettiger, this film holds a special place in many football fans' hearts.

Sean Austin does a phenomenal job playing Rudy, a young man with neither the money, size, nor the academics to attend school at or play for the prestigious Notre Dame University, but all the desire and commitment in the world to make his dreams become a reality. With the help of Fortune, a stadium groundskeeper Rudy befriends, his family, D-Bob his tutor, and his priest, Rudy learns to overcome his dyslexia, the true meaning of hard work, and that anything is possible.

He eventually gets into the school and convinces the coach to let him on to the practice squad as a "walk-on". His relentless attitude and drive do not go unnoticed by his teammates, and although his coach refuses to put him on the active playing roster, on his last game of eligibility for the Irish, his teammates offer to sacrifice their own uniforms to the head coach in order to give Rudy a chance.

The stadium chanting his name, his sacking of the Georgia Tech quarterback, and his smile as he's carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates elicit feelings of warmth and happiness towards a protagonist the audience can't help but adore. While the film's final victory may not be as tremendous in football-terms as some of these other movies, it is incomparably monumental by its own standards.

3. Invincible (2006)

Based on a real story, the movie follows Vince Papale (played in this film adaptation by Mark Wahlberg) as he transitions from the worst part of his life to his best thanks to one unexpected chance for greatness.

The film begins with a perfect storm in which the protagonist's wife leaves him the same day he's laid off from his job as a substitute teacher. Piss out of luck, hoping for a miracle, Vince learns of an open try-out the Eagles' new head coach, Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear) is holding at Veterans Stadium. Vince performs well enough for Coach Vermeil to offer him a trip to training camp to compete for a roster spot.

At camp, the younger and frankly more professional players give the 30-year-old rookie a tough time, but he still prevails and earns a place on the team. The preseason is shaky, Vince's play unimpressive, while he simultaneously goes back and forth about whether or not to start a new relationship with Janet, a bartending Giants fan played by Elizabeth Banks.

Ultimately, after getting back in touch with his roots, a sandlot mud game with his friends, he gets his mojo back and leads his team to their first victory in the regular season opening game against none other than the New York Giants. Oh, and he gets the girl. The inspiring film would be a great re-watch for any Philly fans still celebrating their first Super Bowl win which happened just this year.

2. The Blind Side (2009)

You guessed it: another true story. This time about the incredible Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) and his adoptive family, particularly his adoptive mother, Leigh Anne Tuohy played by Sandra Bullock in one of her most versatile roles as an actress.

Michael "Big Mike" Oher grew up essentially homeless after his drug-addict mother abandoned and traumatized him at a young age. Coach Burt Cotton of Wingate Christian School helps enroll the young man despite his poor academic record and lack of legal documents because of his menacing size. After Mike befriends young SJ Tuohy and the Tuohy family learns of Mike's state of shelter (or lack thereof), Leigh Anne offers to let Mike stay with them in the house.

Mike's extremely shy and gentle nature takes some time to crack open and light a fire under when on the field, but eventually, the Tuohy's realize that Mike has the potential to be recruited for a football scholarship, and they commit to doing everything they can to help better his chances. They get him a tutor, encourage him to meet with teachers, work with him on football, feed and clothe him, almost as if he's part of the family...Until one day when he actually does become family and they legally adopt him.

Michael eventually commits to Ole Miss, Leigh Anne, and her husband's alma mater, which triggers an NCAA investigation, that eventually gets resolved despite some inner-conflict between Michael with his new family and his birth family. The movie is emotional, inspiring, and has too many memorable scenes and quotes to write out. Michael Oher still plays in the NFL today as an offensive tackle on the Panthers.

Tim McGraw, Kathy Bates, Lily Collins, Ray McKinnon are some other standouts on this film's Allstar cast.

1. Remember the Titans (2000)

One of my favorite movies ever, with one of the best soundtracks of any movie (football-themed or not) of all time, Remember the Titans is a confirmed classic, and the #1 movie on this list.

It tells the true story of Coach Herman Boone, portrayed by the always amazing Denzel Washington, as he's brought on as the new high school head coach of the newly-integrating T.C. Williams High School football squad in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971.

In a time of intense racial conflict, having an African American head coach with a white assistant coach (Bill Yoast played by Ryan Hurst) oversee a team of both white and black players competing for spots can lead to unavoidable conflict and tension, but it also has a way of uniting a broken community through the game of football the way regular diplomacy or violence often failed to during this time period.

Coach Boone brings his players to Gettysburg College for a pre-season camp, hoping to both prepare them for the impending season, but also assimilate them into an amorphous group of young men (who are not separated on the basis of skin color). There, Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell, the two captains who begin as enemies (each leader of their respective race's group) grow a friendship that strengthens into a brotherhood that knows no racial barriers.

The team wins their semi-final game despite attempts from the chairman and the school board to sabotage the game in order to preserve white coach, Coach Yoast's nomination for the Hall of Fame, which Yoast figures out and sacrifices his chance for the Hall of Fame to help Coach Boone and the team succeed. After the big win, unfortunately, Bertier suffers a career-ending injury after a car accident leaves him in the hospital.

However, the Titans prevail and go on to win the state championship, proving to their community and the country that black men and white men can fight, play, and live together as one human race. The acting is outstanding, the music is fantastic, and the overall production itself tells a story like no other.