My standards in this area are probably just higher than most people's, though. I'm not sure I'd class Caddyshack as a sports movie, in the purest sense (it's really a proto-American Pie with golf scenes).

That said, I don't really have many complaints about the list. Raging Bull is probably a better movie than Hoosiers, but basketball is a better sport, and Hoosiers is more fundamentally about basketball (Raging Bull is a great movie about a boxer, but not really a movie about boxing), so it gets the nod. I'm only a little biased, here. After that, the movies that I've seen in the top ten are all better than the movies that I've seen in the bottom fifteen, so it's fairly reasonable.

Notable omissions: He Got Game, Hoop Dreams (though including a documentary might be cheating). (I was going to mention Slap Shot, but it misses the 25-year window).

Acting note: This list confirms that Kevin Costner is really at his best when playing a sort of Everyman sports guy. I think he leads all actors, starring in three of the top fifteen. Tom Cruise is next, with two of the top eighteen.

Natural Law Note: A collection of writing about rugby that I once read offered the theory that the quality of literature about a particular sport is directly proportional to how much time is spent standing around doing nothing. You might take the ESPN list as evidence to support this theory, as there are only two basketball movies and two football movies on the list, compared to eight baseball movies. (Then again, there are only two about golf, so maybe the theory needs work...)

(Originally posted to Uncertain Principles.)