Movies like Varsity Blues (1999)
The best movies like Varsity Blues (1999) are Necessary Roughness (1991), The Program (1993) and Slap Shot (1977). If Varsity Blues hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRudy (1993)7.4/10 from 796 votes
- NewestA California Christmas (2020)Released 2020
Necessary Roughness (1991)
When the Texas State University Fightin' Armadillos football team is disqualified for cheating and poor grades, the University is forced to pick from a team that actually goes to school. Will they even win a single game?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Program (1993)
Several players from different backgrounds try to cope with the pressures of playing football at a major university. Each deals with the pressure differently, some turn to drinking, others to drugs, and some to studying.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSlap Shot (1977)
To build up attendance at their games, the management of a struggling minor-league hockey team signs up the Hanson Brothers, three hard-charging players whose job is to demolish the opposition.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Replacements (2000)
Maverick old-guard coach Jimmy McGinty is hired in the wake of a players' strike to help the Washington Sentinels advance to the playoffs. But that impossible dream hinges on whether his replacements can hunker down and do the job. So, McGinty dusts off his secret dossier of ex-players who never got a chance (or screwed up the one they were given) and knits together a bad-dream team of guys who just may give the Sentinels their title shot.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAny Given Sunday (1999)
A star quarterback gets knocked out of the game and an unknown third stringer is called in to replace him. The unknown gives a stunning performance and forces the aging coach to reevaluate his game plans and life. A new co-owner/president adds to the pressure of winning. The new owner must prove herself in a male dominated world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDraft Day (2014)
At the NFL Draft, general manager Sonny Weaver has the opportunity to rebuild his team when he trades for the number one pick. He must decide what he's willing to sacrifice on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with NFL dreams.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisComeback Season (2006)
First Down. Second Chance. Skylar is a star quarterback of his football team. He's got the skills, the looks, and the girls. His next-door neighbor, Walter is a loving husband, good father and all-round decent family man. When their worlds start to crumble they find themselves in jail together and suddenly these former enemies must rely on each other to rebuild their lives...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarter High (2015)
The true story of four student athletes from Carter High School in Dallas, Texas in the 1980s, whose bright futures irrevocably changed due to their off-field activities.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Friday Night Lights (2004)
A small, turbulent town in Texas obsesses over their high school football team to an unhealthy degree. When the star tailback, Boobie Miles, is seriously injured during the first game of the season, all hope is lost, and the town's dormant social problems begin to flare up. It is left to the inspiring abilities of new coach Gary Gaines to instill in the other team members -- and, by proxy, the town itself -- a sense of self-respect and honor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWildcats (1986)
High school track coach Molly McGrath knows just as much about football as anyone else on the planet. When a football coach's position becomes vacant, she applies for the job, despite snickers from fellow staff members and her former husband.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRudy (1993)
Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll the Right Moves (1983)
Sensitive study of a headstrong high school football star who dreams of getting out of his small Western Pennsylvania steel town with a football scholarship. His equally ambitious coach aims at a college position, resulting in a clash which could crush the player's dreams.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDancer, Texas Pop. 81 (1998)
Four guys, best friends, have grown up together in DANCER, TEXAS POP. 81, a tiny town in West Texas. Years ago, they made a solemn vow to leave town together as soon as they graduate. Now, it's that weekend and the time has come to "put up or shut up." The clock is ticking and as all 81 people in the town watch, comment, offer advice and place bets, these four very different boys with unique backgrounds struggle with the biggest decision of their lives... whether to stay or leave home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Goon (2012)
Doug Glatt, a slacker who discovers he has a talent for brawling, is approached by a minor league hockey coach and invited to join the team as the "muscle." Despite the fact that Glatt can't skate, his best friend, Pat, convinces him to give it a shot, and Glatt becomes a hero to the team and their fans, until the league's reigning goon becomes threatened by Glatt's success and decides to even the score.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Are Marshall (2006)
When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Crush (2002)
Nothing gets between Anne Marie and her board. Living in a beach shack with three roommates, she is up before dawn every morning to conquer the waves and count the days until the Pipe Masters competition. Having transplanted herself to Hawaii with no one's blessing but her own, Anne Marie finds all she needs in the adrenaline-charged surf scene - until pro quarterback Matt Tollman comes along...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYoungblood (1986)
A skilled young hockey prospect hoping to attract the attention of professional scouts is pressured to show that he can fight if challenged during his stay in a Canadian minor hockey town. His on-ice activities are complicated by his relationship with the coach's daughter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Waterboy (1998)
Bobby Boucher is a water boy for a struggling college football team. The coach discovers Boucher's hidden rage makes him a tackling machine whose bone-crushing power might vault his team into the playoffs.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBring It On (2000)
The Toro cheerleading squad from Rancho Carne High School in San Diego has got spirit, spunk, sass and a killer routine that's sure to land them the national championship trophy for the sixth year in a row. But for newly-elected team captain Torrance, the Toros' road to total cheer glory takes a shady turn when she discovers that their perfectly-choreographed routines were in fact stolen.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhip It (2009)
In Bodeen, Texas, an indie-rock loving misfit finds a way of dealing with her small-town misery after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad News Bears (2005)
Morris Buttermaker is a burned-out minor league baseball player who loves to drink and can't keep his hands to himself. His long-suffering lawyer arranges for him to manage a local Little League team, and Buttermaker soon finds himself the head of a rag-tag group of misfit players. Through unconventional team-building exercises and his offbeat coaching style, Buttermaker helps his hapless Bears prepare to meet their rivals, the Yankees.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisJohnny Be Good (1988)
It's recruiting time and despite being short and scrawny, Johnny Walker is America's hottest young football prospect. His dilemma: should he take one of the many offers from college talent scouts or should he attend the local state college with his girlfriend and give up his football career?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisStick It (2006)
Haley is a naturally gifted athlete but, with her social behavior, the teen seems intent on squandering her abilities. After a final brush with the law, a judge sentences her to an elite gymnastics academy run by a legendary, hard-nosed coach. Once there, Haley's rebellious attitude wins her both friends and enemies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mighty Ducks (1992)
After reckless young lawyer Gordon Bombay gets arrested for drunk driving, he must coach a kids hockey team for his community service. Gordon has experience on the ice, but isn't eager to return to hockey, a point hit home by his tense dealings with his own former coach, Jack Reilly. The reluctant Gordon eventually grows to appreciate his team, which includes promising young Charlie Conway, and leads them to take on Reilly's tough players.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMajor League (1989)
When Rachel Phelps inherits the Cleveland Indians from her deceased husband, she's determined to move the team to a warmer climate—but only a losing season will make that possible, which should be easy given the misfits she's hired. Rachel is sure her dream will come true, but she underestimates their will to succeed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMajor League: Back to the Minors (1998)
At the behest of Roger Dorn -- the Minnesota Twins' silver-tongued new owner -- washed-up minor league hurler Gus Cantrell steps up to the plate to take over as skipper of the club's hapless farm team. But little does he know that Dorn has an ulterior motive to generate publicity with a grudge match between the big leaguers and their ragtag Triple A affiliate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisMilk Money (1994)
Three young boys pool their money and pay V, a kindhearted prostitute, to strip for them. Afterward, she drives them home to the suburbs -- but then her car breaks down. It's just as well, though, because a mobster named Waltzer is after her, and V realizes the suburbs are the perfect place to hide. But things get a lot more complicated when V falls in love with Tom, a single father who is unaware of her real profession.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA California Christmas (2020)
With his carefree lifestyle on the line, a wealthy charmer poses as a ranch hand to get a hardworking farmer to sell her family’s land before Christmas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDrive Me Crazy (1999)
Nicole and Chase live next door to each other but are worlds apart. However, they plot a scheme to date each other in order to attract the interest and jealousy of their respective romantic prey. But in the mist of planning a gala centennial celebration, Nicole and Chase find that the one they always wanted was closer than they ever thought.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCoyote Ugly (2000)
Graced with a velvet voice, 21-year-old Violet Sanford heads to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a songwriter only to find her aspirations sidelined by the accolades and notoriety she receives at her "day" job as a barmaid at Coyote Ugly. The "Coyotes" as they are affectionately called tantalize customers and the media alike with their outrageous antics, making Coyote Ugly the watering hole for guys on the prowl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Varsity Blues?
The closest matches to Varsity Blues are Necessary Roughness (1991), The Program (1993) and Slap Shot (1977). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Varsity Blues?
People who watched Varsity Blues most often go on to Necessary Roughness (1991), The Program (1993) and Slap Shot (1977).
What is the highest-rated movie like Varsity Blues?
Rudy (1993), rated 7.4/10 by 796 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Varsity Blues?
A California Christmas (2020) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Varsity Blues?
Yes: Necessary Roughness (1991), The Program (1993) and Slap Shot (1977).
How are movies similar to Varsity Blues chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Varsity Blues, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.