Fantasy Football
Draft night in somebody's basement, the waiver wire, and a running back you'd never heard of deciding whether you'd speak to your brother-in-law that week. The office league that turned every Sunday into every game at once.
#Football
12 items
Koosh Vortex
Not one toy but a whole line of foam sports gear from OddzOn — the company behind the Koosh Ball. The Vortex name spanned whistling foam footballs that screamed through the air and, later, ring-shooting blasters that fired foam rings across the yard. If it was foam and it flew far, OddzOn stamped 'Vortex' on it.
Little Giants
Rick Moranis and Ed O'Neill as feuding brothers coaching rival pee-wee football teams in Urbania, Ohio; Icebox, the girl who got cut for being a girl; a bus full of real NFL stars; and a trick play called the Annexation of Puerto Rico. It didn't earn back its budget in theaters, but it never left the kid-sports canon.
The Madden Curse
Get on the cover of Madden, get hurt. From Garrison Hearst's ankle to Michael Vick's leg to Shaun Alexander's foot, a decade of cover athletes made fans build a website begging EA to leave their guy alone.
Madden NFL
Every August a new Madden, and every year the same arguments: the rosters, the ratings, the cover, the curse. EA's football series started as "Trip's Folly" in 1988, became an annual release in 1990, and in the 2000s turned into a calendar event, complete with a tournament on Super Bowl weekend and a reality show about finding the best player in America.
![Video thumbnail — [Nintendo 64] NFL Blitz TV Commercial](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KwSb_-1bsFo/hqdefault.jpg)
NFL Blitz
The arcade football game that threw the rulebook in the trash: seven-on-seven, 30 yards for a first down, no penalties, and late hits actively encouraged — you could body-slam a guy well after the whistle. From the NBA Jam bloodline, with the same announcer energy: "DA BOMB!"
NFL Street
Seven-on-seven football with no penalties, no injuries, and no uniforms — just NFL players in street clothes talking trash on a concrete lot. Taunt the defense while you run and you fill the Gamebreaker meter. EA Sports BIG's 2004 answer to the question of what football looks like with all the rules taken out.
New England Patriots Dynasty
A sixth-round quarterback who started the year as a backup, a coach who asked to introduce his team all at once, and three Lombardi Trophies in four years. Every AFC fan's villain for two decades pulled the biggest Super Bowl upset since Super Bowl III.
Remember the Titans
Denzel Washington as Coach Herman Boone, a newly consolidated Virginia high school, and a 1971 season that ended 13–0. Remember the Titans opened at number one in September 2000, earned a rare A+ CinemaScore, and its theme has closed NBC's Olympic broadcasts since 2002, even though the real Titans won most of their games by shutout.
Terrell Owens
The Sharpie in the sock, the pose on the Dallas star, the sit-ups in the driveway while the cameras rolled. T.O. was one of the best receivers in football for most of a decade and the most entertaining press conference in sports, often at the same time.
The Waterboy
Bobby Boucher, his Mama, Coach Klein, and the Mud Dogs' forty-game losing streak. Adam Sandler's 1998 Cajun football comedy drew some of the worst reviews of his career, opened to a November record anyway, and as of 2020 was still the highest-grossing sports comedy ever made.
XFL
Vince McMahon's smash-mouth football league lasted exactly one season in 2001 — and burned itself into memory anyway. No coin toss, no fair catches, nicknames on jerseys, and a Las Vegas running back named Rod Smart wearing the greatest jersey in sports history: HE HATE ME.