What To Watch
17 Football Movies and Shows to Watch from the Sidelines
Check out these fresh-faced draft picks, gridiron legends, and more.
By Tudum Staff
Sept. 9, 2026
17 Football Movies and Shows to Watch During the NFL Season - Netflix Tudum
Grab your team’s jersey and resume your gameday rituals — football is back. And for the 2026–27 season, the NFL is on Netflix, from Week 1 in 2026 through Super Bowl weekend in 2027. The lineup includes the first-ever regular-season NFL game in Australia, as well as Thanksgiving Eve, Christmas Day, Week 18, and NFL Honors.
Of course, when your favorite team is playing, you’re gathered around the TV with your fellow fans — chips and dips prepped, drinks in hand. But if you’re twiddling your thumbs until the next game is on, hit “play” on these pigskin-centric movies and shows. From family comedies and thrilling dramas to compelling documentaries on the famed players you think you know well, these titles are available to watch now — and will keep you plenty entertained until your players are back on the field.
All American
With over-the-top drama and an engaging storyline partly based on true events, this series plays out like a teen soap version of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It follows Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), a star athlete who is forced to transfer from a high school in South Central Los Angeles to one in Beverly Hills. Spencer struggles to acclimate to his new life while also pursuing his college football dreams.
America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys
This eight-episode series recounts the ups and downs that defined the Dallas Cowboys during the 1990s — a time when the Texas team, under Jerry Jones’s leadership, won three Super Bowl championships and endured a string of controversies. The look back, from Emmy-winning directors Chapman and Maclain Way (Wild Wild Country, The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga), features interviews with former players Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, and Deion Sanders, plus coaches Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer.
Audible
Meet Amaree McKenstry-Hall, a high school senior and football player at Maryland School for the Deaf. This documentary follows the student athlete and his teammates as they attempt to defend their winning streak on the field. At the same time, they look forward to their upcoming graduation, face the mounting pressures of entering adulthood, and grieve the tragic loss of a close friend. In 2022, the coming-of-age story earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Short.
Coach Snoop
Snoop Dogg fuses tough love with paternal warmth in this documentary about the football league he created to help at-risk youth in the Los Angeles area. This series has it all: winners, losers, and unmissable takeaways that will stick with you for days (or maybe years). As an added bonus, you get to see a rap icon dish out life lessons to developing teens in the most Snoop Dogg way imaginable.
Colin in Black & White
Before NFL superstar Colin Kaepernick made headlines for his activism — and long before he became a starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers — he was a high school all-star in three different sports while upholding a 4.0 GPA. Kaepernick himself narrates this six-episode dramatization, in which the teenager navigates race, class, and culture while aspiring for greatness. Jaden Michael plays the young athlete, with Mary-Louise Parker and Nick Offerman as his parents.
Elway
In this story of perseverance, audiences step into locker rooms, huddles, and the quiet moments that shaped one of football’s most compelling legends. The captivating story traces Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway’s journey from multisport phenom (he was drafted by the New York Yankees) to heavily scrutinized NFL QB to Super Bowl champion in a 16-year career filled with heartbreak and redemption — often simultaneously. It’s told in Elway’s voice and grounded in moments that have become folklore, from draft day drama to Super Bowl glory.
Friday Night Lights
Based on H.G. Bissinger’s 1990 book, this sports drama stars Billy Bob Thornton as Gary Gaines, the head coach of the Permian High School football team. The gridiron-obsessed Texas town’s high expectations prove nearly overwhelming for both Gaines and his players. As they take hits on and off the field, the team must come together to achieve their town’s state championship dream — and secure their own futures. Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund, Tim McGraw, and Connie Britton co-star.
Home Team
This charming sports comedy is based on the true story of former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton. Kevin James portrays the coach, who has been suspended from the NFL for a year. Rather than mope about it, he returns to his Texas hometown to coach his toughest team yet: that of his 12-year-old son. Come for the fun on the field, stay for James’s playbook of dad jokes.
Last Chance U
This series explores the inner workings of the junior college football scene. Over five seasons, the show stops at East Mississippi Community College, Kansas’s Independence Community College, and California’s Laney College. At each location, viewers meet charismatic (and occasionally problematic) head coaches, passionate academic advisors, and promising athletes with hopes of making it to the pros. The show’s spin-off, Last Chance U: Basketball, is also available to stream.
Quarterback
Join the huddle in this eight-part docuseries, which hones in on the biggest quarterbacks in the game in a first-of-its-kind look at the high-pressure position. It’s the first time the NFL has allowed quarterbacks to be mic’d up all season, and it captures intimate moments with these top players as well as their families, friends, and trainers. Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, Marcus Mariota, Joe Burrow, Jared Goff, Jayden Daniels, Baker Mayfield, Cam Ward, and Joe Flacco are the focus of the show’s three seasons.
Receiver
Every football team knows the importance of having a good quarterback, but a quarterback is only as good as his receiver. Over the course of eight episodes, this docuseries from the creators of Quarterback follows four wide receivers and one tight end through the 2023 NFL season as they make their way down the field in a quest for the end zone. The players in focus are Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, and Amon-Ra St. Brown.
SEC Football: Any Given Saturday
In the South, college football isn’t just a game — it’s a way of life. This seven-episode series goes inside the Southeastern Conference during the 2024 season and intimately captures the pressure, pageantry, and pure intensity of the nation’s most competitive college football scene. It offers unprecedented access to the players and coaches of 10 teams, including notorious powerhouses like the LSU Tigers and the Florida Gators, as well as perennial underdogs like the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Titletown High
The Valdosta High School Wildcats are the winningest high school football program in the country, and this eight-episode docuseries follows the Georgia athletes during their 2020 season as they tackle romance, rivalries, and real life — all while vying for the title. The show is created by Jason Sciavicco, who was also behind MTV’s 2006 series Two-A-Days, and features the same coach — Rush Propst — at his newest job.
Untold: Sign Stealer
This film digs into the case of former Michigan Wolverines defensive analyst Connor Stalions, who was accused in 2023 of in-person sign stealing. While the NCAA allows teams to decode opponents’ play signals while watching a game in real-time or reviewing footage, it does not permit the sending of scouts to games to obtain footage — which is just what Stalions allegedly did. Here, Stalions reflects on landing his dream job at the University of Michigan and addresses the NCAA’s investigation.
Untold: Swamp Kings
When Urban Meyer was named head coach of the University of Florida’s football team in 2005, he planned to overhaul the entire Gators program. This four-part series offers an inside look at Meyer’s tough-as-nails coaching regime and the Gators’ unique brotherhood as they rise to win two BCS National Championships. Tune in for the epic story of the Gators’ long-awaited comeback — and in the competitive Southeastern Conference, no less.
Untold: The Testimony of Vince Young
After delivering one of the greatest performances in Rose Bowl history, University of Texas football legend Vince Young was set to be the NFL’s next big thing — and for a while, he was. But a career riddled with injuries, conflict, and sudden loss holds a far more complicated story than the highlight reels ever showed. This documentary dives into the pressures of fame after Young’s career-defining game. Young himself details his raw and emotional journey of fumbles, failures, and finding freedom.
We Are: The Brooklyn Saints
Children playing football and learning lessons they can take with them through the rest of their lives? Better get those tissues ready. This heartfelt four-episode docuseries centers on a group of kids in a youth football program in the titular New York borough as they play their 2019 season. Also in focus: the compassionate coaches and hardworking parents who offer them a safe haven to compete, grow, and have fun.
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