History Film / VarsityBlues

* ParentalObliviousness: Sam Moxon is this to a T. His son just received an acceptance letter to an Ivy League college, with a full academic scholarship nonetheless, but Sam just wants to talk about the upcoming football game. The sad thing is that despite Sam's obsession with the Coyotes and idolization of Kilmer, Kilmer considers Sam to be a "no-talent pussy" whose only redeeming quality as a player was that he never questioned Kilmer's orders.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Mox's brother Kyle seems to adopt and practice a different religious faith in every scene he's in. Eventually taken UpToEleven when Kyle forms his own cult!

* TheCheerleader: Darcy Sears. She plays it straight for most of the movie. Then, after the whipped cream bikini scene, she breaks down and admits that she just wants to get out of West Canaan and can't see any other way to do it other than attach herself to the star quarterback.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: While Tweeder is joyriding a stolen cop car, he skids to a stop right in front of Mox, then strides out with only the deputy's hat to cover his shame.
** At the gentlemen's club, Billy Bob decides.to climb up on the stage and do an impromptu dance, to his teammates' disgust.

The film revolves around the fictional small town of West Canaan, Texas; its high school football team, the Coyotes; and the team's head coach, Bud Kilmer (Creator/JonVoight). Kilmer has won more than 20 district championships and two state championships; as such, the stadium is named after him, and a giant bronze statue of Kilmer has been erected in the end zone in his honor. However, the questionable lengths he goes to to win these championships begin to surface after his star quarterback Lance Harbor (Creator/PaulWalker) goes down with a season-ending injury, prompting a conflict between Kilmer and the team's academically-minded backup quarterback, Jonathan "Mox" Moxon (Creator/JamesVanDerBeek).

* TheNineties: The music, clothing, and hair fully cement this film in the 90's. Right down to Mox's hemp and clay bead necklace.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the hardass coach pushing his players to their limits. Coach Kilmer's obsession with winning runs so deep that he'll talk his injured stars into taking painkillers and ignoring injuries - which winds up costing [[spoiler:Lance]] his scholarship to college as his knee was so shredded that by the time the doctors got to it, a season-ending injury became [[CareerEndingInjury a career-ending one]]. In particular, Billy-Bob's concussion has become ''much'' [[invoked]]HarsherInHindsight in the decades since this movie premiered, as science and medicine have progressed and revealed concussions are much more dangerous than they were thought to be back in the 90s.

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Mox actually tries to psyche himself up to hook up with Darcy by telling himself that there's no reason why he shouldn't and anyone else would. [[spoiler:He stays faithful to Julie instead.]]

* RealityEnsues: Coach Kilmer's obsession with winning runs so deep that he'll talk his injured stars into taking painkillers and ignoring injuries - which winds up costing [[spoiler:Lance]] his scholarship to college as his knee was so shredded that by the time the doctors got to it, a season-ending injury became [[CareerEndingInjury a career-ending one]]. In particular, Billy-Bob's concussion has become ''much'' [[invoked]]HarsherInHindsight in the decades since this movie premiered, as science and medicine have progressed and revealed concussions are much more dangerous than they were thought to be back in the 90s.

* CareerEndingInjury: Downplayed. Lance's knee injury was so severe, the doctor said it would take a minimum year and a half to heal nixing his football scholarship to Florida State.

* RealityEnsues: Coach Kilmer's obsession with winning runs so deep that he'll talk his injured stars into taking painkillers and ignoring injuries - which winds up costing [[spoiler:Lance]] his scholarship to college as his knee was so shredded that by the time the doctors got to it, a season-ending injury became [[CareerEndingInjury a career-ending one]]. In particular, Billy-Bob's concussion has become ''much'' HarsherInHindsight in the decades since this movie premiered, as science and medicine have progressed and revealed concussions are much more dangerous than they were thought to be back in the 90s.

* AlliterativeName: Billy Bob though it's likely his nickname.

The film revolves around the fictional town of West Canaan, Texas; its high school football team, the Coyotes; and the team's head coach, Bud Kilmer (Creator/JonVoight). Kilmer has won more than 20 district championships and two state championships; as such, the stadium is named after him, and a giant bronze statue of Kilmer has been erected in the end zone in his honor. However, the questionable lengths he goes to to win these championships begin to surface after his star quarterback Lance Harbor (Creator/PaulWalker) goes down with a season-ending injury, prompting a conflict between Kilmer and the team's academically-minded backup quarterback, Jonathan "Mox" Moxon (Creator/JamesVanDerBeek).

* TheNineties: The music, clothing, and hair fully cement this film in the 90's. Right down to Mox's hemp and clay bead necklace.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: The stolen patrol car is full of this trope.

* MeaningfulName: Johnathan "Mox" Moxon as in "moxie".

* JacobMarleyWarning: [[spoiler:When Kilmer tries convincing Wendell to take painkillers so the latter can play through injury during the final game, Lance arrives in the locker room on his crutches telling Wendell not to do it because he'll wind up just like Lance.]]

* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Most notably in the blocked punt scene. Billy Bob asks to be put in on defense and blocks two guys at once, and Tweeder (who's already playing defense, even though he's a wide receiver) blocks the punt. There's also a scene where Kilmer starts to promoted Tweeder to quarterback. Again, Tweeder is the ''star wide receiver''. The only player not one of the main characters to be seen doing ''anything'' is a receiver named Gonzales catching a single pass during the last game.

* YouHaveFailedMe: Coach Kilmer blames Billy Bob for Lance's injury, since Billy Bob fell over and missed his block.

* ParentalSubstitute: Billy Bob: [[[AC:crying]]] "Man, Coach loved me like a son! Treated me like one, too."

* RealityEnsues: Coach Kilmer's obsession with winning runs so deep that he'll talk his injured stars into taking painkillers and ignoring injuries - which winds up costing [[spoiler:Lance]] his scholarship to college as his knee was so shredded that by the time the doctors got to it, a season-ending injury became [[CareerEndingInjury a career-ending one. In particular, Billy-Bob's concussion has become ''much'' HarsherInHindsight in the decades since this movie premiered, as science and medicine have progressed and revealed concussions are much more dangerous than they were thought to be back in the 90s.

''Varsity Blues'', a 1999 comedy-drama directed by Brian Robbins, is one of the great [[ClicheStorm Cliché Storms]] of the 1990s. It is a [[SportsStories sports story]] that centers around high school [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball football]] in the great state of [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texas]].

* RealityEnsues: Coach Kilmer's obsession with winning runs so deep [[spoiler: that he'll talk his injured stars into taking painkillers and ignoring injuries - which winds up costing Lance his scholarship to college as his knee was so shredded that by the time the doctors got to it, a season-ending injury became [[CareerEndingInjury a career-ending one]].]]
** In particular, Billy-Bob's concussion has become ''much'' HarsherInHindsight in the decades since this movie premiered.

* DownToTheLastPlay: And the play they run is the trick play that Killmer yelled at Mox over earlier in the game.

* HeelRealization: It's ambiguous since there's no dialogue in the scene. After [[spoiler:being driven away by the team]], Coach Killmer ends up in his office looking at his old trophies, and catches his reflection in one of them. All we know is [[spoiler:he never coached in West Canaan again, and didn't follow up on his threats to mess up Mox's scholarship]].

* {{Jerkasss}}: Kilmer by by FAR.

** It's possible they could've withdrawn from the state tournament. Or maybe they did go on and Johnny sat out.

** Wendell even lampshades it by calling him a “racist fucking redneck”