The 10 worst sports movie coaches of all time

Sports movies often feature inspirational coaches who lead their teams to victory, but there are also some terrible coaches who range from irresponsible and boorish to homicidal. The best sports movie coaches can be just as inspiring as the athletes, and some movies focus on them rather than the characters on the field. However, some movies, especially sports comedies, feature laughably bad coaches instead.

Bad coaches in sports movies are often the villains, like Kreese in The Karate Kid or hung in Shaolin soccer. They are not only bad because they are ineffective; They also knowingly endanger the athletes due to their obsessions with winning. Whether they should be fired or arrested, bad coaches can make sports movies much more interesting by raising the stakes and providing compelling villains.

10

Jimmy Duggan

A League of Their Own (1992)

Jimmy Duggan eventually charts a path to redemptionBut his initial attitude leaves much to be desired. As a retired pro, Jimmy maintains a sense of superiority over his players. He resists the task of despair, but he does not give it his full commitment. His abrasive personality also didn’t help him connect with the players. He even noticed one of them in public for crying.

Jimmy only becomes a serviceable coach once he starts treating his team with more respect, both as players and as people. Even then, he is a difficult person to deal with, and he does not always contribute to a positive atmosphere in the locker room. Between sneaking drinks into the dugout and abandoning half his team, Jimmy sabotages the potential he has to be a good coach.

9

Pete Bell

Blue Chips (1994)

Blue chips Features the unlikely acting team-up of Nick Nolte and Shaquille O’Neal. Nolte plays a college basketball coach under increasing pressure to return the program to its glory days, while Shaq plays one of those “blue chip” prospects who can single-handedly win games. In order to compete with other powerhouse colleges, coach Pete Bell allows his staff to bribe players to join the team.

Blue chips Shows that Pete was a great coach, with several conference titles and national championships. However, he seems to have lost his magic touch, and is willing to skirt the rules to regain his status and keep his job security. Breaking recruitment rules is one thing, but Pete repeatedly lies about his cheating and manipulates others into dropping the story.

8

Tashi

Challengers (2024)

Tashi could point to her record and claim she’s a good coach, but that would ignore the big picture. Despite coaching Art Donaldson to several major championships, she also put undue pressure on him. Tashi exemplifies the maxim that it is not wise to mix business with pleasure. She and Art’s tumultuous relationship is not the professional atmosphere a tennis player needs.

Aside from being ruthless as a coach, Tashi isn’t exactly the perfect partner either. Sleeping with Art’s opponent the night before their grand final is a bad coaching move, to say the least. Ultimately, it seems that there are more important things to Tashi than her husband’s success on the court. She enjoys being in the middle of a fight between two men, and she plays her part in damaging Art’s career. The end of Challengers Proves that she is more interested in the contest than the outcome.

7

Morris Buttermaker

The Bad News Bears (1976)

Morris Buttermaker is not equipped to be anywhere near childrenBut he’s roped into coaching a struggling little league baseball team when he’s desperate for money. Morris is an alcoholic who shows very little interest in teaching any of his players about baseball. He is irresponsible and confrontational, two qualities that make him a poor choice to look for a group of misfits in need of some guidance.

Morris was challenged by an equally terrible coach in the championship game. Morris’ opponent strikes his own son, which is the one moment in The bad news bears Which makes Morris look like a good coach by comparison. Although he never hits any of the children, Maurice does push them too hard in his pursuit of victory. Strangely, he is just as irresponsible after his heart. He celebrates with his team by giving them all beer, which is as intelligent as it is legal.

6

Darren Goddard

Blades of Glory (2007)

Darren Goddard is a figure skating coach who thinks outside the box. When his star pupil, Jimmy MacElroy, is banned from professional skating, he concocts a plan to pair him with the bad boy of ice skating, Chazz Michael Michaels, so that the two can compete as partners. This opens both skaters to a lot of public scrutiny and humiliation, but it ends, and they silence their critics.

The real reason Darren is such a bad coach isn’t his idea of ​​making a same-sex figure skating couple. It’s his obsession with making his skaters do a move that could kill them. The “Iron Lotus” requires one skater to throw the other into the air and perform a spinning kick that brings their skates to within inches of their partner’s neck. The only previously recorded attempt ended in a decapitation, and that’s the move Darren thinks is a good idea.

5

Patches O’Houlihan

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)

Patches O’Houlihan may be a legendary dodgeball athlete, but his coaching philosophy leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the drills he puts his players through resemble violent hazingWhether he pushes them in a busy street, or throws at them at night. Patches should count himself lucky that none of his players died before making it onto the field. It is debatable how much of their success should be attributed to him.

It’s true that average Joes look like a sorry bunch before patches come on board. However, its positive impact can be as simple as giving the team a common enemy. With a confidence-boosting match-up against a girl scout troop and some terrible bullying from Patches, the team begins to unite. Dying might be the biggest contribution Patches makes to the team, as his death galvanizes them to an upset victory over Globo Gym.

4

John Cross

The Karate Kid (1984)

John Kreese is the sensei of the Cobra Kai dojo, and he represents the complete antithesis to Mr. Miyagi’s philosophy of karate. Kreese believes in winning at all costs. He even encourages his students to bully and intimidate others On their way to victory. When it comes to the grand karate championship, Kreis orders his students to hurt Daniel’s knee, first with an illegal move and second by sweeping the leg.

Kreis lacks morals, and he is a terrible role model for his students in Cobra Kai. It’s unclear why he takes the Under 18 All-Valley Karate Championship so seriously, but clearly it’s important enough for him to potentially disable a kid. As well as being deeply angry, Kreese also fails to win the championship. With a new one Karate Kid In the works, the story of Cobra Kai could be revived again.

3

hung

Shaolin Soccer (2001)

Despite access to the best players and state-of-the-art training facilities, Hung must resort to cheating and brutal violence to ensure victory. Coach of the appropriately named Team EvilHang bribes or intimidates the referees in the competition. He also injects his players with performance-enhancing drugs, ignoring the ethical implications and the potential health side effects of his actions.

Shaolin soccer is a quirky sports comedy that mixes soccer with elements of wire fu. The conflict is exaggerated, so it makes sense that Hung is as evil as sports movie villains come. After breaking several legs on his way to the cup final, Hung was eventually defeated by an unemployed baker with no previous soccer experience. This is the ultimate shame for Hung, and further proof that he is a lousy coach.

2

Coach Klein

The Waterboy (1998)

Adam Sandler’s sports movies allow the actor to combine his irreverent sense of humor with some great physical comedy, especially The Waterboy. Sandler plays one of his typical moronic manchild characters, and Henry Winkler’s Coach Klein is the perfect foil. Klein is just as intent in his own way, but he also knows how to smoke his new star player. His antagonistic coaching style may be effective in short bursts, but the long-term effects are questionable at best.

It’s a miracle that Klein remains a coach this long, since his team was on a 40-game losing streak before adding Bobby to the roster. This ends up being the one blemish on his otherwise troubled talent ID, as the rest of the team is made up of incompetent players. Klein is unable to gain the right path, so he must rely on the basic violent instincts of a water bearer. The fact that he also has to torture Bobby doesn’t seem to weigh on his conscience.

1

Jackie Moon

semi-pro (2008)

semi-pro Is not one of Will Ferrell’s best movies, but his lively performance still gets a lot of laughs. Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a one-hit wonder as a musician who buys his own basketball team because he sees a couple of games on TV and decides to give it a go. He quickly installs himself as the team’s coach, pre-game announcer and power forward. Jackie Moon is as ignorant as Ricky Bobby von Talladega NightsBut his role as a coach means that he can inflict his arrogant stupidity on the whole squad.

Jackie is a terrible basketball player and a clueless coach. The only way his team finds some success is through moments of individual brilliance – not his own – and another player doing his coaching job. Jackie is mostly concerned with increasingly ridiculous stunts in an attempt to boost attendance. He eventually fights a bear in the middle of the arena, proving that his attempts at marketing are as misguided as his attempts at coaching.