Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Nell Minow of
RogerEbert.com awarded the film three stars out of four. Alan Ng of
Film Threat rated the film a 7.5 out of 10. Julian Roman of
MovieWeb awarded the film three stars out of five.
Frank Scheck of
The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review and wrote, "… the familiar beats are hammered so skillfully you don’t mind the manipulation. And although you may be shocked,
shocked, to learn that the film takes some liberties with the truth, they’re not so egregious as to diminish its overall impact."
Owen Gleiberman of
Variety also gave the film a positive review and wrote, “It’s basically a soft-hearted paint-by-numbers TV-movie, stocked with homilies about the game of football vs. the game of life. Yet it’s an
effective soft-hearted paint-by-numbers TV-movie.” ==References==