Favorite scene?

I have to say in thinking this over - this is one of those movies that hardly wastes a single scene - maybe the way the Charlotte Calder character just sort of disappears by the end of the movie is the weakest element...
My favortes:

The opening scene: you get sucked straight into the story from the moment Phil opens his eyes - the blood caked pillow, the pills and the beers, the joint in the tub, the pained look on his face remembering the drop...and the satisfied smile on recalling his game saving catch...

The closing scene: complete with pure-70's freeze frame...

Also:

- 'Wait till I get to the wierd part'

- 'You keep me on the sports page, but they keep me off the obituary pages!'

- G. D. berating Elliot for his maverick play execution pointing out item after item, and never taking his eyes off the computer screen...

- 'That's what I say when I have to tell someone I really like the truth'

- 'Get back in there Douglass!'

- 'Unidentified white male...'

- 'How can you DO that to your body' - 'You'll get over it Delmar'

- 'Don't you piss in there Elliot'

- 'I was only moving my lips...'

I just watched this the other night. As I figgered out in another thread here, The high point of the film is O.C.'s locker room speech after the Chicago game...

My favorite is certainly O.W.'s rant at Charles Durning after they lose. John Matuszak's barely contained rage was admirable for a jock, and his anger at losing is no less than his anger at being manipulated by the system, by the coaches, and by management, which I think remains a key issue in major American sports.

As others have noted, lots of good stuff in this under-appreciated film.

It's been a long time since I saw it but the one scene I remember is when Nick Nolte sort of crawls out of bed one morning and his bones are cracking and he's stretching his arms and he's groaning and puffing away, trying to come round, with his body just one big ache.

Just a great scene that speaks volumes.

I think the reason that I love this movie so much, was the incredibly poignant moment at the end of the film when Phil Elliot looks at B.A. after telling the owners to take his job and shove it! Phil then turns to head coach B.A. and begs him to realize the hypocrisy and inhuman degradation of their profession, and then says, "You're right B.A., it's time to put away childish things.", and leaves the office.

What makes the moment so poignant of course, is that B.A. paraphrased Corinthians 13:11 "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.", directly to Phil Elliot earlier in the film to emphasize his point about Phil's lack of maturity toward his job as a professional football player.

That scene was eventually turned completely on its head when Phil Elliot paraphrases Corinthians right back at B.A. later in the film, suggesting that in a moment of personal clarity, Phil now realizes that the entire professional game of football is a childish endeavor, and everyone apart of the profession is behaving childishly as a result, including BA.

Incredibly powerful scene.

When they're in the classroom, and the coach is giving that corny old speech from his football days, with the cringe-inducing line "If God did not want competition, then why is it called the human race?"

And then one guy asks for a copy of the letter as a joke, and the devout-Christian player asks for with a straight face. Lol!

Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.