Canada Women’s Soccer Coach Stepping Down From Olympics Opener

Canada Women's soccer coach is stepping down from the team's opening game at the Paris Olympics against New Zealand. It's all over a reported drone scandal!

The 2024 Paris Olympics hasn't even officially started and there's already an alleged cheating scandal. Drones were spotted flying over closed practices sessions leading to an investigation. Now, the defending Gold Medal champions could be in some trouble!

The Summer Olympics are always a great watch. You get the track and field events, basketball, gymnastics, swimming, and more! One of those sports included under said "more" category would be soccer. In the Tokyo Olympics, the Canada women's soccer team captured the Gold Medal defeating Sweden in the Finals. However, their road to a repeat just got a little more difficult.

According to AP News, an investigation was started after New Zealand complained about drones flying over their closed practice sessions earlier in the week. Following the investigation, two staff members on Canada women's soccer team, Assistant Coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi, were sent home, per AP. Now, Coach Bev Priestman is reportedly voluntarily removing herself from the opener against New Zealand in the name of sportsmanship. Assistant Coach Andy Spence will lead the team in Bev's absence.

Priestman tells AP, "By no means did I direct the individuals. I'm still learning the details and obviously this is all unfolding. But again, I think the important thing right now is to look forward, put the actions in place and take the sanctions." The Associated Press reports that a French court sentenced a 43-year-old Canadian man to an 8-months suspended sentence for filming 2 of New Zealand's training sessions with a drone. That man identified himself as an independent sports analyst for the Canadian federation.

Interestingly, this isn't the first time a drone with a Canada connection has been spotted filming a practice session. The Associated Press reports Honduras had to stop a training session in 2021 in Toronto because a drone was spotted flying above the pitch. Canadians are supposed to be famous for being kind and friendly. This doesn't seem to fit that description. It's good to see Canada taking the Olympics seriously and clearly they want to win some medals. However, you have to win them honorably! Otherwise, you'll have to wait for the Winter Olympics in 2 years so you can win that Hockey Gold.

What are the best football movies of all-time? We came up with a list of 5 of our favorites, did yours make the list?

There are no shortage of excellent movies that are about football. There are classics, new movies, comedies, and dramas all about football. However, what are the best football movies of all-time?

Football season is quickly coming up! I'm already picturing Sundays in front of the TV with my gameday snacks and no plans for the entire day but watching some games and placing some bets. We're only a few months away from the start of the 2024-2025 NFL season!

To celebrate, we came up with a list of 5 of the best football movies of all-time. Of course, only picking 5 meant that some great football movies were being left on the cutting room floor. They couldn't all end up making the list. Recently, we also made lists of the Best Baseball Movies for the MLB season and the Best Basketball Movies during the NBA season. Make sure to come back to check out these lists after you see the list of the best football movies of all-time.

Do you have a football movie in mind? Hopefully it ended up making the list! For this list, I decided to try to make it the best of the best when it comes to football movies. I didn't want this to be my personal list of favorite football movies, so I tried to think of what most people would consider to be the best. Did some of my personal favorites slip through the cracks? Probably. However, I did my best to remain totally unbiased.

Unfortunately, some great movies didn't make the cut. I didn't include Friday Night Lights because I thought the show was better than the movie. Little Giants is one of my personal favorites but I didn't think it was good enough to earn a spot on the list. Radio is another great movie that you won't find on the list. Jerry Maguire is a great movie but football wasn't a big enough part of the movie for it to be considered a "football movie," in my opinion. Are they great movies! Absolutely! They just didn't make this list.

Ready to check out the list? Let us know if we missed your favorite football movie if it didn't end up on the list! See our list of 5 of the best football movies of all-time below!

Remember The Titans is my favorite football movie and I think it's arguably the best of all-time. It has everything you'd want in a football game! There's leadership, quality football, there's comedy, the story is great, you care about the characters--it's excellent from start to finish. There are so many great quotes in the movie. It's also very relatable to anyone who played football and grew up playing the game while addressing racial issues at the time.

Is Any Given Sunday my favorite football movie? No, it definitely is not. Is it in my personal Top 10? Honestly, I doubt it. However, you can't argue it's one of the best football movies of all-time. You got great performances from Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx, and Cameron Diaz. They were all perfect in their roles and the movie was well cast. You simply can't discuss football movies without bringing up Any Given Sunday. It deserves a spot on the list.

I know I said I wasn't going to let any personal biases affect the list, but this might be the one exception. We had to have The Waterboy on the list! It's probably the football movie I've seen the most times. It has to be the funniest movie about football, right? Sure, The Longest Yard is good, but it doesn't hold a candle to The Waterboy. Do you agree?

The Replacements had a great cast with Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman, Brooke Langton, and Jon Favreau. The movie came out in 2000 and has been considered one of the best football movies ever sense. Again, it's not my personal favorite but I can't deny it a spot on the list because I don't like it. However, if another movie were to be added I will admit it would probably take The Replacements place. It would be the replacement...pun not intended but pretty cool how that worked out!

You were waiting for this one weren't you? Thinking it might not make the list? Of course Rudy is going to make the list of the best football movies of all-time. I'd bet most would consider it to be the greatest football movie of all-time. It's often synonymous with football movies. It's a timeless classic that will live on for many more generations.