Uh, you might want to actually read the link in the OP. “Chariots of Fire” made the list (#9).
Is Bloodsport a sports movie? 
(Good call, Wilson, on Hoop Dreams.)
I realize that this is a movie many haven’t seen, and that motocross isn’t quite mainstream for many.
On Any Sunday is one of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen. It’s a documentary, not fiction, but kicks ass over any other sports movie I’ve seen, (with the exception of Rudy)
IIRC, this list was made a few years ago. Also IIRC, this was not a list compiled by people at SI, but voted by readers/fans. I remember hearing about it while I was still working at AT&T (I distincly remember hearing that Bull Durham was voted number one and my co-worker Bob and I wondering if anyone who voted had seen Raging Bull.)
So why it may not be your choice for best sports film, if I’m remembering things right, it isn’t SI to blame, but those who voted on the list.
BTW, I’m a HUGE baseball fan and I thought The Natural was dull, slow, and overall average at best.
‘Hoosiers’, ‘Pride of the Yankees’, ‘Brians Song’ and ‘Remember the Titans’ were good films, imho, too.
Not to mention an almost complete reversal of the Bernard Malamud novel that is its ostensible source. People who complain about what Verhoeven did to Heinlein in Starship Troopers need to compare Malamud’s original book to the movie that was made from it to see what a real violation looks like.
Oh, and I completely forgot: There’s a film coming out of Japan (it was already a hit there) called Ping Pong that is as good a sports movie as we’ve seen in the last ten years. Keep your eye out for it. Trust me.
I would place Hoop Dreams at or near the top of my list.
I don’t know if documentaries count, but it was the most gripping and real of all sports movies.
I have to go with Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia, as the best “pure” sports film ever made.
The others, great as thay are, are basically romance films, situation comedies, buddy films, or “guy triumphs over adversity films”.
Some other possibilites for the list:*
Downhill Racer
Le Mans
Paper Lion
Brian’s Song
The Endless Summer*
and my own personal favorite The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island 
I’d say The Program is one of the better football movies around, but that’s just my idiotic opinion. And Bull Durham? Wasn’t that on Lifetime a couple weeks ago? Instant disqualifier! (Nope, I wasn’t watching Lifetime, I was looking through the digital guide.)
I second this movie. If the concept of sports includes the ins and outs of the game and what it takes to succeed at one, this movie goes at that issue more honestly than any I have seen.
And since it is much more “modern” than my earlier nomination (Jim Thorpe) I’ll update my preference.
Yer all wrong. The best sports movie, ever, bar none, was Baseketball
SI put a big ass ad right in the middle of the list. Made it a pain to read and follow.
I don’t remember who was at what place (except for Bull Durham and I had the same reaction as Neurotik) but I do remember being surprised and disappointed in the listing.
I love Rocky IV!!
Its inspirational man. Yeah! The acting is brilliant - I really believe that Adrian thinks Rocky “can’t win”! Plus, what awesome writing :
*“I will break you.”
“Go for it.”
“He’s like iron”.*
Finally who can ever forget, “there’s no easy way out, there’s no short-cut home”?
Yes, I would definitely have to say that The Natural’s chances of topping that list were definitely harmed by it not being a very good movie.
Six Pack with Kenny Rogers is the best sports movie.
I think it’s hard to compare across sports, but having seen Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, The Natural, Eight Men Out, and even Major League, I gotta go with Bull Durham as the best baseball movie I’ve seen.
The Natural and Field of Dreams are more fairytales than baseball movies, IMHO. Eight Men Out, a fine film, is really about plutocrats exploiting workers; that the workers here are well-known baseball players rather than faceless miners or textile workers is what gets people to see the flick.
Bull Durham wonderfully portrays the texture of the baseball life, and makes it come alive through the relationships Jonathan Chance mentions. Plus, it’s got both Costner and Susan Sarandon. Can’t beat that with a stick.
I’ve got a problem in critiquing the overall list, besides the difficulties of comparing across sports. And that’s that I’ve only seen three other movies in the top 10. But the #2 choice, Rocky, was a damned good movie, even if the boxing itself was unrealistic.
FWIW, it was playing off the fact that, back in the mid-1970s, when Ali wasn’t fighting Frazier or Foreman, he was fighting a lot of journeymen that the casual sports fan had never heard of. Ali didn’t always prepare himself for those fights very well, but in the sleazy world of boxing, anything even close to a draw was going to be decided in favor of the champ. So instead of Ali, you have Apollo Creed, and you have Stallone’s Rocky Balboa as the bum-of-the-month that Creed only has to show up to beat.
At the time, one didn’t have to be much of a sports fan to be aware of this. So, contrary to Dewey’s suggestion, the movie couldn’t have ended in a win for Rocky; it would have lost its believability, and its ending would have been unintentionally comic rather than moving. It was what it was because it stayed within the bounds of the story that had already been written.
I’m pretty sure I could beat Kevin Costner with a stick. At the very least, I’m willing to try.
Geez…Safe at Home didn’t even make the list.
It had Mantle, Maris and Ford in it.
What more could you ask for?
On a serious note, why hasn’t anyone mentioned Go, Man, Go!? It is the definitive movie about the Harlem Globetrotters, plus it deals with the racism in sports, and the writer of the screenplay was blacklisted for being a Communist.
For those like me who feel that Bull Durham is a pretty lame sports movie here is a dissenting view.
The Hustler, Hoop Dreams, Hoosiers and Raging Bull will do me.