Continuity mistake: After Sunshine shows up at practice with his father, he picks up a football and throws it at Bertier. On the way down, the ball looks as if it will miss the player by 2 or 3 feet to the right, but on close up it hits him square in the back - rather weakly.
Revealing mistake: When the team captain gets in the car accident, if you look at the damaged car right after it is hit by the truck you can clearly see the stunt driver wearing a black motorcycle helmet.
Factual error: In the awards scene, it's awards for 1971. Just prior to that scene "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" by The Hollies was playing. That record wasn't released until Feb. 1, 1972.
Factual error: Some of the football cages used on the helmets of the Titan players were not manufactured until the mid 1980s.
Visible crew/equipment: When Coach Boone is about to go to Coach Yoast's house to apologize for accepting the head coaching job, you can see in Yoast's house through a window from outside, before Boone knocks on the door and see little Sheryl sitting down. If you look closely you can see the camera man's reflection in the window.
Continuity mistake: During the playoff game, while the Titans were going into the locker room at half time, the scoreboard and announcer said the Titans were down 10 to 0. At the end of the game, with enough time for 1 more play, the announcer said the Titans were down 7 to 3.
Factual error: Towards the end of the movie when the Titans are playing for the championship, Petie grabs up a fumbled ball and runs with it. When he stands up from being tackled, watching TV back in his hospital room, Gary yells Petie's name and the nurse comes to Gary's room to see if everything is all right. When she opens the door to Gary's hospital room, she opens it into the hallway. There isn't a hospital in the world where the patients door opens into the hallway. They all open inward to the patient's room.
Suggested correction: There are numerous hospitals where the doors open into the hallways. Rush hospital in Chicago is one. Prentice women's hospital is another.
Your suggested correction is invalid. Though there are hospitals where there are numerous storage closet doors that open into the hallway, the "patients room" doors do not open into the hallway... (the key word here is 'patients room' doors.
Visible crew/equipment: When the truck's headlights turn on just before it hits Gary's car, the shadow of the camera can be seen on the street.
Other mistake: When the titan band was playing in the title game and we see a shot of them the trombone player does not move his slide to the right place for the notes that are played.
Continuity mistake: When little Cheryl kicks that guys she's defending her father against, the guy says to her father that it's okay, it's alright and he puts out his hand and he's a few feet away from the father. All of a sudden he's right next to the father when the camera moves to their faces.
Visible crew/equipment: At camp a fight breaks out when the players are getting water. Then Denzel Washington looks over to see and something - probably a piece of film equipment - is reflected in his sunglasses.
Continuity mistake: Just before Gary's mother is announced at the final game against Marshall, a shot of Gary in the hospital reveals that his face is cut badly from the car accident. After his mother is announced and a shot of the stadium crowd shown, a shot of Gary's face a moment later reveals no such cuts.
Factual error: In the championship game, the Titans kick off to start the first half, then they kick off to start the second half. Teams kick off the first or the second, not both.
Suggested correction: Actually it's possible for a team to kick to start both halves. The team winning the coin toss will typically choose to defer their option to the second half and the vast majority of the time the other team will choose to receive. If a team, either by choice or by mistake, chooses to kick rather than defer it's likely the other team will choose to receive the second half and they will kick again. The team winning the toss could also choose to defer and then decide to kick again to start the second half if they have a reason to do so. It's rare but it does happen sometimes either by a team making a mistake when telling the ref what option they want or if for some reason they'd rather be on defense. So what was seen in the movie could happen.
It should be noted that there wasn't an option to defer in the 70's. (Not even in 2000 when the film came out). So as wordy as your correction is, it's way off base since that's not close to how coin tosses worked back then.
Factual error: In the beginning and end of the film, where they show Gerry Bertier's funeral, it appears to be in fall. Beriter died on March 20 1981 so the funeral would have taken place during the spring.
Factual error: Virginia state troopers are seen at one point in the film wearing "Smokey-the-Bear"-style campaign hats. The Virginia State Police did not begin wearing this style of hat until the 1990s, but the film is set in 1971.
