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.
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.
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: 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.
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.
