North Dallas Forty cynically revealed the underbelly of professional football, examining the fallout when the attitudes and drugs of the early-1970s counter-culture meet the greedy and violent world of the NFL. — Brendon Hanley

This is also a movie about a decent man who just barely survives the system and grows up in the process. North Dallas Forty does not condemn football as a game, but it does condemn it as a business.  It makes the point that many of the players are good people who have been taken advantage of and are asked to participate in insanity. — Robert S. Miller