Metacritic reviews

Under The Stadium Lights stands out because of its two veteran actors in Milo Gibson and Laurence Fishburne.

The movie's dialogue is clunky and the acting is uneven, which keeps the tone more preachy than dramatic.

Between the cardboard characterization, the heavy-handed emotional outbursts, the intrusive murder subplot, locker room morale-boosting speeches that should have stayed in the locker room, a strange lack of meaningful emotional beats, and the utter inability to tackle its white-savior subtext, Under the Stadium Lights is pee wee by comparison to Peter Berg's All-American.

Some sports movies build to inspirational speeches; Under the Stadium Lights treats platitudes as the main event.

A stultifying drama based on the 2009 season of the Abilene High Eagles, Lights suffers from sermonizing dialogue, amateurish performances, and an ugly racial blind spot disguised as white savior paternalism.