Based on a true story, "Remember the Titans" revolves around a high school football team that was forced to integrate in 1971. Taking place at a pivotal point in history, the film depicts racial tensions in Virginia during that time. Against the backdrop of segregation in restaurants, racial slurs, and fistfights at school, players from different racial backgrounds learned to work together as a team. As one of the biggest civil rights sports movies of all time, "Remember the Titans" offered a close depiction of the hardships and struggles that the team faced.

"The movie is actually very close to what happened," the real-life Coach Herman Boone told The Observer-Reporter. "There are only about four or five things that were not true, but they weren't actually false either." In the movie, Gerry Bertier was paralyzed in a car crash the week before the state championship game. While the accident took place after the game in real life, Bertier's injury was real. Like the characters who have to overcome several challenges and hardships as a team, the actors who played them have also gone through a lot in life. Many cast members of "Remember the Titans" are in completely different places in life since they made the movie.

Denzel Washington (who played Coach Herman Boone) had a 15-year drinking pattern, in which he switched between being drunk and doing movies. He was in denial about his problem for years because of his ability to remain functional as an actor. "I never drank while I was working or preparing," the actor told Esquire. "I would clean up, go back to work — I could do both." However, as soon as filming stopped, he would go straight into drinking until his next gig. "Many months of shooting, bang, it's time to go. Then, boom. Three months of wine, then time to go back to work."