In a year of weird and wild sports stories here are the top ones as I see it.
Covid-19: It’s still here nearly two years after the then-president said, “it’ll just go away,” and now thanks to the omicron variant it’s surging to cause havoc for teams and games in all sports. As cases ebbed after vaccinations started, fans came back to capacity as if they were saying enough is enough, I want my life back!
Tiger Woods car accident: The “great” part of Tiger’s scary accident is it didn’t end the life of an athlete it seemed we knew, like Kobe Bryant, his daughter and the others in the helicopter. But this still shook up the golf world, even though it’s not the first time Tiger has made headlines behind the wheel. But, while the injuries were catastrophic, there he was on the course with son Charlie playing last week at the PNC Championship. While his time at the top has mostly been over since the first time he was knocked unconscious behind the wheel, it was a nice sight to see that he and his family will have more of these moments.
Tom Brady wins after leaving New England: Tom Brady winning another Super Bowl isn’t the biggest part of the story. It’s the way he’s pushing back at Father Time to play at 44. I knew he could still win in the right situation (which New England wasn’t in 2020) because of his giant brain. But I didn’t see a second best in his career 40 TD passes coming, which he’ll likely repeat this year. And when you compare it to how TB’s great rival Peyton Manning was in his final year it seems even more remarkable.
Phil Mickelson oldest to win a major: This story overlaps with the last two as it offers a debate over which is the greater old geezer achievement, along with the irony of Phil hitting an all-time career height in the same year his rival saw his chances for a career revival ended. Not sure if winning the PGA at 50 years, 11 months and three days was the most satisfying of his six majors, but it did take him past 48-years-old-but-looked-68 Julius Boros for the record. A final reminder of how great a career PM has had.
Money lust in college football: The players are better and games still exciting. But the lust for money is bigger than ever. Texas and Oklahoma are hardly the first schools to do it, but they screwed their Big 12 partners by announcing they’ll soon join the geographically incorrect South-EAST Conference. All of which requires much more time away from class for their, ah, student-athletes. They’ll do it for the lucrative benefits of course, as college football careens toward being just one big football conference. It ended with slimy ex-Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly walking out on a team and his players for a second time before a season-ending bowl game to get a jump on recruiting at LSU. Of course, be careful what you wish for, as he replaces Ed Orgeron less than two years after he won a national title for the Tigers. Ditto for Les Miles before him.
Summer Olympics: I generally have little interest in the “hey, look at me” marketing fest now known as the Olympics. Though I’m in the minority. But with Covid infections rising in Japan as the games approached it seemed more irrelevant than usual. Especially when the biggest newsmaker was gymnast Simone Biles pulling out to deal with mental health issues. Which of course ignited a massive social media commentary in support and from the “are you kidding me” crowd.
Jon Gruden email scandal: You know it’s bad when you get fired because of an investigation you had nothing to do with. That was Jon Gruden’s world when his emails turned up in the investigation of the WFT. You could hear Arnold saying “hasta la vista, baby” to the career and last six years on his 10-year $100 million contract.
Urban warfare: To (somehow) outpace Gruden as our first winner of the Bobby Petrino Bonehead Coach of the Year award you’d have to do every on- and off-field stupid thing a coach could do, and amazingly Urban Meyer did it, all during a disastrous 13-game stint in Jacksonville.
Tampa Bay sports capital: Brady led the usually moribund Bucs to win a SB title, and the Lightning are two-time Stanley Cups champs. So if the D-Rays stat geeks hadn’t yanked unhittable Blake Snell with a 1-hit, 12-K shutout in progress in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series vs. L.A. because the analytics said to, TB would have had reigning champs in three sports all year.
Shohei Ohtani takes on The Babe: He was the first full-time pitcher and hitter since the Babe in 1919. The big difference was Shohei pitched and DH’d, while Babe had to throw from the outfield. But the numbers were eerily similar. Ohtani had more homers (46-29) and was 9-2 to Babe’s 9-5. Babe had more RBI (113-100), outhit him .322 to .257 and took the ERA battle 2.93 to 3.13. It made Ohtani Player of the Year.
Giannis Antetokounmpo game for the ages: I drooled over this enough when it happened. So I’ll just add that seeing the Big Fella go for 51 points and 17 rebounds while battling a significant knee injury was the best “climb on my back and I’ll take you home” effort of the year. That their final was against the Suns, who also entered the NBA in 1968, and it was the Bucks’ first title in 52 years made it cooler.
