The end of the year is time to make lists, lists, and more lists of various media and news and sports goings-on of the outgoing year, and I will be joining in on the fun. Of course, not being a full-time member of the media, I don't get around to everything, so if I missed something, it's not for lack of effort. 10 seems to be the magic number, less than that is too restricting, more than that and your list seems diluted, so from today to the end of the year it will be top 10 lists every day (provided I remember).
Today's List:
Top Sports Moments of the Year:
Rose Bowl 2006
It was Vince Young, the Man-imal, against Reggie Bush and Co. playing for the college football national championship. Early game controversial calls aside, this was a well-played, well-coached effort all around between clearly the 2 best teams in the country, decided with 26 seconds left on a Vince Young 4th down scramble for a touchdown. VY did what he did best all season, put the entire state of Texas on back and carried the Longhorns to victory, just as he did the year before against Michigan, and now he's at it again in the NFL.
Mario Williams? WTF?
There were 4, 5, maybe 6 guys who could've, no should've, gone #1 in the NFL Draft back in April: Reggie Bush, Vince Young, Matt Leinart, Jay Cutler, D'Brickishaw Ferguson, AJ Hawk, etc. So imagine then-NFL Comissioner Paul Tagliabue's surprise when he strode to the podium to announce the 1st pick in the 2006 NFL Draft is....Mario Williams, DE from NC State.
In what may go down as the single best rookie class in NFL history, Williams may go down as one of the worst #1 picks ever. So many rookies have had such a huge impact, that taking just about any other playing drafted in the 1st round probably would have turned out better. The good news is, if the Raiders blow it with the #1 pick this year, they can always say "It could be worse, we could've taken Mario Williams in '06" and feel better about themselves.
Shani Davis vs. Team USA
It wouldn't be the Winter Olympics without a little controversy, but this time it didn't come from figure skating; no, this time it was speed skating. Shani Davis became the story as he elected to not participate in the team relay, to concentrate on his individual events, reducing the chances that Chad Hedrick could set an Olympic record with 5 speed skating golds.
The media took sides in the argument, calling him the selfish American, lacking perspective, others siding with Davis, saying he had no obligation to the relay team, especially since he told them last year he wouldn't do it and that to call him out now is cowardice and that he shouldn't be asked to sacrifice his own goals for those of another man.
Through it all Davis kept his head about him and did well in his individual events and appeared to maintain a reasonable relationship with Hedrick. It came out that two US skating officials had put Shani's name on the roster for the relay, "just in case", with full knowledge that he had no intention of doing it, irresponsibly yet inadvertently creating much ado about nothing, but it certain what quite the ado.
'roid Landis wins the Tour de Lance
Everyone (except the French) love Lance Armstrong and when he retired from competing in the Tour de France after winning it last year, we in America expected our days of caring about the event to be over. And they were. Until it came to our attention, about 10 stages in, that American and former Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis was in the lead and had a shot at winning. We all got behind him. Then he had a disastrous stage in the final week, falling off the pace and, presumably, out of contention. Then one night something magical happened, and he woke up with superhuman pedaling ability and he went on to be the first one down the Champs-Elysee on that fateful Sunday morning in July. Then, just when it seemed we were unbeatable, America emerging as the world cycling juggernaut, the drug test came back positive. Landis had apparently cheated. The night before his comeback ride Floyd, or as sports radio host Jim Rome dubbed him, 'Roid Landis" had ingested something illegal. The French finally had the upper-hand on an American that they never could get on Lance Armstrong, the Teflon Don of cycling. Landis blamed it on everything from whiskey, to poppy seeds, to naturally high levels of testosterone, but none of it seemed true, they just seemed like desperation, grasping at straws. Ultimately, I believe he was allowed to keep the title after accusations of sloppy handling of lab samples and what not, but the accusations of cheating are just as strong as being guilty, and such has been the fate of Floyd Landis.
George Mason to the Final 4
We all print out those brackets and fill them out, guessing at games for teams we've never seen play, with players we've never heard of, in hopes that we will get more right than the next person, seeking praise for our prescience. But as soon as the games start, we all root for the underdog. The brackets get tossed aside after that #4 seed that you had going all the way loses to an upstart WAC team in the first round. This year we got to see George Mason, a #10 seed, go all the way to the final four. Led by their 6-7 center they beat pre-season favorite UConn in the Elite 8 and before losing to champ-to-be Florida in the Final 4. One thing we learned from this "Cinderella" story of GMU is that the networks really hate the "Cinderella" story. They want the big names. People tune in to watch Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, and UCLA because they've heard of them in basketball. No one cares to watch George Mason or Wichita State, even if they are a feel-good story. In the end, we got Florida and UCLA in a forgettable championship game, unless you're Les Moonves running CBS, then it was great. And I'd tell him to get ready for rematch the upcoming tournament the way those 2 teams are playing right now.
Federer-Nadal
A new men's tennis rivalry is born. It took nearly a decade for 2 men's tennis players to emerge as legit contenders at the same time, but Roger Federer, the 25-year old Swiss wizard, is virtually unbeatable....except against the capri-wearing Spaniard Rafael Nadal. Nadal beat Federer in 4 tournament finals, inculding the French Open, Federer beat Nadal for Wimbeldon. With the resurgence of Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt, and the rise of James Blake, men's tennis could be on it's way back to competing with the sliding women's side.
Zinedine Zidane and the Headbutt Heard Round the World
I remember two things about this year's World Cup and neither of them is which country won. I remember the USA scoring 0 goals and I remember one of the all-time classic sports moments, Zinedine Zidane unleashing pure, unadulterated hatred on Materazzi.
End of the Line
Andre Agassi ended his illustrious tennis career at the US Open, falling in the 3rd round to fellow old-schooler Boris Becker. He won his first Grand Slam title 14 years ago, and the fact that he was in the US Open Final last year, 20 years in to his pro career, is a testament to his abilities. Professional sports careers rarely last 20 years, and when they do, they certainly don't contain so many productive years as Agassi's. He is indeed one of the best ever, and gave us countless classic matches with "Pistol" Pete Sampras, the best tennis player I've ever seen. And he made it possible for white guys to shave their heads and not be considered members of the Klan.
Jerome Bettis also called it a career after his Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl in Detroit back in February. Retiring at #4 on the all-time rushing list in a career that split time between the LA Rams and Steelers, Bettis was popular because he a beastly 260 pound bruising runner who still had the same foot speed and agility of any other back. Nicknamed The Bus, Bettis became a fan favorite and all-around role model for the league and can now be seen Sunday nights as part of NBC's football coverage, alongside another legend, Bob Costas.
That's only 8, because I don't care to right out any more. The other 2 that made the list before I decided to pare it down were Raja Bell attempting to decapitate Kobe Bryant in Game 5 of the first round of the NBA playoffs, and Team USA losing to CANA-freaking-DA at the World BASEBALL Classic. Classic indeed.
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