Goodbye, 2016: Remembering a crazy, sad and memorable year in sports
In the eyes of many, 2016 has been the sort of cursed year that can’t end soon enough, but lost amid all the bad news and funerals for icons gone too soon -- and the countless embarrassments and disappointments that had nothing to do with athletes — there were plenty of uplifting, weird and wild stories that captivated fans across the sports landscape for all the right reasons.
In January, mighty Alabama kicked off the sports calendar by winning its fourth national title in seven seasons, and as the year draws to a close, the Crimson Tide are, unsurprisingly, the prohibitive favorites to win it all again. Additionally, the month saw John Scott emerge as the most random All-Star (and All-Star MVP) in sports history, and in some ways, his rise to NHL prominence and subsequent return to earth were more memorable than the winner of the Stanley Cup, itself. (It was the Penguins, by the way.)
February, meanwhile, marked the end of Peyton Manning’s illustrious career, as the legendary signal-caller retired a Super Bowl champion, despite having outlived his usefulness on the field, itself. But while Manning may have been the first, he was just one of many transcendent figures to call it quits — a list that also includes a trio of first-ballot basketball Hall of Famers in Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, a baseball god in David Ortiz, and a pair of NFL stars in their prime in Marshawn Lynch and Calvin Johnson.
Whether these decisions to hang it up were good things or bad likely depends on your geography and allegiances — the same can perhaps be said for Nick Saban doing what Saban always does — but if nothing else, they opened the door for Megatron to dance the foxtrot dressed as Steve Urkel on national television this fall, and if you can’t root for that, then, really, what can you root for?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yIDPLGLMMI
As it often does, March brought yet another thrilling NCAA tournament — an event that gave us both a half-court game-winner and a historic last-second meltdown by the same mid-major underdog in a matter of three days, the eighth 15-2 upset in tourney history and an unexpected Final Four run by a 10-seed no one saw coming. But the lasting memory of March Madness actually came in April, when Villanova’s Kris Jenkins delivered the Wildcats their first championship in 31 years with a 3 as time expired in the title game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7FFJUz0tdo
That said, for all Northern Iowa, Middle Tennessee and Syracuse did on the college hardwood in March, there was no bigger sports shocker than Leicester City’s sensational Premier League title, an unprecedented run for a club that barely avoided relegation in 2015 and began the season with 5,000-1 odds to win the league in 2016. The Foxes were the darlings of the spring, and rightly so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sofZAmGE8aI
Now, June was a tough one, in large part because of the who’s who of names we lost. Over the course of four weeks during that month alone, the world bid farewell to Muhammad Ali, Gordie Howe and Pat Summitt, all legends in their own right. In addition, Nate Thurmond and Dennis Green died in July, Arnold Palmer and Jose Fernandez passed away on the same day in September, and in November, the world mourned the stunning plane crash that killed 71 people, including the majority of the Chapecoense soccer club.
But while these sports deaths — and the many others throughout the year — were no doubt tragic, there was eventually a certain bittersweet joy in celebrating their respective lives and the impacts these athletes had on their leagues and the fans who loved them.
There was also a welcome distraction from the June sadness in the form of the NBA Finals, during which the Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a seemingly insurmountable 3-1 series deficit to beat the record-setting Golden State Warriors for the title. For LeBron James, bringing a championship home to Cleveland marked the latest crowning achievement in a career that was already thought to be one of the best, and there’s an argument to be made that he did it in the nick of time, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zd62MxKXp8
Because now that Kevin Durant has joined the Warriors’ brood — a heel turn the former MVP made while you were busy grilling hot dogs on July 4 — Golden State might never lose a playoff series again.
In a different display of superiority, Serena Williams won her 22nd career Grand Slam at Wimbledon after being upset in the finals of the Australian and French Opens. The win tied Steffi Graf's record for major championships and further cemented Williams’ place as one of the greatest athletes — male or female — to ever compete. And while the 35-year-old later slipped in the third round at the Olympics and was shocked in the semis of the US Open, she says she’s not done playing yet, and figures to dominate until she is.
As for the rest of the Games, Ryan Lochte briefly stole the spotlight as only he could, but while the swimmer’s phony robbery tale drew its share of ridicule, it was his teammate, Michael Phelps, who was the story of August. In his final Olympics — we think — Phelps won five gold medals to bring his record total to 23, with an additional silver lifting his overall count to 28. And while Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles were among the other Americans to leave a historic mark in Rio, Phelps, the GOAT, reigned supreme.
Then, just as the Olympics were winding down, Conor McGregor avenged his March loss to Nate Diaz in an unforgettable rematch at UFC 202 in Vegas, and just like that, it was already football season again.
But while Tom Brady was sitting and Colin Kaepernick was kneeling, we still had the matter of baseball season to attend to — and my, what a season it was.
For starters, broadcaster Vin Scully embarked on the type of season-long farewell tour that a figure of his stature deserves, and early in the year we scratched our heads over the strange, abrupt retirement of Adam LaRoche. We also marveled at Rougned Odor’s TKO of Jose Bautista, Bartolo Colon’s first career home run and Max Scherzer’s 20-strikeout game, all in May. Then over the summer, Ichiro reached 3,000 hits, and in September, the baseball world collectively bawled its eyes out at Dee Gordon’s leadoff homer in the Miami Marlins’ first game after Fernandez’s death.
But the biggest story in all of baseball — and possibly in all of sports this year — was the Chicago Cubs, who, you may have heard, broke a 108-year curse and finally, mercifully won a World Series. And I, for one, can’t wait for the next one, in 2124, when, one presumes, we’ll be playing on the moon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOp8w2PgHlM
Football, though, has been a bit more predictable — not unlike Jimmie Johnson wrapping up his his record-tying seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup championship in November — as the Patriots have been as dominant as usual and the Browns have been worse than ever, although the Cowboys’ and Raiders’ resurgences have made for at least one interesting surprise. Same goes for the college game, where the third installment of the College Football Playoff included each of the previous two champions, last season’s runner-up and Washington — which hasn’t won a championship in a quarter-century — among its four participants.
Of course, time will only tell what becomes of each league’s respective postseason, and if we’re lucky, the results will be so historic that we’ll still be talking about them this time next winter. But if the unpredictable, dysfunctional year that was 2016 is any indication, the biggest story of 2017 may very well be what happens when — or if — all this year’s champs visit the White House.
You can follow Sam Gardner on Twitter or email him at samgardnerfox@gmail.com.
