Sports Teams Who Live and Breathe Drama
Sports is full of unscripted drama, giving fans unbelievable moments that are impossible to describe, but a few sports teams have been known to have a bunch of distracting drama, too.
While the latter is never a good thing for teams who hope that continuity can lead to championships, it happens for a number of different reasons, causing distractions and, potentially, crippling an entire season.
Great teams can block it out, while championship teams overcome it, so it'll be interesting to see how these drama-filled sports teams react with added attention and pressure.
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Louisville Cardinals Men's Basketball
Rick Pitino and the Louisville Cardinals' men's hoops team are putting together another fine season—currently ranked No. 14 in the country—it's just too bad their year's already over because of allegations from a book that believe the team used escorts during recruiting visits.
Putting themselves on a self-imposed postseason ban, U of L players had to see their seniors cry following the sanctions, leaving them without a chance to make a NCAA tourney run.
Whether the reports are true or not, the fact that a Hall of Fame coach like Pitino has to go through this process—after leading the Cards to a national title just three seasons ago—means that this serious drama isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Dallas Cowboys
Guys, it's the Dallas Cowboys, and they always seem to have some sort of drama circulating with them before, during and after the NFL season.
This past season focused on the injury of quarterback Tony Romo, who missed most of the season after breaking his collarbone and had to witness the team that reached the playoffs in 2014 suffer through loss after loss.
Then there's outspoken owner Jerry Jones, who is never short on drama and opinions, including his thoughts on one of Romo's backups, Brandon Weeden, which he shared with 105.3 The Fan (h/t Pro Football Talk's Michael David Smith). The team ended up cutting him after such high praise from Jones.
With ongoing speculation that the team could bring in embattled signal-caller Johnny Manziel, there's a reason Dallas is known as America's Team, and it's because they're always front-page newsworthy.
New York Knicks
Where should I even start with all that has happened to the New York Knicks in the past couple of months?
First, it was former head coach Derek Fisher finding himself in the news after a former teammate of his, Matt Barnes, allegedly fought with him over Fisher's relationship with Barnes' estranged wife, no doubt, causing a major distraction and lack of leadership for Knicks players. Fisher addressed these issues in The Cauldron.
Then, after the Knicks fired Fisher, the focus continued to be on star Carmelo Anthony. Before the trade deadline, the New York Daily News (h/t ESPN.com) reported that he was on the trade block. He's been rumored to be on the trade block for the past year or so since signing a huge deal to remain in the Big Apple a couple of years ago, yet he remains on the team and gets bashed after each loss.
And let's not forget about the team's president, Phil Jackson, who was the most successful head coach in NBA history with 11 rings, yet hasn't been able to build a roster that can compete in the lousy Eastern Conference.
Anthony has been forced to apologize for responding to a heckler mid-game, per the Knicks (h/t USA Today), and outside of Kristaps Porzingis, the future is blurry for the Knicks.
Cleveland Browns
Forget the fact that the Cleveland Browns had some guy named Manziel still on their roster—whom, yes, they released, but he had been a black eye on the franchise since being taken No. 22 overall in the 2014 NFL draft.
Let's focus on this drama: The Browns just hired their fourth head coach in five years and are about to draft another signal-caller as their, hopeful, face of the franchise at some point in this year's draft.
In addition to all of that, the team's owner, Jimmy Haslam, had to cut a deal to avoid serious punishment for himself in a fraud case for the business he owned. And let's not forget, this is the same team that saw its former general manager suspended at the beginning of the 2015 season for illegally texting head coaches during games the previous season.
Lacking leadership and full of drama, the Cleveland Browns continue to be near the bottom of the league.
Houston Rockets
There are other dysfunctional franchises out there, but the Houston Rockets are putting themselves in the conversation as one of the worst because of their pairing of superstars James Harden and Dwight Howard.
After Houston won 56 games and reached the Western Conference Finals last year, this season opened up about as badly as possible for them. They fired their head coach, Kevin McHale, after a 4-7 start and haven't been able to dig themselves out of the early hole in the standings.
"James Harden pressured Houston to fire Kevin McHale, league sources tell CBS Sports. James also pushed for Howard to be traded last week.
— Russell Johnson (@RussJohnsonNBA) February 25, 2016"
With a CBS Sports (h/t ESPN.com's Calvin Watkins) reporting that, prior to the trade deadline, both Harden and Howard had wanted the other one shipped out—which the team has denied—it's clear that Houston does, in fact, have a serious problem.
Golden State Warriors
Hey, not all drama has to be bad drama, right? For that reason, the Golden State Warriors have to be mentioned on his list, as they're the most positively dramatic sports team going right now thanks to their barrage of spectacular plays and the shock people get when they actually lose a game.
Carrying the best record in the league right now and on pace to finish the season with the most wins in a single season in NBA history, the Dubs are a fine-oiled machine whose biggest competition, as of right now, are themselves.
As the regular season plays out and the playoffs begin, every hoops fans will keep a watchful eye on what Golden State ends up doing.
Michigan Wolverines Football
He might be entertaining as all hell, but Michigan Wolverines head football coach Jim Harbaugh has also brought a lot of drama with him to Ann Arbor, putting his team in the news for various reasons.
Harbaugh's stunts have included spending the night at a recruit's house and accompanying another to high school, while other coaches have criticized him for planning to run a spring practice in Florida to help compete against SEC schools on the recruiting trail.
The head coach's back and forth with some of his peers is well-documented. While he's successful in some of his tactics, the attention isn't something that traditional Wolverine fans are probably accustomed to.
Boston Red Sox
Most of us are familiar with the rumored relationship between Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell and a since-resigned reporter named Jessica Moran, as reported by the Boston Globe (h/t the Washington Post's Bryan Flaherty), but there's even more drama in The Nation than anyone may have initially thought.
That's because, in addition to being one of the most recognized clubs in MLB history, the team has gone from lovable losers to overpriced winners, competing with teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and hated New York Yankees as the biggest spenders each and every year.
While that doesn't always correlate to drama, it does bring extra attention and expectations to a team, leaving them front page news for things other than baseball.
Oh, and the news about the team's top pitching prospect, Michael Kopech, breaking his hand after punching a teammate is more bad news for a team that is just starting spring training.
Los Angeles Clippers
It's almost as if the Los Angeles Clippers have defined Murphy's Law, which believes that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, because they have had a tumultuous past 20-plus months.
While former owner Donald Sterling put a black eye on the team and league with his racist comments in 2014—which ultimately led to his permanent dismissal from the NBA—the Clips have remained in the spotlight for incidents they would rather forget.
Some of those include the DeAndre Jordan drama from last summer when a group of players literally locked themselves in the center's house to persuade him to remain with the team and, worst, Blake Griffin's punching incident last month with a team's equipment manager.
The now-deleted tweet from the team with Griffin and that trainer using the word "Family," only opened up more criticism of the Clippers, as they've become a Hollywood drama that doesn't appear to have a storybook ending.
New England Patriots
The fact that Deflategate is still going on after it occurred over a year ago is pretty silly, but it's just an indication of just how much the New England Patriots just can't shake controversy and drama.
Involved in some of the biggest scandals in NFL history, the Pats have seen themselves face penalties following Spygate and have tried to shed their "cheating" image as best they can—by winning.
Unfortunately, when two future Hall of Famers are at the forefront of everything, head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady as well as having outgoing personalities like tight end Rob Gronkowski doing his whole Gronk thing, it's hard for people to just dismiss New England quietly.
Cleveland Cavs
As awful as the aforementioned Cleveland Browns have been, it's actually the NBA title-talented Cavs who have even more drama—and it has only been getting worse and worse in the coming weeks.
Not only do the Cavs seem to have an inferiority complex against teams like the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, but they're so starved to win a championship that the franchise will seemingly do anything to get there.
That includes firing head coach David Blatt, who led them to the NBA Finals last year and put them in the No. 1 spot in the Eastern Conference this year, replacing him with an assistant who has zero head coaching experience on any level.
The Cavs have all the talent in the world to win a championship, but the cryptic tweets, constant internal feuding and incapability to build chemistry between LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love has been a dark cloud that will prevent them from doing so until it's resolved.
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