Yeah, I Said It: 10 Special Sports Moments That Weren't All That Special
We in the sports world are always looking for the next big thing. Fans may be more guilty of this than anybody.
Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors are already the greatest team in the history of the National Basketball Association. Cam Newton is the new undisputed face of the National Football League. Kobe Bryant and Peyton Manning just gave us two of the greatest retirements we'll ever see.
Pump the breaks, everybody, because the majority of these supposed-special moments are not all that special.
Curry and the Warriors will not yet cement their spot among the best-ever NBA squads even if Golden State goes on to win a second consecutive title. Those of us who were lucky enough to see Bryant and Manning when they were in their physical primes should hope that both do ride off into the sunset and never again play a competitive game.
None of those comments are knocks on any of the mentioned entities. They are merely factual statements.
It is important that we keep things in perspective when examining what some deem to be special and important sports moments. Otherwise, we may eventually undersell an event that was truly remarkable and something unlike anything else that we have previously witnessed.
Sports are great for what they give us on their own. We don't need to overstate events to make them significant.
Carolina Panthers Go 15-1
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The Carolina Panthers were the toast of the NFL in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl 50 matchup against the Denver Broncos. Carolina had lost only once during the regular season, and the Panthers took care of business in the NFC playoffs.
Quarterback Cam Newton had been named the league's most valuable player. Analysts such as Neil Payne of FiveThirtyEight.com had pointed out how well Newton played during the second half of the campaign:
"But to say Newton has improved his passing since then is like saying he only slightly enjoys dancing in everyone’s mug. Since Week 10, he suddenly ranks among the league’s most accurate passers, with a drastically reduced rate of off-target throws. He hasn’t cut back on the deep tosses, either — his air yards per attempt have dipped only marginally in the second half of the season. He’s slinging the ball for significantly more yards and touchdowns per attempt, and he’s hardly ever giving it away; his TD-INT ratio is 21-1 over his last 8 games.
The changes to Newton’s game have come with a few tradeoffs: His sack rate is up and his rushing output slightly down since his midseason transformation began. But his value added per game has increased by a factor of nearly six over the season’s back stretch. That gives him the sixth-biggest second-half improvement of any Super Bowl starting QB since 1978. Few QBs in history have gone into a Super Bowl on a better roll than Newton is on right now.
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There is an irony in the fact that Newton couldn't be a hero against the Denver defense at Super Bowl 50. Newton's counterpart on that evening was Manning, who had set dozens of records during his career but who entered the game with a 1-2 mark in Super Bowl contests.
Imagine if Manning and the Broncos would have been on the losing end that night, and Manning would have still decided in March to retire. Despite all that he had achieved during his career, the fact that Manning failed on pro football's biggest stage 75 percent of the time would have followed him even after he delivered his induction speech in Canton.
Newton and Manning are examples of players known for losses in big games. Manning eventually shrugged those demons off and kept them away for good thanks to how well his defense played against Newton and the Panthers in February.
Newton may physically be the best QB in football today, but he will have to win on the final Sunday of a season if he wants to secure the label of best overall performer at the position.
Noah Syndergaard's Brushback Pitch
2 of 10"Old-school" baseball fans may have enjoyed a chuckle when New York Mets starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard sailed the opening pitch of Game 3 of the World Series over the head of Kansas City Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar. Syndergaard believed that Escobar would come out swinging, and thus the hard-throwing right-hander put Escobar on his behind with the high pitch that sailed all the way to the backstop.
Syndergaard offered the following advice for Kansas City batters after the game, according to the Kansas City Star's Rustin Dodd (h/t CBSSports.com): "If they have a problem with me throwing inside, they can meet me 60 feet, six inches away."
That type of attitude coupled with his talent made Syndergaard an instant favorite among the New York faithful. The night also ultimately meant little for Syndergaard or the Mets, as the Mets dropped the series to the Royals in five games.
As Marc Carig of Newsday pointed out before the start of the 2016 Major League Baseball season, that one pitch could make Syndergaard a target when facing the Royals or maybe other teams down the road. The whole thing now, many months after the fact, looks rather silly.
The Royals did their talking on the field, after all.
Syndergaard has a tremendous amount of talent. You don't have to be a scout to see that. Syndergaard is also a 23-year-old who hopefully has special moments ahead of him that have little to do with one pitch and a soundbite.
Floyd Mayweather Retirement
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Floyd Mayweather's final fight should have been special. Mayweather, one of the greatest pound-for-pound boxers in history, was looking to match Rocky Marciano and finish undefeated and with a 49-0 record. Even those who do not actively follow the sport other than when a big fight occurs should have taken notice when Mayweather stepped into the ring that last time.
As Nick Schwartz of USA Today wrote, Mayweather's final fight was nothing but a "complete waste of time":
"The two fighters traded more verbal insults than heavy punches throughout the bout — referee Kenny Bayless even stopped the fight at one point and instructed Mayweather and Berto to quit chatting — and Mayweather won by a landslide unanimous decision. In the final two rounds, Mayweather carelessly danced around the ring, openly taunting an opponent who had proven he simply didn’t have the ability to hit him (Berto landed just 17 percent of his punches).
It was a fight that was bound to be a disappointment from the day it was announced, and in that respect it delivered.
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Even more ridiculous than that fight is the perception that it is expected Mayweather will return to the ring if he is approached with the right offer. Bob Arum, promoter for Manny Pacquiao, told TMZ Sports earlier this month that he believes Mayweather would be willing to accept a rematch with Pacquiao.
Mayweather routinely flaunts his wealth via social media platforms. His nickname is Money. Those of us who do not know him have no reason to believe Mayweather would not fight again if he were able to earn one last massive paycheck.
Good for Mayweather if he gets paid, but you can only blame yourself if you are disappointed by what you see from Mayweather in his next "last" fight.
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Danny Willett Winning the Masters
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We are sure that Danny Willett is a nice guy. We have no reason to believe that Willett does not give it his all whenever he is on the golf course. Willett won the 2016 Masters, and nobody can take that or his green jacket away from him.
Unfortunately for Willett, he will now be the answer to the following trivia question: "Who won the 2016 Masters after Jordan Spieth suffered his historic collapse?"
ESPN's Ian O'Connor wrote about this following the Masters:
"Willett, a 28-year-old Englishman, is a talented player and deserving champ, not to mention the proud father of a newborn son; his wife's pregnancy nearly kept him out of the Masters. He was the last man in the field and the last man standing, earning his breakthrough victory with a 67 on his wife's birthday.
But this was Jordan Spieth's Masters to lose, and lose it he did in a staggering way. He closed out the front nine with four straight birdies to wipe out (Smylie) Kaufman and, it appeared, the rest of the field. "A dream-come-true front nine," Spieth called it.
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The outcome of the Masters was no longer a questionable matter after Spieth sunk his fourth straight birdie in the final round. Nobody could have been blamed that Sunday afternoon for flipping the television channel over to a close baseball game or for leaving the room to get a bite to eat.
Then came Spieth's meltdown on hole No. 12.
All Willett could do on the final Sunday of the Masters was play the course. Willett also can't change that we will remember the 2016 Masters because of how Spieth lost rather than because of how Willett won.
If we even remember Willett at all many years from now.
U.S. Women Win 2015 FIFA World Cup
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Those of us who are passionate soccer fans must remember to separate the men's and women's teams as it pertains to discussions about talent levels of United States Soccer players. It would not just be "special" if the U.S. men managed to win a World Cup at some point before the end of 2030. Such a run would be historic, and it would generate headlines around the planet.
That is not the case with the U.S. women. Routinely seen as one of the best squads in the world, the United States were behind only Germany as the favorites to win the 2015 Women's World Cup at the start of the knockout stages of that competition, per Odds Shark. The Americans defeated the Germans, 2-0, in the semifinal round and were then favorites to defeat Japan in the final.
The U.S. cruised to a 5-2 victory over Japan to win the World Cup.
Not only did one of the favorites to win the World Cup emerge victorious. The tournament was held in Canada and thus in the "backyards" of the U.S. Women. The Americans did not have to travel halfway around the world as did the likes of Japan, China, Germany and other nations for this competition.
This is not to say that the 2015 Women's World Cup meant nothing for U.S. soccer. The competition offered a reminder that there is nothing wrong with American fans having high expectations for a talented national squad. We all should have expected that the U.S. would hold serve "at home," and anything other than the U.S. winning it all would have been disappointing for the Americans and also for the state of U.S. soccer.
Warriors Win 73 Games
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It is a remarkable achievement for any NBA club to win 70 games these days, and the Golden State Warriors should be praised for setting a regular-season record of 73 victories earlier this spring. Getting to such a mark involves star players being able to avoid injury setbacks and those players choosing to turn down opportunities to rest up for the playoffs.
That team must also remain a winning side for the duration of a season that goes on for months and can, at times, feel endless and even somewhat pointless in the grand scheme of things.
We can tip our caps to the Warriors, sure, but remember that Golden State received zero trophies and zero gold stars for winning 73 regular-season games.
As was pointed out earlier in this piece, regular-season accomplishments of players and of teams in the Big Four leagues only mean so much. The Warriors winning 73 regular-season games only guarantees that Golden State will either win a championship when everybody expects the team to do so or that these Warriors will be responsible for one of the biggest letdowns in NBA history.
While we are on the subject of the Warriors, can we all agree that these Warriors would not defeat the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls in a seven-game series? Michael Shapiro of SFGate.com touched upon this subject for a piece that was published on April 18:
"When the Golden State Warriors won their 73rd game on Wednesday, April 13, the team set the record for regular season victories, surpassing the mark held by Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. But the Warriors, often underestimated, still aren’t viewed as the best team of all time, not even by the computer model employed by PredictionMachine.com.
The sports forecasting service that makes predictions for gamblers says that if the Warriors and Bulls faced off in a seven-game playoff series, the 1995-96 Bulls would win 63.8 percent of the time. Each game in this hypothetical series was simulated 50,000 times by a computer model based on factors such as player statistics, potential injuries and home-court advantage.
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The Bulls had the greatest NBA player of all-time, Michael Jordan, one of the greatest defensive players in history, Scottie Pippen, and Phil Jackson as head coach well before Jackson needed a break following the headaches that he encountered while with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Let's also not forget that the only reason the Bulls of the '90s only won six NBA titles was because Jordan wanted to play pro baseball for a period of time and also because Jordan and other members of the Bulls called time on their run together after a second three-peat.
Get to three consecutive NBA titles, Golden State, and then we can compare you with those Bulls teams.
Derek Jeter Retirement Tour
7 of 10Let's take a moment to be honest about why those of us who never cheered for the New York Yankees liked Derek Jeter so much. Yes, Jeter was a spectacular player during the best years of his career. Jeter was also a bright spot in the baseball world because he played the game "the right way" and was not, unlike so many around him, accused of using performance-enhancing drugs
The biggest knock on Jeter's playing days is that he hung around too long.
Jeter's body told him that enough was enough back in 2013. The New York shortstop was banged up throughout the season and was able to play in only 17 games before he had to admit that he couldn't be a positive contributor on the field. Jeter returned for the 2014 campaign, and he hit .256 in 145 games. That was 54 points below his career average that fell, in part, because of his last two seasons.
Watching Jeter be below average was one thing. Catching glimpses of his retirement tour that included other MLB clubs presenting Jeter with gifts was quite another.
"It wasn't fun to watch you try to knock us out of the playoffs, D.J., but here's a guitar for your troubles!"
Mike Vaccaro of the NY Post recently listed Jeter's walk-off hit in his final ever home game as one of the "most unforgettable sports exits." That may have been an emotional moment for those who had followed Jeter since his first season in the league, but the Yankees had already been eliminated from the playoffs well before Jeter made that final walk to his home plate in his home stadium.
Perhaps New York could have hung with the Baltimore Orioles in the standings had the Yankees had better offensive production from the team's shortstop that season.
Peyton Manning' Last Game
8 of 10Manning is the greatest regular-season quarterback in the history of the NFL. Watching Manning decimate defenses with his mind and also with his rocket of an arm over the years was a joy, particularly for those of us who find entertainment in examining "All-22" Coaches Film.
Manning's greatness during the majority of his career was why his final season in the NFL was so sad to witness.
Manning matched nine touchdown passes with 17 interceptions in 2015, Pro-Football-Reference.com. He was physically able to play in only 10 games during the regular season, and Manning reasonably could have been benched more than once because of his awful performances. The zip that had been on Manning's passes even a couple of years prior was but a memory. Manning was, simply stated, a shell of his former self.
That held true up through Super Bowl 50, where the defense of the Denver Broncos shut Newton down to the tune of 23 incomplete passes, zero touchdowns and an interception, per ESPN.com. Manning, meanwhile, was unspectacular in his last rodeo, completing 13 of 23 attempts for 141 yards and no touchdowns.
Even those numbers, as lackluster as they seem, are somewhat inflated. Denver running back C.J. Anderson caught four of Manning's passes for a total of 10 yards. Anderson's longest gain of the day on a pass play was seven yards.
It was nice that Manning was able to deliver one of the best retirement speeches you'll hear from any pro athlete, if only because Manning was unable to give us one last memorable moment during Super Bowl 50. Manning's final game ever was anything but special, as it showed just how far he had fallen in the final years of his legendary career.
Leicester City's Run to the Premier League Title
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Regardless of what happens between the third Wednesday of April and the end of the 2015-16 Premier League season, there will be no bigger story in the sports world this year than Leicester City.
Leicester were never supposed to be atop the Premier League table this late into the campaign. Per Odds Shark, their odds to win the league last summer were nearly 3,000-1. Leicester were ignored in season previews and, logically speaking, more likely to face relegation than to contend for a Champions League spot let alone to win the Premier League.
Leicester deserve all kinds of credit for not (yet) buckling under the pressure and for playing scintillating team football that has them just a few positive results away from accomplishing what was unthinkable roughly eight months ago. Jamie Vardy going from a player you may buy on the cheap for your silver FIFA Ultimate Team to one of the top scorers in all of English football has been incredible to watch.
With all of that said, we have to stop pretending that the Premier League as a whole has not been downright awful this season.
This is not all that new of a take. Ian Ladyman of the Daily Mail wrote about that this past December:
"Last season, for example, Chelsea won the Premier League while losing just three games. This time round, Arsenal have already lost four while City and United have lost five each.
So this brings us to an unavoidable question. Can a league really be that worthy if it doesn’t contain a single exceptional team? The answer to this is clearly ‘no’. This is why the current Premier League is the worst in recent memory and, furthermore, there is absolutely no fathomable reason for it.
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Think back to the 2012-13 Premier League season. Tottenham Hotspur finished that campaign with 72 total points, per SportsMole.Co.UK. That was good for fifth. This season, Leicester, currently at 73, and Tottenham, currently at 68, may be the only two Premier League clubs that get past 70 points.
Kobe Bryant Retirement Game
10 of 10Jason Whitlock was spot-on with what he said about the final game in the career of Kobe Bryant.
Whitlock can be a polarizing figure among observers and fans. It does sometimes seem as if Whitlock enjoys trolling via Twitter. This does not mean that the Fox Sports analyst is incapable of voicing accurate and legitimate opinions on topics.
Whitlock hit a home run with his take on Bryant's retirement fiasco.
"[Bryant] destroyed a franchise," Whitlock stated when discussing the matter the following day. "His narcissism and selfishness destroyed a franchise. The Lakers are a laughing stock and just had the most embarrassing season we’ve pretty much ever seen an NBA team have."
Whitlock was talking about the ridiculous contract that Bryant handcuffed the Lakers into giving him after Bryant was only physically able to play in six regular-season games back for 2013-14. That contract, per Spotrac, awarded an over-the-hill Bryant with $48.5 million in guaranteed money for his final two seasons, cash that could have gone to other talented players if Bryant actually cared about the Lakers winning anything of merit during his last years with the club.
Not that Bryant was ever known as an all-time great teammate.
"Kobe ran off Shaquille O’Neal," Whitlock continued. "They could have established one of the greatest dynasties in sports history, but his narcissism and selfishness ran Shaq out."
Bryant's final game was, in a way, a summary of his final years with the Lakers. It was a night when literally nothing inside of the arena other than Bryant mattered, and he responded by attempting 50 shots from the field. Social-media users gushed over the fact that Bryant finished the evening with 60 points.
Forget the fact that he missed 28 of his 50 attempts.
Take all of the names out of the equation, and focus just on the numbers. An overpaid veteran who could have helped his franchise by retiring two seasons ago shot the ball 50 times in his final game en route to helping his team finish the regular season with a conference-worst 17-65 record.
Big deal.
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