Yeah, I Said It: 10 Biggest Sports Letdowns to Date of 2016
The first five-and-a-half months of 2016 gave sports fans a plethora of memorable moments.
Leicester City shocked the sports world by hoisting the Premier League trophy in May. Peyton Manning delivered one of the best retirement speeches you'll ever hear. The national championship games in both college football and college basketball provided hours of entertainment.
They can't all be gems, though, as we saw multiple times during the opening half of 2016.
The Champions League Final and the Super Bowl are arguably the two biggest annual events on the sports calendar. Neither one of those events left casual fans with moments of inspiration or highlights that will be remembered for years to come. Truth be told, one could not be blamed for failing to remember the majority of those contests.
What is often the most exciting moment in horse racing became somewhat meaningless after a possible Triple Crown disappeared. The National Football League draft lacked drama minus one story that wrapped up halfway through the first round. A potential superfight involving two of the great talkers in all of combat sports is now seemingly no longer on the table.
We take the bad with the good. That adage holds true in life and in sports.
Maybe the Summer Olympics will be one big mess. Perhaps UFC 200 will turn out to be a massive letdown. For all we know, Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton winning Most Valuable Player honors will prove to be a one-off.
The biggest sports letdown of 2016 could be to come.
Tottenham Hotspur
1 of 10
It is not a letdown that Tottenham Hotspur failed to win the 2015-16 Premier League title. While Spurs dropped points during winnable matches on multiple occasions, the football fates smiled upon Leicester City. Leicester deservedly won the league, and the Foxes should forever be praised for that accomplishment.
Tottenham make the list because Spurs were unable to make things interesting near the top of the Premier League table past May 2 and also because Tottenham did not hold onto second place in the league table up through the final kick of the campaign.
Spurs took a 2-0 lead into halftime when away to rivals Chelsea on May 2. A victory on that day would have been enough for Tottenham to secure second place in the league table, and that result would have postponed Leicester's celebrations for at least several days. Tottenham fell apart in the second half of the match, however, and Chelsea roared back for a pair of goals that gifted Leicester the league title.
Little could Tottenham supporters have guessed on May 2 that additional salt would be poured into the open wound. Spurs failed to earn a single point in their final two matches when a point was all that was necessary for Tottenham to finish ahead of north London rivals Arsenal and behind only Leicester in the league table. Even worse, Tottenham lost 5-1 to relegated Newcastle United on the final day of the campaign.
Arsenal did enough to finish ahead of Spurs, while Tottenham dropped to third.
NBA Trade Deadline
2 of 10
You know the story of Lucy and Charlie Brown. Lucy holds the football for Charlie Brown to kick it. Charlie Brown, knowing Lucy has a history of pulling the football away right as he swings his foot to complete the kick, tells Lucy he isn't doing it because he knows Lucy will pull the ball away. Lucy eventually convinces Charlie Brown things will be different this time around, he believes her and then he ends up on his butt after Lucy pulls the ball away at the final second.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
This analogy works to describe the yearly National Basketball Association trade deadline. Every January and February, basketball fans flock to websites and social media to read up on rumors and potential trades. They read about potential blockbuster moves, they get excited to see those transactions occur and then they are left disappointed when little of note occurs on deadline day.
2016 was no different.
The big rumor this time around involved Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love potentially being on the trading block as of the middle of February, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News (h/t Randy Miller of NJ Advance Media). Those of us on the outside looking in may never know what occurred behind the scenes, but what is known is Love was not traded, and he told reporters after the deadline passed that he "never believed" the Cavs considered moving on from him, per Steve Aschburner of NBA.com.
Sure, deals were made, and players changed teams before the deadline. None of those trades altered the NBA's foundation or landscape. Maybe 2017 will be the year when the NBA trade deadline lives up to the hype.
Eh, probably not.
2016 NFL Draft
3 of 10
NFL fans everywhere owe a figurative tip of the cap to Laremy Tunsil.
The offensive lineman out of Ole Miss unintentionally became a social media sensation just minutes before the start of the 2016 NFL Draft when a video of Tunsil wearing a gas mask and apparently smoking something from a bong was posted by his official Twitter account. Tunsil later explained that both his Twitter and Instagram paged had been hacked.
That video, as one might expect, caused Tunsil to fall down the overall draft board. Tunsil was eventually scooped up by the Miami Dolphins via the 13th overall selection. While Tunsil will still be a rich man, Charlotte Wilder of USA Today suggested he "lost about $10 million" by falling out of the draft's top 10.
The reason football fans owe Tunsil some gratitude is that his story was the only interesting thing about the 2016 NFL draft's opening night. We all "knew" the Los Angeles Rams would draft California QB Jared Goff. Once the Rams officially drafted Goff, it was assumed the Philadelphia Eagles, a team that traded with the Cleveland Browns to move up to pick No. 2, would select North Dakota State QB Carson Wentz.
Done and done.
Even Tunsil's fall down the draft board proved to be rather uneventful for those who have no ties to the player. Tunsil did not drop down past the teens as did Aaron Rodgers or, more recently, Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater and Derek Carr. Unless you passionately cared about the Denver Broncos using pick No. 26 to acquire QB Paxton Lynch, you could've gone to bed after Tunsil was drafted without missing much.
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Penguins vs. Capitals
4 of 10
The National Hockey League could have used a big-time series this spring. The NBA is a superstar league in every sense of that description, and the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers coming together for a rematch in the NBA finals guaranteed the NBA would steal headlines for a couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports 1 recently suggested via Twitter that soccer has overtaken hockey in popularity among American sports fans.
Those running the NHL were, thus, probably excited to see the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals were meeting up for another playoff series that began in late April. The series featured Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin—two of the NHL's biggest names and best players. It also didn't hurt that the Penguins and Capitals have enjoyed a long-standing rivalry.
Think back to 2009 when the Penguins and Capitals played in the postseason. Yes, Pittsburgh dominated Washington to the tune of 6-2 in Game 7, but there was, at the time, hope that the series served as a preview for the next great NHL rivalry that would carry the league into the next decade.
That's not the case seven years later.
This isn't to say the Penguins and Capitals stunk up the joint. Five of the six games of the 2016 playoff series were decided by a single goal. Three of the contests went to overtime.
The letdown here is that Ovechkin and the Capitals again failed to make a meaningful run to a Stanley Cup Final.
Ovechkin only scored a pair of goals during the series, per ESPN.com. He finished the series with a plus-minus of 2, largely because he notched a plus-three in Game 1. What may have been the best Capitals team of the Ovechkin era fell short of a Final, and so it has to be asked:
How quickly is Washington's window to win a Stanley Cup with Ovechkin on the roster closing?
Survival Sunday
5 of 10
Premier League fans who live in the United States are lucky in many ways. Those of us who follow the EPL and North American sports competitions can watch multiple Premier League games without having to worry about missing out on college football and NFL action. Premier League fans in the U.S. don't lose entire weekend days following matches.
It's tremendous.
The now-defunct Fox Soccer and the NBC Sports executives deserve credit for making Survival Sunday, the last day of the Premier League season, a big deal in the States. Survival Sunday matches air live on different television networks and also via the NBC Sports mobile application. In a way, Survival Sunday has become this country's biggest annual soccer day.
It's too bad Survival Sunday 2016 was basically meaningless.
Leicester City clinched the Premier League title in early May. Tottenham Hotspur were guaranteed a top-three finish and a berth in next season's Champions League. Aston Villa, Norwich City and Newcastle United were all relegated after Week 37 of the campaign. The only remaining drama involved the final finishing spots of Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United in the league table.
Yawn.
Sergio Aguero hitting the back of the net during stoppage time of a Survival Sunday match cannot always be the winning play for the Premier League title. We get that. The truth of the matter is, you did not miss much if you spent Survival Sunday away from your television sets and outside of your homes.
NBA Playoffs
6 of 10
You may not love LeBron James or Kyrie Irving or anything about the Cleveland Cavaliers. Diehard NBA fans and casual viewers everywhere should thank James and Irving for carrying the Cavaliers to a big win over the Golden State Warriors on June 13, because they may have saved the NBA Finals and NBA playoffs.
Blowouts, as Rodger Sherman of SB Nation pointed out in a piece that was published on June 10, plagued the playoffs up through Game 3 of the NBA Finals:
"There have been 83 playoff games so far this year. Twenty-four of them have been decided by 20 or more points. Think about that: 28 percent of the games between the NBA's best teams have been blowouts. That's twice as many as last year, when 12 games were decided by 20 or more. There have been more 30-point games this year (10) than there were 20-point games in 2012 (7).
"
The Eastern Conference playoffs existed only as a coronation for the Cavaliers. Cleveland breezed past the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks, and the Cavs then took care of the Toronto Raptors in six games during a series that looked closer on paper than it was on the court.
The Western Conference playoffs, particularly the conference finals, gave us more drama. The series involving the Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder went to seven games, and it included the Warriors coming back from a 3-1 deficit. That rally, as Andrew Lynch of FoxSports.com explained, occurred more so because Oklahoma City choked rather than Golden State played so well in the final three games of the series:
"How else to explain Game 7, when Oklahoma City displayed all of the poise of a kindergartener desperately in need of a nap? Or the last three games of the series, for that matter? Give all the credit in the world to the Golden State Warriors. They clawed back from a titanic 3-1 deficit to claim victory and defend their title.
But the Thunder were awful in the clutch in Games 5, 6 and especially 7. If they'd showed just the slightest bit of confidence as things went sideways with the games on the line, we'd be preparing for a rematch between LeBron James and the Thunder.
"
Basketball fans who suffered through these playoffs deserve to see the NBA Finals go to Game 7. Make it so, Cavaliers.
The Triple Crown
7 of 10
The majority of American sports fans care about horse racing for about one month every year. That month begins with the annual Kentucky Derby, and it ends with the Belmont Stakes. When you consider most viewers only care about three races, in particular, it can be said that the majority of Americans who follow those events spend literally a handful of minutes per year watching races.
It is this reality that makes the Triple Crown such a letdown when the winner of the Kentucky Derby fails to repeat at the Preakness as what occurred during the spring of 2016. Nyquist acquired the first jewel of the Triple Crown by winning the Kentucky Derby on May 9, but that victory quickly faded from memories after Nyquist finished third at the Preakness.
The luster was gone even before the first race at the Belmont began.
Joe Drape of the New York Times wrote that the Belmont Stakes ending with a photo finish did not erase the fact that the race was "without a great deal of consequence." NBC (h/t Matt Hegarty of DRF.com) pointed out that the Belmont's TV ratings were "down 6.5 percent from the rating of the same broadcast in 2013, when no Triple Crown was on the line as well."
The dip in viewers is easy to understand. American Pharoah became a household name in the spring of 2015 by winning the Triple Crown. California Chrome nearly pulled off the feat in 2014. We became spoiled to the point that a Belmont without a Triple Crown on the line turned into a nonevent.
Super Bowl 50
8 of 10
Dan Sostek of PittNews.com did not dance around the matter when writing about the Super Bowl 50 showdown involving the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos.
"As I sat sprawled in a chair, watching Cam Newton get slaughtered by a vicious Denver defense and a lifeless Peyton Manning loft the ball in the air with less velocity than a granny-style free throw, one thought constantly pervaded my mind.
Man, this is so boring.
The 2016 Super Bowl was an old-fashioned defensive struggle — one that NFL pundits and former coaches will likely laud as an entertaining battle of wills — but in reality it probably induced more drowsy eyes than a bottle of Nyquil.
"
Sostek wasn't wrong.
Newton looked more like the overwhelmed player of old rather than the reigning league MVP throughout the contest. The often-boastful Newton completed only 18 of his 41 pass attempts, and he failed to find any real rhythm while facing a dynamic Denver defense. At the opposite end of the field was a version of Peyton Manning who was a shell of his former self. Manning ended the game with only 13 completions and zero touchdowns.
Part of the problem here is that the majority of Super Bowl games over the past decade were good or even great games. Eli Manning and the New York Giants versus Tom Brady and the New England Patriots twice made for historic contests. Super Bowl XLV, Super Bowl XLVI, Super Bowl XLVII and Super Bowl XLIX were all decided by a single score. Three of the four Super Bowl contests that preceded Super Bowl 50 came down to the final minute of play.
It also doesn't help that two weeks of hype lead up to every Super Bowl. By the time Super Bowl Sunday finally arrives, we hope to see a classic game if only so that the wait will have been worth it.
Our hopes were not realized this past February.
Champions League Final
9 of 10
Atletico Madrid are boring. Jason Davis of PasteMagazine.com wrote about this very fact this past March. Manager Diego Simeone deserves praise for building a culture that allows Atletico to routinely compete with Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, but Simeone's defensive tactics make for negative advertisements for the sport as it pertains to casual fans.
It should, thus, not surprise anybody that the Champions League final involving Atletico and Real was not only boring. It was downright lackluster.
Sergio Ramos opened the scoring with a goal that shouldn't have counted, as replays showed Ramos was a step offside. Cristiano Ronaldo, far and away the biggest star on the pitch, was largely an invisible man until the final kick of the match. The match, level at 1-1 after the second half and after two periods of extra time, was decided by penalties.
That last point may be the biggest reason the Champions League final was such a letdown.
PK shootouts are a necessary evil in world football. Players are exhausted after running mini-marathons during 120-plus minutes of action on the pitch. Top-tier footballers are extraordinary athletes, yes, but they are also humans. They can only give so much.
Still, there has to be a way to improve things and, if possible, avoid the biggest title in all of club football being decided via penalties.
Extra time could be played under "golden goal" rules. Additional substitutions could be awarded to teams at the start of extra time. Such changes or other modifications could benefit club and international competitions for future generations.
No McGregor-Mayweather Fight
10 of 10
Current Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight champion Conor McGregor and retired boxer Floyd Mayweather should not meet in the ring for a match of any kind. This opinion continues to be repeated online whenever the bout is rumored by either man, either camp or anybody, in general.
George Willis of the New York Post wrote that the fight would "not meet the hype." Daniel Roberts of Deadspin predicted "McGregor would be a dead man walking" if he tried to hang with Mayweather in a boxing match.
It now appears as if there will be no McGregor-Mayweather fight in 2016.
Following a spat involving McGregor and the UFC that played out on social media websites, ESPN interviews and behind the scenes, those two parties and Nate Diaz agreed to a deal that will see McGregor and Diaz compete at UFC 202. The rematch of last March's fight that ended when Diaz submitted McGregor is scheduled to occur on August 20.
That, alone, should put an end to stories of McGregor and Mayweather fighting before the calendar turns to 2017. McGregor could, if he picks up any sort of injury during the Diaz fight, be forced to serve a medical suspension that prevents him from sparring for up to 90 days. Even if that doesn't happen, a few months of preparation is not enough for McGregor to adequately ready himself for an exhibition boxing match against Mayweather.
Remember, also, McGregor is still signed to the UFC and is a UFC champion. Odds are UFC boss Dana White is going to request McGregor eventually defend that title at some point.
Why, if this fight isn't happening and if it wouldn't be all that good if it occurred, is it still a hot topic on some websites and on social media? Probably for the same reasons Kimbo Slice drew record television viewers whenever he fought. No knowledgeable fan ever believed Slice would hold a championship in a major promotion, but we tuned in anyway because we hoped we would, at least, see a show.
Watch the video that was shared on the RTE Soccer Facebook page in which McGregor offers motivation for the Ireland national team. McGregor could and would sell fans on watching a supposed "super-fight" that featured the UFC champ taking on the all-time boxing great.
Too bad we probably won't see the fight this year.
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