Sports Eras That Ended in 2016
Memorable and even historic sports eras end every year, and that was the case throughout 2016.
Multiple all-time greats retired and rode off into the sunset. Supposed jinxes and curses were wiped away from memories. Rookies replaced well-known veterans in lineups.
To every thing there is a season.
Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan walked off National Basketball Association courts as active players one last time. Major League Soccer lost the most successful designated player in its history. Cleveland, Ohio, a town mocked for its history of losing literally for decades, became the city of champions.
There's no doubt 2016 was a monumental year in the sports world.
While 2017 is not yet upon us, we can already forecast the sports eras that will likely end between now and January 1, 2018. What, in your eyes, will be the biggest sports era to vanish in that time?
Big Papi Says Goodbye
1 of 10
The perception exists that everybody loves former Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz.
Ortiz is Big Papi, a larger-than-life character who played pranks on teammates and who seemed to enjoy the game as if he were a fan gifted with the opportunity to make millions of dollars playing a sport. Even opposing fans rose to their feet in appreciation when Ortiz crushed home runs around the country during his last season.
It could be said Ortiz was the biggest babyface in pro sports during his final years as an active player.
Even the New York Yankees, Boston's hated rivals and a team burned by Ortiz over the years, presented the slugger with a parting gift before his last game in the Bronx. That in itself says plenty about Ortiz's impact on the sport and on those he faced throughout his career.
For whatever reasons, we've even decided to allow ourselves to forget negative stories about Ortiz, subjects Anthony L. Fisher of The Week touched upon this past September.
Tim Duncan in San Antonio
2 of 10
Former San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan was known as the Big Fundamental, largely because he was unspectacular. Duncan didn't overpower opponents like Shaquille O'Neal. He wasn't a freak athlete like LeBron James seemed to be during James' physical prime.
Duncan meekly played his position better than anybody else throughout the majority of his 19 years of service to the San Antonio Spurs, and he won NBA MVP honors on two occasions and NBA Finals MVP three times. He was a mainstay for the Spurs and the NBA for two decades, and it's not an overstatement to say the league is worse without him.
Duncan was maybe the most unassuming superstar of the modern sports era. He didn't insult fans or opponents with his antics or words, nor did he ever act as if he believed he was bigger than the team. Per the Players' Tribune, contemporaries and also NBA teams took to Twitter to salute Duncan after he quietly announced his retirement earlier this year. No player was more respected among opponents.
It felt, in a way, as if Duncan would be around as an active player forever, and that's why his retirement hit fans differently than others.
Miesha Tate: Multiple Eras
3 of 10
UFC bantamweight Miesha Tate ended two eras in 2016.
Tate served as the secondary role of the division back to her days in Strikeforce. She held the bantamweight title in that promotion, but she was never as big a star as Ronda Rousey even before Rousey defeated her for the championship. That trend continued after both fighters signed with the UFC, as Tate lost to Rousey at UFC 168 in December 2013.
Tate rose to the top of the division in March when she defeated Holly Holm and won the championship. It was Tate's biggest win of her career, and the thought among fight fans was her victory had set up a future showdown with Rousey. That wasn't in the cards, however, and Tate lost the title to Amanda Nunes in July.
Tate announced her retirement after losing to Raquel Pennington earlier this month.
Tate's retirement creates a noticeable hole on the UFC roster, as she was a likable underdog recognizable among fans and also served as an inspirational story about somebody who battled for years until she became the best fighter in the division, if only for a few months. We'll miss seeing Cupcake compete in the cage.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Robbie Keane: Best DP in MLS History
4 of 10
Robbie Keane may, all things considered, be the greatest overall player in Major League Soccer history.
The striker who featured for both Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool joined the North American top-flight when he signed with the L.A. Galaxy in the summer of 2011, and Keane enjoyed one of the most successful careers in the history of the league. He hoisted the MLS Cup on three occasions, helped the Galaxy win the Supporters' Shield and is currently 13th all time among MLS goal scorers, per MLSSoccer.com.
Others often overshadowed Keane during his time in MLS. David Beckham, the most recognizable soccer star in the history of the sport, featured for the Galaxy during Keane's first few years with the club. Keane also played alongside Landon Donovan, arguably the top male American footballer of his time.
The Galaxy announced earlier this month Keane is leaving the club at the end of the year, meaning MLS could lose its greatest designated player after 2016.
Tony Romo Loses His Job
5 of 10
Quarterback Tony Romo may never again start for the Dallas Cowboys.
Romo's career in Dallas wasn't supposed to end this way. The hope, back at the start of training camp, was that Romo would remain healthy and productive playing behind the best offensive line in the NFL today. That, of course, didn't happen, as Romo suffered an injury that sidelined him during a preseason game in August.
A pair of rookies may keep Romo a spectator up through the end of his stint in Dallas.
Dak Prescott won nine games in a row and nine of his first 10 starts while serving as Romo's replacement, and Romo conceded the starting gig to the rookie while speaking to reporters before Week 11 of the campaign. First-year running back Ezekiel Elliott, meanwhile, leads the NFL in rushing yards, and he has made life easier for Prescott throughout the past few months.
Romo may choose to continue playing past 2016, but it seems his days with the Cowboys are quickly running out.
Alex Rodriguez: Unceremonious Goodbye
6 of 10
New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, also known as A-Rod, was a lightning rod as it pertained to attracting attention from media, fans and baseball observers up through his final at-bat this past August.
Rodriguez was a star unlike any other before him in multiple ways. For starters, Rodriguez earned approximately over $400 million from his MLB contracts, according to Spotrac, and that doesn't include money Rodriguez made away from the sport. Rodriguez was also linked with performance-enhancing drugs on multiple occasions, and he was suspended for all of 2014 because of his alleged ties to such products.
Critics can say whatever they will about Rodriguez, but their words don't erase the fact A-Rod is fourth all time in home runs, per Baseball-Reference.com. Nobody should ignore the contributions Rodriguez offered to the 2009 New York Yankees during a playoff run that ended with the Bronx Bombers winning the World Series.
Rodriguez earned no year-end retirement season. Opposing teams didn't give Rodriguez gifts before his final at-bats at away ballparks. Rodriguez played his last game for the Yankees on August 12 before the end of the regular season, almost as if the Yankees couldn't wait to have him off the roster and out of the clubhouse.
It was a fitting end for one of the more controversial athletes of his time.
Importance of UFC Titles
7 of 10
UFC championships are less important today than at any point in the promotion's history.
The idea that stars, not titles, sell fights has existed among fans and observers for years, and that was proven true in 2016. Miesha Tate vs. Amanda Nunes headlined UFC 200, but it was widely believed Brock Lesnar vs. Mark Hunt was the biggest fight on that card. Conor McGregor doesn't need to fight for a title to sell arenas out and generate over a million pay-per-view buys.
McGregor and Nate Diaz proved that this past August when, per Dave Meltzer of MMA Fighting, they set a new UFC record for pay-per-view purchases.
The UFC isn't eliminating titles any time soon (as far as we know), but championships becoming less important will be an interesting story to follow over the next 24 months. ESPN.com's Darren Rovell and Brett Okamoto reported in July the UFC sold for $4 billion, and the promotion's new owners will look to make good on that investment anyway possible.
Kobe Bryant: An All-Time Great
8 of 10
It felt as if casual sports fans took Kobe Bryant for granted during his final couple of seasons in the NBA.
LeBron James overshadowed Bryant throughout the past six years. James made the move from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat in the summer of 2010, and James then helped the Heat play in the NBA Finals in each of his four seasons with the club before he returned to Cleveland. James and the Heat won a pair of titles during that stretch.
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, meanwhile, replaced Bryant as the biggest star in the Western Conference. Curry won back-to-back MVP awards the past two seasons and helped the Warriors win an NBA title and reach two conference championships.
Thus, it became easy to forget Bryant is one of the greatest players in NBA history. Bryant is a five-time NBA champion, he is behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in All-Star Game appearances, per Basketball-Reference.com, and he is third all time in points, per ESPN.com.
Bryant and Duncan were the top two remaining players who entered the NBA in the 1990s, and their retirements signaled the end of an era for those of us able to remember when both men began their pro careers.
Chicago Cubs' Futility
9 of 10
The Chicago Cubs were the lovable losers of North American professional sports for over 100 years.
The Cubs won the World Series in 1907 and 1908, and fans at that time probably couldn't and wouldn't have guessed those would be the last titles the club would win for 108 years. What became somewhat of a forgotten part of the team's history is that the North Siders of Chicago went over 70 years without winning even a pennant!
It's worth noting the Cubs weren't underdogs at the start of the 2016 Major League Baseball season. As Tony Andracki of CSN Chicago explained, the Cubs were favorites to win this year's World Series all the way back in December 2015. Chicago began the campaign with an impressive lineup and a solid rotation, and the Cubs then added closer Aroldis Chapman before the trade deadline.
Chapman, we learned, proved to be the final piece to the puzzle.
The Cubs are your reigning World Series champions. That is a sentence many fans believed they'd never read during their lifetimes.
Cleveland: Mistake by the Lake
10 of 10
Cleveland was the "mistake by the lake" for roughly 50 years.
Late night talk show hosts took shots at Cleveland in opening monologues. Opposing fans mocked Cleveland supporters whenever they made treks to Northeast Ohio to watch their favorite teams play against the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Indians. Little about Cleveland was cool or fashionable for those who didn't live in the region.
That all changed in 2016, as Cleveland became the city of champions this year.
Stipe Miocic, a lifelong Cleveland fan born and raised in the area, won the UFC heavyweight championship in May, and he then successfully defended that title at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland this past September. AFC Cleveland won the National Premier Soccer League title. Local product LeBron James led the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA championship. The Cleveland Indians won the American League pennant.
Peter Lane Taylor of Forbes referred to Cleveland as "America's hottest city" this past October. No city in North America had a better overall sports year than Cleveland, a town that now deserves to be known as the city of champions.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
