Top Ten Sports Traditions That Have Jumped the Shark

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There are plenty of traditions in the sports world. The problem is that every tradition that exists is copied and used so often that they become commonplace.

Originality has gone out the window; most celebrations or conventions that are used now are basically slightly adjusted ones that have been done before. There are some iterations that work; ones that should stay in the limelight for the time being, but most of them are dull, overused, and unmemorable.

It's time for these traditions, celebrations, or whatever you want to call them to leave the sports world for good. Here's my list of sports traditions that have jumped the shark.

Rushing the Court - I have to begin with the obvious ones. This here is numero uno. This act of celebration has absolutely no meaning anymore. Students just rush the court for any chance possible. We need rush the court rules if we want to resuscitate this one. No team that is in the Top 25 should ever have fans rush the court for any matter. I don't care if it's #25 versus #1. Every week there is a new case of rushing the court. Please stop. The only instance when this should ever happen now is on a buzzer beat against a highly ranked team (Top 5) or a rivalry game. Not those fake rivals either. Read this if you don't know what I'm talking about. Yes, Maryland students are all lame and should not have rushed the court yesterday against Duke. You won't ever see Duke fans rush the court if they beat Maryland.

The Gatorade Dump - We needed to get the big two out of the way. Another celebration that has totally jumped the shark for over a decade. This is the most unexciting, unmemorable tradition of them all. Nobody is impressed by it and it's actually annoying to see it now. It almost seems disrespectful; not just to the coaches, but to all the fans of the team that have to watch the television and think, "here we go again!"  It's terrible. Please end it or at least turn Gatorade into something else. Get out beer bongs and guzzle the juice or start doing Gatorade keg stands. I'm sorry, but the Gatorade dump is not G!

The Name-Your-Color-Out - Almost every single venue has tried to pull this one off. Have every fan in the stadium where a single color. Great marketing geniuses. This one invokes fear into the opponents. The only place that it looks good is a night game at Happy Valley. That's a rarity though since there's usually only one night game and it's 110,000 fans. I just don't think 6,000 Princeton students are causing havoc by wearing tiger print t-shirts to the game.

The Wave - A celebration that I have to stand up and sit down repeatedly every ten seconds is not a celebration; it's an annoyance.

NASCAR Turfing - There isn't a celebration that is more ridiculous then having NASCAR drivers do donuts in the grass and burn rubber all over the track after a win. Just think if other sports had the same concept. Baseball players would start digging out home plate, basketball players would cut the nets after every win, and football players would probably just take a piss all over the grass. Nothing says winning like damaging a stadium!

The Hat Trick - This one isn't as bad because they don't happen that often, but do we really need to prolong the game with a bunch of hats on the ice. No other sport celebrates for a hat trick. Baseball fans don't throw anything on the field if a guy hits three home runs, unless that guy is J.D. Drew in an opposing stadium and batteries will fly at him. Give it up.

The First Pitch - It's simple, it's nice, it's quick and easy, but I don't care for it one bit. I don't really need to see a corporate sponsor on the mound representing their baby formula, trying to toss the ball to the catcher. I will say that at least with this one we get some great YouTube clips.

Olympic Ceremonies - The most boring and expensive gala in all of sports are Olympic ceremonies. I'd much rather just get straight to the events and not have to watch every single individual involved, who we know about 1% of the faces, walk around in a circle. Actually anything where people are walking together in a set pattern is never a good thing. That brings me to my next one.

Championship Parades - Four teams win a major championship every single year. It's not like a parade is that special. Do we really need fake floats to carry players around through the streets just so they can say, "Thank you fans! This one’s for you!"? They're cool for about the four hours that they occur and then no one can remember them a week later. If you really want to do something for the fans then why not open up the stadium, have everyone come in and listen to a couple speeches, and then let the fans meet the players. This would eliminate all the blocked off streets and would be a much cheaper and nicer ceremony to pull off.

The ESPY's - Last, but not least. I don't even know if this one is really a tradition, but it's a celebration of sports over the past year. The ESPY's started in 1993 and I guess they're entertaining at times. All awards shows have basically jumped the shark though. We don't need a special telecast to decide awards that mean nothing. Especially in sports. On Sportscenter we have daily plays of the day, monthly plays of the monthly, best plays of the first half of a season, and plays of the year. They also break them down by sport and anything else they can to show all the highlights. We also have the Internet where every other blogger puts out their award list. It may not have the same merit, but it put out basically the same nominees. I guess the major difference with the ESPY's then the Grammy's or Oscar's is that at least when an actor or artist wins one of those awards it increases their pay and it's a great resume builder. I don't think Drew Brees is walking into his contract negotiations with his ESPY in hand to show how talented he is. Sports are great on their own and we get to experience them every day. We don't need a made up awards ceremony by ESPN to let us know that.