A sports fans life keeps rolling on. There is always a new season, a new year. The draft brings new players. Time kills the old ones. Of course, there are those special teams, special moments that stay with you. They usually reside in two groups: the times when your team wins it all, or the time your team suffers harrowing losses. But that should not be the breadth of lasting memories of a sports fan. There are always moments that get lost in the never-ending life of a sports fan, moments that were once memorable and fun, but just get lost from the conscious. But some reside in the subconscious, those little moments that will randomly come up. This is just a stream of consciousness remembrance of the random moments, little things that made sports special outside of just winning and losing. So, do you remember...
= Back in 2003, during the height of the Miller Lite "I love football" campaign, ESPN used to run weekly "I Love Football" montages at the end of each Monday SportsCenter with the clips and lyrics customized to that week. It ended with... "And I. Love. Week 3!!" I've searched all over Youtube for a clip from those SportsCenter spots, but found nothing. I've found every variation of those ads, but never from the actual show. They were corny and inevitably annoying, but man I used to love them. It probably helped that we used to watch the end of 7:00 AM SportsCenter in Mr. Agalias's homeroom.
= In the ad vein, it has become easy to just make fun of Peyton Manning about his ads. But does anyone remember just how good those ads were back in 2003-2005. Peyton Manning's early MasterCard spots were just that brilliant. Yup, I got a link for this one. Peyton Manning is one of the few athletes I have seen that is ready to make fun of himself. His SNL visit was great. One of the biggest negative outcomes of Super Bowl XLIV was not having Peyton doing another SNL trip. Peyton seems to have lost some of this outward ability to make fun of himself (he still is funny in interviews), and I hope a change of scenery brings that Peyton back.
= Anyway, moving on to actual sports moments. do you remember how great Gilbert Arenas was. Arenas, for a three year stretch, was not only one of the top three scorers in the NBA but the most exciting, affable and entertaining player in the NBA. Arenas's quirks were what made him. Him calling himself "Agent 0", shouting "Hibachi" when he shoots, having a weird feud with Mike Krzyzewski where he claimed he wanted to play just one game against Duke, where he would score 80. But over it all, it was his genuine love of connecting to people. His blogging, his just being weird. Gilbert was the real epitome of a star in the facebook and twitter age. Sadly, his career peaked just before those websites.
= Similarly, the incredible comedy that was Gary Payton and Chris Webber doing 'Inside the NBA' on NBAtv. For whatever reason, it was a one year thing, and although they have both made few appearances on Inside the NBA on TNT, the duo is gone. For one golden season, they just made you laugh. I hope to have a job one tenth as fun as C-Webb and The Glove made their job out to be. Here are some highlights: Counting down their best moments... Talking about Randy Foye's disease... On who the real Superman is... On LeBron's crab dribble... On Steve Nash's acting... On Shaq and the Jabawockeez... On Pau Gasol's fancy pass... and finally, on Nene's decision to get married All-Star Weekend. God, they were great. Even a lot of these clips none of them really said anything funny, but they were just having so much fun together, that how could you not laugh right along as a viewer.
= The Tuck Rule?.... Oh, you do remember it. Well, good. Just checking we all remember the biggest travesty of a refereeing decision of the 2000s. Had to throw that in here.
= Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg. I mean really. This was one of the most bizarre criminal developments by a player in my lifetime. Here was a guy who was the star receiver (who never got nearly enough credit for predicting a pretty close 23-17 win in Super Bowl XLII and then backed it up by catching the winning touchdown) for a team that was 10-1. Burress was a star in NYC, and then he decided to go into a club with a gun for protection (a concern that is kind of valid, given the fact that NFL players are targets, such as Sean Taylor). Because he was, for some unexplained reason, clubbin' with sweatpants, the gun went off, shot himself and he found himself in jail for the next two years. Forget the fact that the sentence really outdid the crime, but here was a star receiver basically suspending himself for two years because he let off a gun. That Giants team was the best team in a weak year and easily could have won the Super Bowl. This was more bizarre than Michael Vick being a dog-fighter, or Chris Henry getting arrested 17 times. This was just hilarious, sad and had a huge impact on that season.
= Tracy McGrady's dunk in the 2002 All Star Game. What a moment. Again, like Gilbert, T-Mac was the best scorer in the NBA for two straight seasons. He was everything Kobe was but without his Shaq. T-Mac toiled in Orlando, but every now and then he would put up 40+ and make his highlights. T-Mac's athleticism has totally lost him and it is sad. He was one of the most inventive, explosive players in his day, and nothing showed this more than his self-pass dunk in the All-Star Game.
= Jake Delhomme to Steve Smith. Really, this should be just Steve Smith, but Jake Delhomme will always be connected to him. They had their moments in 2003 (especially the playoffs) and in 2008, but in 2005, that might have been the best QB-WR connection in the NFL. Of course, Jake Delhomme to anyone else was not really a connection at all, so that made it so much more amazing that Steve Smith was so fucking good for one season. Jake Delhomme seemed to turn into Peyton Manning when he threw to Steve Smith. Check it: Pt. 1... Pt. 2. Steve Smith had the best celebrations (the baby diaper, the row-boat). He was brash, cocky and in your face. His most infamous quote came in 2008, but his best year (and maybe the best year of any WR in the 2000s - yes including Randy Moss given the QB who was throwing) was in 2005.
= In that vein, 2005 was the last year that Chad Johnson was really Chad Johnson. Early in 2006 he broke out Ochocinco for the first time. I remember watching this entire interview at the time. It was the first time, I believe, Chad mentioned Ochocinco. I don't think he thought it would be his legal name within 24 months, and then 24 months after that he was a scrap-heap receiver, but for one moment, Chad Johnson was the coolest guy in the league.
= The sex boat. That was a great moment in sports. It was such a ridiculous story because I've always felt teams probably do things like this all the time. They probably don't do it too much out in the open on a boat on a lake, but sports definitely has massive sex-parties right? I mean, that's why they're in the game, baby! But honestly, the Vikings at the end of the Tice era were high comedy. They had the sex boat. They had Onterrio Smith, The Original Whizzanator. They had Michael Bennett, who I remember had a +90 rating in Madden for some reason. Daunte Culpepper had that ridiculous 'travel call' celebration. And of course, there was "Straight Cash, Homey". I don't think anyone's forgotten this ever, but there needs no excuse to bring out Joe Buck having a Buck-gasm over Moss's moon celebration.
= In related announcer orgasms, I know this is never-to-be forgotten in NYC, but when Roger Clemens finally decided to pull his "I'll unretire halfway through the year, and never travel on road trips" shtick with the Yankees for the first time in 2007, he decided to do it in the most Roger Clemens-ish way, which of course, made Suzyn Waldmyn lose her shit. Of ALL THE DRAMATIC THINGZZ!!. Man, I miss good ol' Roger. I think it gets forgotten that steroids or not, he had a 1.87 ERA for the entire season in 2005. Somehow, he didn't win the Cy Young (actually Chris Carpenter had a pretty good year). 1.87. My God, that is insane.
= We'll end this on a happy note (for me at least). Champ Bailey returning the ball 99.5 yards against New England. Ben Watson chasing him down. Tom Brady throwing a bonehead pick. Football and the laws of Physics and Geometry meeting. Cards on the table, I thought the ball went through the end zone for a touchback. Though I do understand that it would have been nearly impossible to overturn the call because there was no way to get 'indisputable visual evidence' (not that it stopped Walt Fucking Coleman in January 2002), I feel like it seems pretty obvious it went through. What I love more about the play was Jim Nantz reaction. First, he seems downright depressed when Brady threw the pick (he's got a thing for Brady you know), but quickly realizes he can't be impartial. Then he wrongly asserts that Bailey beat the one man who had a shot at him. Of course, what I loved most about this game was this was the first game I really 'bet' on and won big. I had a feeling Denver could beat New England (in the Brady/BB era they were 10-0 in the playoffs before that game).
= We'll actually end this on a happy note for everyone. I've already written about the 2001 World Series, but the most underrated and forgotten moment about that series (not that I blame people for forgetting, since it was the same World Series as Byung-Hyun Kim getting the worst case of dejavu ever, and Luis Gonzalez winning the World Series with a hit of Mo Rivera) was George Double-U Bush throwing out the first pitch in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium. After 9/11, Bush 43's appearance at the game was huge. At that point in his presidency, most had pretty much forgotten about that whole drama of election night, and during maybe the only stretch in his presidency when he had high favor-ability, he went onto the rubber and threw a beautiful curveball. Honestly, that was a perfect pitch, and a perfect moment for a country healing. Chilling moment.
Anyway, I may come back to this well in the future, because I'm sure some more moments will pop in my head, but that is all for now.
= Back in 2003, during the height of the Miller Lite "I love football" campaign, ESPN used to run weekly "I Love Football" montages at the end of each Monday SportsCenter with the clips and lyrics customized to that week. It ended with... "And I. Love. Week 3!!" I've searched all over Youtube for a clip from those SportsCenter spots, but found nothing. I've found every variation of those ads, but never from the actual show. They were corny and inevitably annoying, but man I used to love them. It probably helped that we used to watch the end of 7:00 AM SportsCenter in Mr. Agalias's homeroom.
= In the ad vein, it has become easy to just make fun of Peyton Manning about his ads. But does anyone remember just how good those ads were back in 2003-2005. Peyton Manning's early MasterCard spots were just that brilliant. Yup, I got a link for this one. Peyton Manning is one of the few athletes I have seen that is ready to make fun of himself. His SNL visit was great. One of the biggest negative outcomes of Super Bowl XLIV was not having Peyton doing another SNL trip. Peyton seems to have lost some of this outward ability to make fun of himself (he still is funny in interviews), and I hope a change of scenery brings that Peyton back.
= Anyway, moving on to actual sports moments. do you remember how great Gilbert Arenas was. Arenas, for a three year stretch, was not only one of the top three scorers in the NBA but the most exciting, affable and entertaining player in the NBA. Arenas's quirks were what made him. Him calling himself "Agent 0", shouting "Hibachi" when he shoots, having a weird feud with Mike Krzyzewski where he claimed he wanted to play just one game against Duke, where he would score 80. But over it all, it was his genuine love of connecting to people. His blogging, his just being weird. Gilbert was the real epitome of a star in the facebook and twitter age. Sadly, his career peaked just before those websites.
= Similarly, the incredible comedy that was Gary Payton and Chris Webber doing 'Inside the NBA' on NBAtv. For whatever reason, it was a one year thing, and although they have both made few appearances on Inside the NBA on TNT, the duo is gone. For one golden season, they just made you laugh. I hope to have a job one tenth as fun as C-Webb and The Glove made their job out to be. Here are some highlights: Counting down their best moments... Talking about Randy Foye's disease... On who the real Superman is... On LeBron's crab dribble... On Steve Nash's acting... On Shaq and the Jabawockeez... On Pau Gasol's fancy pass... and finally, on Nene's decision to get married All-Star Weekend. God, they were great. Even a lot of these clips none of them really said anything funny, but they were just having so much fun together, that how could you not laugh right along as a viewer.
= The Tuck Rule?.... Oh, you do remember it. Well, good. Just checking we all remember the biggest travesty of a refereeing decision of the 2000s. Had to throw that in here.
= Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg. I mean really. This was one of the most bizarre criminal developments by a player in my lifetime. Here was a guy who was the star receiver (who never got nearly enough credit for predicting a pretty close 23-17 win in Super Bowl XLII and then backed it up by catching the winning touchdown) for a team that was 10-1. Burress was a star in NYC, and then he decided to go into a club with a gun for protection (a concern that is kind of valid, given the fact that NFL players are targets, such as Sean Taylor). Because he was, for some unexplained reason, clubbin' with sweatpants, the gun went off, shot himself and he found himself in jail for the next two years. Forget the fact that the sentence really outdid the crime, but here was a star receiver basically suspending himself for two years because he let off a gun. That Giants team was the best team in a weak year and easily could have won the Super Bowl. This was more bizarre than Michael Vick being a dog-fighter, or Chris Henry getting arrested 17 times. This was just hilarious, sad and had a huge impact on that season.
= Tracy McGrady's dunk in the 2002 All Star Game. What a moment. Again, like Gilbert, T-Mac was the best scorer in the NBA for two straight seasons. He was everything Kobe was but without his Shaq. T-Mac toiled in Orlando, but every now and then he would put up 40+ and make his highlights. T-Mac's athleticism has totally lost him and it is sad. He was one of the most inventive, explosive players in his day, and nothing showed this more than his self-pass dunk in the All-Star Game.
= Jake Delhomme to Steve Smith. Really, this should be just Steve Smith, but Jake Delhomme will always be connected to him. They had their moments in 2003 (especially the playoffs) and in 2008, but in 2005, that might have been the best QB-WR connection in the NFL. Of course, Jake Delhomme to anyone else was not really a connection at all, so that made it so much more amazing that Steve Smith was so fucking good for one season. Jake Delhomme seemed to turn into Peyton Manning when he threw to Steve Smith. Check it: Pt. 1... Pt. 2. Steve Smith had the best celebrations (the baby diaper, the row-boat). He was brash, cocky and in your face. His most infamous quote came in 2008, but his best year (and maybe the best year of any WR in the 2000s - yes including Randy Moss given the QB who was throwing) was in 2005.
= In that vein, 2005 was the last year that Chad Johnson was really Chad Johnson. Early in 2006 he broke out Ochocinco for the first time. I remember watching this entire interview at the time. It was the first time, I believe, Chad mentioned Ochocinco. I don't think he thought it would be his legal name within 24 months, and then 24 months after that he was a scrap-heap receiver, but for one moment, Chad Johnson was the coolest guy in the league.
= The sex boat. That was a great moment in sports. It was such a ridiculous story because I've always felt teams probably do things like this all the time. They probably don't do it too much out in the open on a boat on a lake, but sports definitely has massive sex-parties right? I mean, that's why they're in the game, baby! But honestly, the Vikings at the end of the Tice era were high comedy. They had the sex boat. They had Onterrio Smith, The Original Whizzanator. They had Michael Bennett, who I remember had a +90 rating in Madden for some reason. Daunte Culpepper had that ridiculous 'travel call' celebration. And of course, there was "Straight Cash, Homey". I don't think anyone's forgotten this ever, but there needs no excuse to bring out Joe Buck having a Buck-gasm over Moss's moon celebration.
= In related announcer orgasms, I know this is never-to-be forgotten in NYC, but when Roger Clemens finally decided to pull his "I'll unretire halfway through the year, and never travel on road trips" shtick with the Yankees for the first time in 2007, he decided to do it in the most Roger Clemens-ish way, which of course, made Suzyn Waldmyn lose her shit. Of ALL THE DRAMATIC THINGZZ!!. Man, I miss good ol' Roger. I think it gets forgotten that steroids or not, he had a 1.87 ERA for the entire season in 2005. Somehow, he didn't win the Cy Young (actually Chris Carpenter had a pretty good year). 1.87. My God, that is insane.
= We'll end this on a happy note (for me at least). Champ Bailey returning the ball 99.5 yards against New England. Ben Watson chasing him down. Tom Brady throwing a bonehead pick. Football and the laws of Physics and Geometry meeting. Cards on the table, I thought the ball went through the end zone for a touchback. Though I do understand that it would have been nearly impossible to overturn the call because there was no way to get 'indisputable visual evidence' (not that it stopped Walt Fucking Coleman in January 2002), I feel like it seems pretty obvious it went through. What I love more about the play was Jim Nantz reaction. First, he seems downright depressed when Brady threw the pick (he's got a thing for Brady you know), but quickly realizes he can't be impartial. Then he wrongly asserts that Bailey beat the one man who had a shot at him. Of course, what I loved most about this game was this was the first game I really 'bet' on and won big. I had a feeling Denver could beat New England (in the Brady/BB era they were 10-0 in the playoffs before that game).
= We'll actually end this on a happy note for everyone. I've already written about the 2001 World Series, but the most underrated and forgotten moment about that series (not that I blame people for forgetting, since it was the same World Series as Byung-Hyun Kim getting the worst case of dejavu ever, and Luis Gonzalez winning the World Series with a hit of Mo Rivera) was George Double-U Bush throwing out the first pitch in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium. After 9/11, Bush 43's appearance at the game was huge. At that point in his presidency, most had pretty much forgotten about that whole drama of election night, and during maybe the only stretch in his presidency when he had high favor-ability, he went onto the rubber and threw a beautiful curveball. Honestly, that was a perfect pitch, and a perfect moment for a country healing. Chilling moment.
Anyway, I may come back to this well in the future, because I'm sure some more moments will pop in my head, but that is all for now.
