So, I forget the genesis for this idea. I think it was reading a Reddit post of how great 2012 was in tennis, as it was the only year where each member of the Big-4 won a slam (Novak won Australia, Rafa the French, Fed won Wimbledon and Andy the US Open). That got me thinking what were my favorite years of spots just based on who won their respective titles - not just the four tennis majors, but the Big-4 US sports, the two main college sports, and for good measure let's throw the Champions League in there.
I decided to create a weird numerical system to judge "fun-ness" of these Champion groupings, scoring each winner on a +/- 5 scale, +5 for being how elated I was that they won (or who they beat), and -5 for being how upset I was that they won (or annoyed at who they beat). It's not perfect scale for sure, but there wass some logic. To make things fair, I overly weighted the NFL (3x), the MLB/NHL (2x), and treated the NBA, the Champions League winner and the combined College winners on their own (1x), and then the Tennis winners as 2x. Yes, overly complicated, but that's life in a way too.
Anyway, think it led to some interesting results, years where a team I hated won but was counterbalanced by fun winners, and even the opposite. I tried to limit my scoring to just the outcome of the final, so no extra negative points because say the 2005 Steelers beat the Colts on the way to the title, let's rank the Steelers on their own merits (or in contrast to had Seattle won). Anyway, let's get to the first set, largely negative, "sad" years.
NFL: Patriots (-5 * 3)
NHL: Penguins (-3 * 2)
MLB: Cubs (-4 *2)
NBA: Cavaliers (+4)
UCL: Real Madrid (+5)
NCAAF/BB: Clemson / Villanova (+4)
Tennis (AO/F/WIM/USO): Djokovic, Djokovic, Murray, Wawrinka (-3 * 2)
This is by far the worst year. And it's funny because it is basically just all polar opposite rankings here, just dead inside NFL, NHL, MLB finishes, and having to live through the "Nole Slam" when Nadal seemed utterly lost. But there's also three big pluses, they just happen to be in the ones that I give the lowest weight to. Anyway, I capped my system at "-5" but the Patriots win (the 28-3 game) may be my single least favorite result. The Cubs winning the World Series comes close to a -5, as I still hated them despite the Astros by that point being the AL. Hated them so much I made an impassioned speech (while drunk) in Cusco to my two friends about how Chicago is a football city and all the fans of the Cubs are faking it. The Penguins seems harsh, but they beat my beloved Sharks in the final which hurt a lot. So yeah, those all happenning in the sports I care the most about does offset Real Madrid winning the Champions League, fun Clemson and Villanova teams (Clemson was their last second win over Alabama) and of course the Cavs knocking off the 73-9 Warriors. A year of extremes, but the extreme negatives are just way too strong. Truly, the wrost 12 months in my life as a sports fan.
24.) 2020 (-9)
NFL: Buccaneers (-5 * 3)
NHL: Lightning (+4 * 2)
MLB: Dodgers (-2 * 2)
NBA: Lakers (-1)
UCL: Bayern Munich (+2)
NCAAF/BB: Alabama / N/A (-3)
Tennis: Djokovic/Nadal/n/a/Thiem (+2 * 2)
There's no direct hit for this being the Covid sports year, but yeah, some of the scores are impacted by that, but maybe not in the way you think. In the sense, had it been a real season, the Dodgers winning the World Series may have gotten a lower score, same with the Lakers. Los Angeles really was the king of the bubble cities - or maybe ti was Tampa, but in that case I was thrilled to finally see the Lightning pull it off. Ultimately, this is fully dragged down, and rightly so in my mind, by the Bucs winning the Super Bowl and gifting Tom Brady another instaed of the dynasty to be in Kansas City. Also remember that game came in the true depths of Covid hell, during the darkest stretches in New York, and was so bad I just stopped watching at halftime. A cancelled March Madness doesn't help either. Much like Covid itself, this was a year to forget.
23.) 2001 (-9)
NFL: Patriots (-3 * 3)
NHL: Avalanche (+1 * 2)
MLB: Diamondbacks (-2 * 2)
NBA: Lakers (-1)
UCL: Bayern Munich (+1)
NCAAF/BB: Miami / Duke (+1)
Tennis: Agassi / Kuerten / Ivanisevic / Hewitt (+1 * 2)
Admittedly, I don't have great memories of how I felt in the moment for a lot of these. I liked Iverson, so I'm sure I was kind of annoyed at the Lakers, but probably understood their greatness (and appreciative that the 76ers won a game to avoid the Lakers going undefeated in the playoffs). I have no real memory of Bayern Munich, hence the zero. For tennis, I loved the Ivanesivec story, but didn't like the Hewitt one, but liked Agassi. Bit a shrug. Truthfully, this comes down to me already kind of not liking the Patriots underdog story back then (and liking the GSOT Rams), but let's just say this is by far the best score I've given a Patriots win.... For the D'Backs, I wasn't necessarily a Yankees fan, but certainly rooted for them hard that World Series, was enthralled by their insane Game 4-5 wins, and crestfallen at seeing a hero (at the time) in Mo Rivera blow it. Mixed emotions there to be sure. I will say, it is surprising how quickly the scores converge to single digits. Maybe I've had a better sports fan life than I like to think.
22.) 2003 (-8)
NFL: Patriots (-3 * 3)
NHL: Devils (+5 * 2)
MLB: Marlins (-4 * 2)
NBA: Spurs (+1)
UCL: AC Milan (-2)
NCAAF/BB: LSU & USC / Syracuse (+2)
Tennis: Agassi / Ferrero / Federer / Roddick (-1)
Remember, this is trying to score how I felt about these results at the time, which is why the Spurs is a +1, as in 2003 I wasn't some huge Spurs fan, but did like the Nets a decent amount, who lost to them in the Finals. Similarly, I remember being randomly a Juve fan, so them losing a PK loss to AC Milan hurt. I also didn't like Andy Roddick back then. That was stupid - he's amazing, and I'm glad now that he got his one major, but I need to be true to myself in this. Anyway, It's really the Marlins here that drag things down - at the time I was already "Eff Boston" for the most part so loved the Yankees winning that ALCS, but I was smart enough to know that the Marlins bullshitting their way to a title was bad for the sport. It's amazing that I can have a year with a +5, and one of those I easily could go higher if I didn't stupidly restrict myself, and it rank this low. I feel bad for the 2003 Devils, the first true title one of my outright favorite teams won that I remember every bit of, but alas - the Patriots and Marlins magic outweigh it.
21.) 2018 (-8)
NFL: Patriots (-4 * 3)
NHL: Capitals (+4 * 2)
MLB: Red Sox (-4 * 2)
NBA: Warriors (-3)
UCL: Real Madrid (+5)
NCAAF/BB: Clemson / Villanova (+4)
Tennis: Federer / Nadal / Djokovic / Djokovic (-1 * 2)
By this point, even if I hated the Patriots I was a bit numb to it, so that's why it wasn't a -5. I was also fairly numb to the Red Sox, even if I didn't much like the Dodgers, so that's how you get that as a -4 as well. The interesting one is tennis. In some ways, given by this point I was kind of OK with Federer, this doesn't read so bad, but then realize this year started with Novak a non-factor deep in throes of random gurus and elbow issues and what-not, but he stole a classic 5-set SF against Nadal at Wimbledon, which basically turbo-charged his path to where he is today. It only isn't worse because this year was also the re-rise of Del Potro who made it back to world #3. It's a spiky year, including maybe my favorite in isolation combination in college - Clemson laying wood to Alabama with T-Law, and a fun, dominant Villanova team winning in a year I was doing a project in a Philly suburb. But yeah, two Boston teams, the "making the NBA boring Warriors" is a tough combination to overcome.
20.) 2011 (-7)
NFL: Giants (+5 * 3)
NHL: Bruins (-4 * 2)
MLB: Cardinals (-5 * 2)
NBA: Mavericks (+5)
UCL: Barcelona (-3)
NCAAF/BB: Alabama / UCONN (-2)
Tennis: Djokovic / Nadal / Djokovic / Djokovic (-2)
Man what a rollercoaster the four big US sports were. Truly some amazing highs and lows. The Giants saved waht was an all time negative football season with their win over the Patriots in Peyton's house. The Mavericks beat Lebron back when I (and all of us....) hated him the most. But my god everythign else was awful, from the Bruins completing the Boston quadfecta against a likeable Vancouver team, my most hated MLB team winning a World Series they had no right to at all (the Freese game...), and of course Barcelona's best ever year, and then Djokovic rising to a new level and becoming a serious threat to the at that time Big-2. Honestly, looking at this, despite how much I enjoyed the Mavs and Giants, I'm surprised this scores as high as it does.
19.) 2025 (-4)
NFL: Seahawks (+2 * 3)
NHL: Panthers (-2 * 2)
MLB: Dodgers (-5 * 2)
NBA: Thunder (-2)
UCL: PSG (+2)
NCAAF/BB: Indiana / Florida (+2)
Tennis: Sinner / Alcaraz / Sinner / Alcaraz (+1 * 2)
Our most recent year clocks in as a negative one, even if it ended (by this calendaring) with the Patriots getting somewhat humiliated in the Super Bowl, but it was harrowing enough that they were even there in the first place. Still, that helps it, also PSG finally getting their glory, and a fun college combination. That all said, man the Dodgers... maybe my most hated MLB win in some ways, just an absolute trainwreck, especially the ending where we all stupidly had so much hope in our beloved Blue Jays, but they just ripped it away. As for the Panthers, I just at this point wanted Canada to win a Cup, more than anything specific against the Panthers; same with the Thunder, it's more a pro-Indy vote. Not an overly meaningful year other than the Dodgers sticking out as a clear sore thumb.
18.) 2004 (-3)
NFL: Patriots (-5 * 3)
NHL: Lightning (+1 * 2)
MLB: Red Sox (+4 * 2)
NBA: Pistons (+3)
UCL: Porto (+1)
NCAAF/BB: USC / UCONN (+2)
Tennis: Federer / Gaudio / Federer / Federer (-2 * 2)
Yeah, by this point I was all out on the Patriots, never to recover from there on. By this point it was pure hatred, jealousy and agony. Even if I would grow some begrudging respect for the 2001-2004 dynasty over the years, in teh moment that was absolutely not there. I was fucking pissed by this point. That all said, the weirdest one here is the Red Sox, but I'll admit, at that time I bought into the whole curse breaking and beauty of it all, plus i hated the Cardinals. The rest was all fairly take it or leave it, aside from Federer breaking Tennis (before we realized such dominance would become normal place). The Pistons were a weird fun one, beating the Lakers when we all assumed they would win. As was USC's dominant win over Oklahoma, which is maybe the one NCAAF Title Game blowout I enjoyed. As this is already showing, most of my years grade out with a positive (which is shocking given how i assumed this exercise would turn out), but this is where the Patriots really drag this down.
