2016 – what a wild year, man. We loved. We lost. We celebrated. We mourned. All of the emotions in the human spectrum of emotion were felt, and sports played a significant role in all of it. Sports play a huge role in our lives, whether we realize it or not. The industry drives local economies and creates jobs. Sports generate billions upon billions of dollars, but they also unify people (at a time when we really need that unification no less) and distract from the trials and tribulations of everyday life.
To define what the “best” sports stories of 2016 were – nah, I’m just not even going to do that. These are just Big Natural’s favorite stories of the year:
20. Mongolian wrestling coaches gettin’ naked – We’ll talk about the Olympics in more detail later, but I had to kick this list off with perhaps the “most SoBros story of the year.” What a wild scene – I mean, I guess really there’s no better way to protest than taking your clothes off? In wrestling….I don’t know. I mean, they didn’t get the Bronze medal like they wanted, but if it was up to me, I definitely would’ve let them have it after this (and no, that’s not innuendo).
19. Army-Navy, and Uncle Verne’s last sign-off – Cue the waterworks, people. No matter how much Poppa Bear and I always made fun of good ol’ Uncle Verne, he was still a very respected part of our lives. Fall and SEC football just won’t be the same without him. Not to mention, that Army-Navy game was great.
18. Odell and the kicking net – The love story we all deserve.
Love the dude clapping in the back.
17. Lamar Jackson – I guess we have to mention the emergence of Lamar Jackson, huh? Still think the Heisman should’ve gone to Deshaun Watson. If they voted after the bowls, it sure as shit wouldn’t be Jackson’s trophy…
16. David Ortiz and the ‘motherfucking choo-choo train’ – Legends never die.
15. Conor McGregor – everything McGregor blew up this year – his first loss, winning the rematch, the double belts, but nothing stands out to me more than this moment:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSTuIxa9wno]
I love McGregor. He is simply brilliant.
14. Iceland’s Euro 2016 run – Wow, was this something else or what?
13. Penn State beats Ohio State – The biggest win of the 2016 college football season.
12. MTSU upsets Michigan State in the NCAA tourney – My alma mater, the Harvard of the South (as termed by our own Nature Boy) pulling off one of the greatest upsets in sports history. I was in Chattanooga watching from a pub on a day trip to celebrate getting a new job. What a surreal memory.
11. Bengals-Steelers playoff game – What an awesome meltdown. It was one of the rare occasions I can recall actually getting heated about a game. For the most part, I can pretty well keep myself in check, but I just could not fathom the one-sided vitriol that the Bengals faced after this game. People acted as if the Steelers were completely innocent and that really bothered me. I didn’t really have much of a problem with the action itself – would I want my team acting like that? No. But, to this day, I still think the onus is just as much on Pittsburgh as it was Cincinnati and that’s not how it played out. What’s one of Big Natural’s biggest life mantras? Be accountable. Pittsburgh wasn’t held accountable that night.
10. The P.K. Subban-Shea Weber trade – For a long time, Weber has been the face of the Nashville Predators…not anymore. It’s rare you see blockbuster trades like this, but to get a rock star like Subban in a small market city like our’s (Nashville, in case you missed it) is pretty cool. Hockey was definitely the talk of the town – and that doesn’t happen too often here.
9. Laremy Tunsil and the gas mask – This was one of those stories that really rock you. I remember Poppa Bear and I were about to go on the air for live NFL draft coverage when this story broke, and I’ll never forget it. Turns out, when video of you (sitting in front of a Confederate flag, mind you) smoking a bong through a gas mark surfaces, it’ll cost you millions of dollars in the NFL draft.
8. Leicester City – They won the EPL title. What else is there to say about this?
7. John Scott and the NHL all-star game in Nashville – What an awesome time to be a Nashville native. The new and improved NHL all-star game is the unquestioned best of the four major sports, and the story of Scott’s place in this game is just phenomenal.
6. Colin Kaepernick – Like him or not, agree with him or not, no one can deny that the 49ers quarterback drove a large narrative of the 2016 NFL season.
5. Cam Newton’s Super Bowl Implosion – Well, if you weren’t a fan of Newton before the Super Bowl, he didn’t do anything after the game to win you over. That game was simply disastrous for a team that was on the brink of an astonishing one-loss season. He played a terrible game, the Denver Broncos won, and during the post-game press conference, Newton acted like a pouty baby.
4. Alabama-Clemson – In one of college football’s all time classic games, Nick Saban ousted DeShaun Watson and the Tigers 45-40 to win his fourth National Championship as head coach of the Crimson Tide (and his fifth overall).
3. Cavs-Warriors Game 7 – Whew, buddy – what a classic. Being in San Francisco for this game made it even better but, man – what a comeback. Going from down 3-1 to bringing Cleveland its first major sports championship in ages was an awesome moment to witness.
2. ALL the shit at the Olympics – Man, what a wild ride the Rio Olympics were. We even had a weekly segment on the Power Hour dedicated to the “weekly Rio shitshow.” But, with all the trash in the water, lack of stable police presence, the green pool, and general health concerns, there were a lot of really cool moments too.
You had the emergence of Simone Biles, the refugee team, and the inspiring show of sportsmanship between Abbey D’Agostino and Nikki Hamblin just to name a few.
Of course, I can’t mention the Olympics without mentioning the hot mess that Ryan Lochte is. Making up some bogus story about getting robbed at gunpoint and fleeing the country and all. Pretty wild.
And a pretty cool meme was born:
1. The Cubs win the World series – The Olympics, as great as they were this year, pale in comparison to the Cubs winning their first World Series since 1908. I wrote about what an epic Game 7 it was, and tried to put into perspective what it meant for baseball, but there’s no possible way I could do it justice. Just by mentioning this victory, I’ve likely stirred up emotion in all of you. That’s what sports are all about – that, and of course, happy Bill Murray:
Stoney Keeley is the editor of the SoBros Network, Tennessee Titans Featured Analyst for Pro Football Spot, Contributor to FanSided’s Bama Hammer, and covers the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @PFSpot, @WrestlingNewsCo, @Bama_Hammer
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