Top Sports Moments of 2021

Nothing in the world of entertainment invites partiality the way sports do. By nature, you have a rooting interest in any game or match you watch. As such, it can be difficult to separate the subjective from the objective when considering the quality of the year in sports. That said, rest assured, my personal opinion doesn't matter all that much in the context of this piece. I will do my best to take off my fan cap, and assume the role of the objective, uninvolved sports reporter.

Over the last two years, it's hard to think of a cultural arena that was more inextricably linked with the coronavirus pandemic than Sports. The event that essentially touched off the shutdown across the United States in March 2020 was the NBA suspending all games in the wake of Rudy Gobert's positive COVID test, with the NCAA following suit by cancelling all Spring sports shortly thereafter. From there, the rest of American sports and soccer leagues across the World suspended play, Even when they resumed, at various times for various sports, the sight of empty stadiums with cardboard cutout fans became the visual representation of the COVID-19 era, and artificially piped-in crowd noise the audial.

2021, however, while obviously not seeing the end of the pandemic, saw a progression borne out in its arenas and stadiums: March Madness took place entirely in a one-city 'bubble,' with limited fans in the stands, and the 2020 Summer Olympics were played in empty stadiums. Yet, summer soccer tournaments and the fall sports season saw a delightful return to fans in arenas and stadiums, and for the most part, a return to normalcy in terms of fixtures and schedules. Once again, even in a year as hard, bizarre and abnormal as this, Sports found ways to excite, inspire, and thrill us. Below are my Top 10 moments from this year in the sporting world.

But first, to make a perfect 21 in 2021, here are ten noteworthy events that just missed the list (in chronological order):

Alabama claims two history-making Heisman winners in one calendar year: WR DeVonta Smith becomes the first receiver to win the award in 20 years in January, then in December, freshman Bryce Young becomes the first Alabama quarterback to win
Baylor bashes Gonzaga in an all-'New Blood' showdown for the national championship, giving the Bears their first title
Hideki Matsuyama breaks his major tournament duck, becomes the first Asian-born golfer to win the Masters
Alisson-- the goalie --scores last-second winner to keep Liverpool's Top 4 hopes alive
Manchester City denied the Champions League title yet again, as Chelsea pulls off stunning Final upset
Tampa Bay Lightning go back-to-back, win second consecutive Stanley Cup
Lionel Messi finally gets his international title as Argentina wins Copa America
17-year old Lydia Jacoby wins Olympic gold in a thrilling upset
Suni Lee steps up in Simone Biles' absence, becomes the fifth consecutive American women to win the Olympic all-around gold medal
Chicago Sky win first WNBA title in Cinderella run
Atlanta Braves win first World Series title in 27 years

Now, to the Top 10:

10. The greatest Final Four game of all time?

When top overall seed Gonzaga took the floor in Lucas Oil Stadium for the Final Four in April, they couldn't have imagined the fight they were going to get from UCLA, only the 4th 11 seed in history to reach that stage of the tournament. However, what transpired over the next few hours was a back-and-forth battle of epic proportions. The two teams traded blows evenly through regulation and overtime, the largest lead from either team being 6 points. Every time it seemed the Zags might salt the game away, UCLA just kept fighting back, ultimately setting up a thrilling overtime period that seemed destined to head for a double overtime period, until this unreal moment happened, keeping Gonzaga's dream of a perfect season alive. As noted above, unfortunately Gonzaga went on to get pasted by Baylor in the national championship. Had the Bulldogs won the title and completed a perfect season, this game likely would not only have topped my year-end list, but would edge Laettner's shot against Kentucky for being remembered as the greatest college basketball game ever played.

9. ShoheiMania

It would take something remarkable for the main baseball storyline to not be the Atlanta Braves' stunning, curse-breaking run to the World Series title. Unfortunately for my Atlanta friends, though, Shohei Ohtani is something remarkable. The Los Angeles Angels player, winner of the AL MVP this season, was a do-it-all player the likes of which we haven't seen in years. The former MVP of Japan's Pacific League proved that talent can't be confined to just one country as he proved to be a force of equal stature both on the pitching mound and at home plate. Though the Angels didn't have the season they wanted, 'Shotime' was a delight from start to finish, earning a unanimous nod for MVP (and becoming the first designated hitter and just the 20th pitcher to do so).

8. Djokovic solidifies G.O.A.T. credentials

Every single member of tennis' "Big Three," namely Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, have had a sequence over the last decade where they go winless, and/or have to withdraw from tournaments, and fans and media pundits alike start declaring this the sad decline of their career. And in each case, the player in question has bounced back to garner more titles and add to their already glorious legacy. However, nobody has had as stark a comeback as Djokovic has. Down and out in 2016 and 2017, he re-emerged as a shockingly low seed three summers again to once again conquer Wimbledon, and since that time, has strung together 7 more Grand Slam titles in just 3 years. This year was peak Djoko, though; with Federer and Nadal frequently opting out of tournaments due to injury concerns, the opportunity presented itself for Djokovic to take full control of the tennis landscape, and the Serbian did not miss that opportunity, sailing to his 9th Australian Open, 2nd French Open, and 6th Wimbledon titles. Lest you think the absences of Roger and Rafa render those wins less valid, consider that Federer played in 3 of the tournaments, and the French Open was won after a grueling semifinal victory over none other than the King of Clay himself. Though Djokovic ultimately fell short of both the desired 'Golden Slam' -- losing to eventual champion Alexander Zverev in the semifinals of the Olympics --as well as the Grand Slam-- losing to Danil Medvedev in the U.S. Open Final --he has drawn level with his two great contemporaries with a record-tying 20 Grand Slam titles, and considering he owns head-to-head records against both and seems to have more years in him, it's entirely likely he will end his career with a claim to the greatest of all time.

7. Brady wins... again

Tom Brady sent shockwaves through the sporting world in 2020 when he announced he would be leaving the New England Patriots; not, as most expected, because of retirement, but rather to go play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (and bring constant #1 target Rob Gronkowski, fresh out of retirement, with him). It was bound to be jarring for everyone to see him playing for a team that wasn't the one he led to six Super Bowl titles, but it also seemed to make no sense. Tampa? Of all places, a franchise that hadn't really been relevant in almost 20 years? Yet, as we all should have come to expect by now, that didn't stop Brady and co. from winning, and winning a lot; they settled for a Wild Card berth at 11-5, but got revenge in the playoffs over rivals and division champions New Orleans, before heading to Green Bay to play the #1 overall seed and stunning them on their home field (thanks in part, and I say this with no small amount of bias, to some questionable officiating). I, like many, convinced myself that Super Bowl LV between them and the defending champions Chiefs might be a game, but deep down we all knew the truth: in the Super Bowl? As an underdog? On their own home field? It doesn't matter that he was 43 years old, Tom Brady was going to win, and so he did.

6. Giannis leads the Bucks to rare NBA title

This era of the NBA is either its best or its worst, depending on who you ask. It certainly is wildly different than the iterations of the league in decades past, and one significant contributor to that fact is that it's become commonplace now to see superstars jump from team to team willy nilly, often accompanied by fellow stars. It's an era of player GM megateams, in other words. All of which made the Milwaukee Bucks' triumph this year so completely unexpected. Not only was it the franchise's first in 40 years (and just their second ever), it's a team that was formed the old-fashioned way: years of draft picks and smart, non-splashy trades. At the forefront of it all were superstar, Giannis 'Greek Freak' Antetokounmpo, the nicest and most unassuming superstar in any professional sports league, and underrated do-it-all guy Khris Middleton. Both crucial cogs in their success are guys that were drafted, to minimal fanfare, all the way back in 2013. Regardless of who you cheer for in the NBA or even how closely you follow the sport at all, it's hard to not be happy for this side.

5. Cincinnati crashes the playoff party

After years and years of fans pleading with college football higher-ups to get rid of the exclusive and often downright horrible, they finally caved and instituted a playoff in Division 1 Football for the first time. And on the whole, I think the playoff has been a success, let alone a necessary change for the survival of the sport. But if you thought for one second that ceding this ground would lead to the dissolution of the Good Ol' Boy Club in college football, you were sorely mistaken. Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma have been close to annual fixtures in the limited playoff field, which is not to say that hasn't been deserved! Many years they truly were one of the four best teams; but the chief frustration has been with the playoff committee's treatment of non-power 5 teams. It's been, in a word, laughable. Before this season, the most famous example came in 2017, where 12-0 UCF finished the season ranked #12 (!!!), behind three different three-loss teams, and was relegated to the Peach Bowl while Alabama, who lost their last game of the season by two touchdowns and didn't even win their division, got a playoff berth. UCF would go on to win the Peach Bowl over Auburn, the team that beat that Alabama team by two touchdowns, and made everyone hot under the collar by declaring themselves "the true national champions." All of this to say, you can't fault people for being skeptical that a non-Power 5 team would ever make the playoff field in a pre-expansion state. But this year, Cincinnati finally broke that glass ceiling, by doing everything the committee had in years past argued teams like them couldn't: they scheduled tough out-of-conference games, road trips to two preseason Top 15 teams in Indiana and Notre Dame. They won those games. In fact, they won every single game, and won their conference, all while chaos reigned supreme in the college football season around them. At the end of the day, the committee had no choice but to give them a seat at the table. It shouldn't have taken this long for a Group of Five team to be represented, but regardless of what happens on Friday, the Bearcats absolutely deserved to be here.

4. NIL introduced to college sports

It's a decision that's led to a lot of hemming and hawing from college sports fans, with opinions sharply divided on its effect on amateurism and the landscape of college athletics. But whether you love it or hate it, the fact that student-athletes are now legally allowed to profit off of their name, image and likeness has been one of the most significant developments in NCAA history.

3. Athletes put mental health at the forefront

This was yet another development in the sporting world that split reactions across the media landscape and country as a whole. Objectively, though, there's no downplaying the significance of some of the world's best and brightest athletes bringing conversations on mental health to the global stage. NBA veterans Kevin Love and Demar DeRozan had discussed the need for mental health awareness and created some buzz in years past, as had Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. But history will likely look back at this year as the year the issue took center stage, thanks almost entirely to Naomi Osaka, arguably the world's best female tennis player, withdrawing from major Grand Slam tournaments, and Simone Biles, indisputably the world's best gymnast, shockingly pulling out in the middle of the competition in the Olympics. Both women were open and forthcoming about why they did so, and though they truthfully didn't owe anyone (other than perhaps their own teammates and coaches) an explanation, they continued to dialog and educate on the necessity for all professionals to focus on mental wellness.

2. A clash of Cinderellas in the US Open Women's Final

The nature of a 'Cinderella run' is that it is inherently rare, but in the last two decades in tennis, which have been so comprehensively dominated by The Big Three on the Men's side, and Serena Williams plus a revolving door of several other consistent contenders on the Women's side, true underdog success stories have been particularly scarce. All of this made this summer's U.S. Open Women's tournament, which featured not one but two Cinderella stories, particularly amazing. Two teenagers completely took the tournament by storm, Canadian Leylah Fernandez, and British Emma Raducanu (born, ironically, in Canada). The two weren't just off the radar because of their young age, they were unseeded altogether. And yet, neither seemed fazed in the least as they steadily made their way to the sport's biggest stage. The 19-year old Fernandez reached the Final by stunning the likes of #1 Naomi Osaka, #16 Angelique Kerber, #5 Elena Svitolina and #2 Aryna Sabalenka in succession, becoming the youngest player to beat three Top 5 seeds at the same tournament since Serena in 1999. The draw set up more nicely for 18-year old Raducanu, who didn't have to face a seeded opponent until the Quarterfinals, but her run to the Final was equally shocking, given she had yet to drop a single set, and no player, male or female, had ever reached a major final as an unseeded 'qualifier' before.

In the end, it was Raducanu's dream story who would win out, as the young Brit once again won in straight sets to take the U.S. Open crown, but the match was not without some of the Fernandez brilliance that made her a fan favorite in the tournament. Whether history will remember this as the launching point for a new era in women's tennis, or a magical flash in the pan, what a joy it was to have seen an event like this happen.

1. The delight and triumph of Euro 2020

This summer's Euro Cup was, like most everything else, pushed back a year. But the final product was well worth the wait, even with the logistical headaches (multiple host cities had to drop out of hosting duties due to their COVID situations), and general lack of full-capacity stadiums. The fact that the first tournament to be played all across Europe, rather than in 1 or 2 countries, coincided with a global pandemic is cruel irony, because you could tell the vision was terrific. We got to see multiple nations that would almost never play host or even co-host, such as Azerbaijan, Hungary, Romania, and Denmark flex their hosting muscles. We also got to see a remarkable story of resilience, as Danish and Finnish players and fans came together to grieve the horrifying on-field collapse of Christian Eriksen; this ultimately led to the happiest Danish fairytale, as remarkably, Eriksen survived cardiac arrest, and Denmark were able to eventually bounce back and piece together a thrilling a semifinal run. The quality of play across the board was the best it has been in any major tournament in some time, and we the fans were treated to absolute thrillers in every round of play.

When all the dust settled, we also were treated to a final between two 'teams of destiny': the resurgent Italians who entered the championship on a 33-match winning streak a mere 3 years after missing out on the World Cup entirely, and the uniquely unshakeable English, who rode a wave of rejuvenated optimism from their fans and intrasquad harmony to a final being played in the friendly confines of London, in front of the largest crowd at any European sporting event since spring 2020, nearly all bellowing "IT'S COMING HOME!" There was one more twist for us, too, but a familiar one: after an instant classic, hard-fought match....England were to lose in penalties.

In recognition of the organizing committee's steadfast refusal to change the name of the tournament to reflect the correct calendar year, I'm rating this competition a 21/20.