2008 was hailed by ESPN as “the greatest year in sports.” It all comes down to the eyes of the beholder, I doubt the sports fans of the greater New England area, Los Angeles, or Seattle would share those same sentiments. It seems unlikely that a golfer and swimmer are in the top 3 sports stories, but that’s just what kind of year it was:

Top 3

Tiger Woods sinks a put to force an 18 hole playoff in the '08 U.S. Open

(1) New York Giants Impropapble Super Bowl Win - It was the most viewed Super Bowl ever, and it did not fail in delivering a spectacular show. The New England Patriots were heavy favorites as they attempted to be the first team to win 19 games in a season and finish undefeated (the ‘72 Dolphins still claim to be the only perfect team because they won the Super Bowl in their undefeated year). The only thing standing in their way was a mediocre New York Giants team that had to rally off consecutive wins on the road to get into the Playoffs and then win three straight on the road to get to the Super Bowl. In a season of “unbelievables,” the Giants victory was the top one. 

(2) Tiger Woods’ U.S. Open Victory – You don’t have to be a Tiger Woods fan, let alone a golf fan, to appreciate what Tiger did in the ’08 U.S. Open. Tiger was having extremely noticeable pain in his knee and it was visibly apparent. He limped his way into an 18-hole playoff with Rocco Mediate after draining a birdie putt on the 72nd hole. After the 18-hole playoff, they were still tied, but Tiger snatched the win on the 91st hole. Tiger had season ending knee surgery after the tournament and news leaked that he was advised by doctors to not even play. Throw out Michael Jordan and his performance with the flu in the ’97 Finals, what Tiger did was far more amazing. 

(3) Michael Phelps’ Historic Performance – Go back 8 years to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, how many swimming events were televised? I am guessing not many, and the amount of people that watched them was more or less the same. Enter Michael Phelps in 2004 and he changed the face of Olympic swimming, perhaps forever. Phelps started the Beijing Olympics off to an amazing start for the Americans with his 9 gold medals. Who would have thought that the track and field teams would be the ones to disappoint us…and that aside from basketball, swimming events would have been the most watched? I’ve got a feeling that fencing and handball will never get that popular. Take away skimpy bikinis and sand volleyball will plummet…

Honorable Mentions: Boston Celtics Beat Kobe, Lakers / Philadelphia Phillies Win the World Series

Seattle Sonics fans have lots of good memories, one of them will now be when the Sonics were in existence.

Bottom 3

(1) The Supersonics Exile from the NBA - Small markets beware! NBA Commissioner David Stern and just about every owner that is not a citizen in the community that he owns a team in do not care about your team. Forget about history, forget about the fans’ love for “their” team, if it isn’t making the owner or the NBA as much money as they think it should then they will sell it. What happened with the Seattle Supersonics is despicable, their owner sold the team and moved them to Oklahoma City. Most will argue, but I believe it all started with the community of Seattle choosing not to fund the building of a new arena. Why don’t the players pay for it instead of hard working citizens in Seattle anyway? Most of them aren’t millionaires because they are talented, it’s because they are big and tall, right? Someone get back to me with answers to my questions! 

(2) Plaxico and His Guns - From Super Bowl Champion to under arrest, Plaxico Burress had a up and down year to say the least. So Plaxico has a lot of guns, none of which he is licensed to have, what should he do with them? Hide them? Sell them for profit? Nah, Plaxico decided to take one with him to a club and shoot himself in the leg. This should be a lesson to him that he is not above the law, but so many NFL players have gotten off the hook lately (except Michael Vick) that I think Plaxico might get his hand slapped and dismissed. If Plaxico would have played Halo, he would know that shooting yourself with a shotgun is not good. 

(3) Coaching Carousels – Between the three major league sports (NFL, NBA, and MLB) there were over 30 coaches dismissed. The number balloons out even more if you add in collegiate sports. Two of the NFL’s latest dismissals are both surprising and sudden. The Denver Broncos fired Mike Shanahan, their two-time Super Bowl Champion coach that had been there nearing 20 years. The New York Jets fired Eric Mangini, who was a genius only a season ago and who’s players all seem to not be in agreeance with ownership over his dismissal. I have another job (besides a sports writer), if I don’t perform well then my boss doesn’t get fired. I would get a pay decrease or get fired. Shouldn’t players be held to the same standard? It’s their job to win isn’t it? I’ve yet to see a coach hit a baseball, catch a football, or make a 3-point basket. 

Honorable Mentions: UNC Falls Short in Final 4 / AFL Philadelphia Soul Win Arena Bowl but Lose Money

Brady Quinn finally got his chance to start in the NFL when the Cleveland Browns faced the Denver Broncos on one of the NFL Network’s Thursday night games. The games should be a lot more exciting to listen to this year after the NFL Network “parted ways” with former play-by-play announcer Bryant Gumbel. I would have rather listened to Ben Stein give a monotone play-by-play of paint drying than listen to Gumbel. Quinn had a good night, but was overshadowed by Broncos QB Jay Cutler’s outstanding performance. As Wild Card races for the playoffs start, the separation of contenders and pretenders is becoming more evident. Here are a couple revelations after watching some action from week 10:

Kurt Warner is not as evasive as he used to be, but he is still finding success.

Kurt Warner Not Letting Gray Hair Get to Him

Kurt Warner is 37 years young and playing just as well as he did almost 10 years ago when he guided the St. Louis Rams to a Super Bowl Title. After the Arizona Cardinals victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night, there were fans chanting “M-V-P” during Warner’s post-game interviews. Deemed by many to be the Cardinals starting quarterback before the season started, now backup Matt Leinart is spending his time on game day drinking Gatorade and adjusting himself from the sideline (my wife notices the players doing it more than I do). Warner isn’t throwing as many long bombs as he used to,  probably because now he has to worry about throwing his elbow out. Warner is getting his touchdowns and passing yards by getting the ball out fast and picking apart defenses, a skill that he perfected while playing Arena Football. As good as Warner has played all year, and especially last Monday night, it is apparent that the Cardinals just aren’t that imposing of a team. The Cardinals got the win on Monday night against the 49ers, but it wasn’t well deserved. The 49ers made a lot of great plays, but their quarterback Shaun Hill made more stupid ones, his untimely interceptions proved costly. The stupidest mistake of the night was how the 49ers managed the end of the game. After Frank Gore was tripped up right before the goal line, the 49ers elected to run their last play instead of spiking the ball to regroup. The play they ran was a run right up the middle by former Penn State QB Michael Robinson. After that play call I’m sure a lot of fans were thinking, “what was that?!?!” “Did offensive coordinator Mike Martz call in the right play?!?!” That kind of play call is volatile even in video games! Kurt Warner’s late career resurrection is shades of Doug Flutie in Buffalo. While Flutie got his own cereal, “Flutie Flakes,” I don’t think Warner will be as fortunate. “Cinnamon Kurt Krunch,” or “Frosted Warner Wheats,” just don’t have the same ring to them.

Colts WR Reggie Wayne has seen more balls come his way this year.

Colts Still Bucking

What started out as very disappointing season and had many people declaring the end of their glory days, the Indianapolis Colts have come together and knocked off the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers in consecutive weeks. The Colts victory in Pittsburgh last week was their first in 15 years! The Colts relied heavily on their defense in both games, which has been known to be their achilles heel. In the waning minutes of the game, they came up with two huge plays; the Colts stuffed the Steelers on a 3rd and Goal to force a field goal and then intercepted Ben Roethlisberger in Steelers territory. It is no doubt that the Colts assume a completely different identity defensively with Bob Sanders in the lineup (Sanders was out with an injury for the Colts first 7 games). While the Colts are in no position to win their division, a Wild Card berth is starting to look very achievable. The one thing still plaguing the Colts is an awful running game. Jospeh Addai, who was a 1,000 yard rusher for the Colts in ’06 and ’07, has managed a measly 282 yards on the ground all season! Backup running back Dominic Rhodes has more yards than Addai, albeit only 8 yards more, but more nonetheless. Maybe the Colts are trying to turn them into a running back tandem. With every tandem comes cool nicknames, like “Thunder and Lightning,” or “Slash and Dash.” Addai and Rhodes could be “Crash and Burn.” With the Colts starting to win again, maybe we will see some more of those knee-slapping, make you laugh so hard you want to cry Peyton Manning commercials. Rumor has it that companies having been pulling the ads because of the bad publicity with a loser representing them. No wait, I heard that about Macy’s and Jessica Simpson.

In week 8, London hosted it’s second NFL game in as many years. The New Orleans Saints (who were technically the home team) beat the San Diego Chargers. Besides the few fans who looked like they were from the States (they had ridiculous outfits and face paint), there were a lot of confused spectators in the stadium. I guess Americans watching a squash match would draw a similar comparison, or Americans watching an Arena Football game. After week 8, we know two more things for certain in this topsy turvy NFL season:

Long Snappers Do Make a Difference

Giants WR Amani Toomer picked up a key first down en route to the Giants 21-14 victory over the Steelers on Sunday.

Whenever someone scans an injury roster for each game, the focus goes to the skill position players (the “Fantasy” players, if you may). I highly doubt anyone looked at the injury roster for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday and noticed that their starting long snapper Greg Warren was listed. Steelers fans for certain will take notice after what happened on Sunday when their team was holding onto a 14-12 lead over the New York Giants. Steelers replacement long snapper James Harrison flung the football 5 yards over the head of punter Mitch Berger and into the end zone for a safety, tying the game at 14 and opening the door for the Giants to win the game. The long snapper is kind of like the holder on field goals, it’s a thankless position. They are kind of like the janitor that replaces the urinal cakes, his job is very vital and nobody notices the good work he does until he messes up. A couple more thankless positions in the NFL include the kid that runs out on the field to grab the kicker’s tee after a kickoff and the guys that squirt water into the players mouths, as if football players can’t squirt water into their own mouths. I guess it’s just one of those luxuries that few people will ever understand, similar to how NBA players have to have grade school towel boys put their warm up jackets on their shoulders when they go to the bench. You never know, someone might forget how to wear one and try to put their feet through the arm holes. Those towel boys have saved Shaquille O’Neal a lot of public embarrassment and shame. 

Bengals WR Chad Ochocinco was giddy after the game and he got a juice box.

Lions Have a New Challenger

Just when you thought that things couldn’t get worse for the Cincinnati Bengals it does. Right now it’s to the point that you can almost see that the Bengals aren’t trying very hard. They almost look like elementary aged pee-wee football players, I think I saw Chad Ochocinco sitting on the ground and picking grass. He was pouting because he didn’t want to wait until the end of the game to get his treat and juice box. WIth so much talent on the offensive side of the ball, the Bengals are a disgrace. The Bengals rank last in scoring (13 points/game) and yards per game (229). All of a sudden the Detroit Lions aren’t looking like the supreme candidate to go winless and match the ’76 Buccaneers. It’s amazing that Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis isn’t on the hot seat. I guess that the people and management in Cincinnati are so used to losing that they’ve become pacified to the thought of winning. It’s too bad that the Detroit Lions don’t play the Bengals this year, that game might have had more emotion than the Super Bowl. I wonder how much advertisers would have paid to air a 30-second commercial during that game…

The NBA has been able to achieve what few other sports have, and that is keeping themselves visible and newsworthy practically all year round. The fact that they have extended their playoffs into June has definitely helped. Only weeks after the NBA Finals concluded, there is the NBA Draft. After the NBA Draft there are summer leagues, and the crazy second season of the NBA (free agency signings and trades). This year they have another luxury, the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, featuring the ‘Redeem Team.’ By the time you know it another season is practically rolling around. 

The NFL, although much more anticipated I believe, seems to disappear from our minds for months in between seasons. Between the Super Bowl in February, the NFL Draft in April, and the select few players that feel it a necessity to be arrested for countless offenses, not much happens to fill the void between seasons. But wait, what about that one crazy indoor football league during spring and summer, the AFL? Although the AFL has been marketed much more the past few years, I’m not all too convinced that it is for the hard-core NFL fans.

Like every sport, the AFL has it’s pros and cons, I will present those and let the people decide what they think about the AFL.

Pro- The AFL football is magnificently designed with a gold base color and black ‘racing stripes’ to make you think that the quarterbacks throw it faster. Also, all balls that go into the stands are allowed to be kept by the fans.  

Con- The AFL is a pass-happy league. It is much like the old Madden football video games where you would only pass the ball because the running backs were slower than the offensive lineman. The AFL’s all-time rushing leader is Michael Kelly, he rushed 1,617 yards in his 12 years in the league. That’s an average of 134 yards per year, an average achieved by some NFL players per game. Much like the old Madden video games, the scores are inflated, which becomes nauseating after a while. 

Pro- The field goals are much more exciting with the post being half the size of a NFL post . The AFL posts also have nets on each side so a missed field goal can be rebounded and returned by the opposing team

Con- Nobody hardly makes field goals…

Pro- The field is surrounded by walls which provide exciting collisions and bring the fans at the games closer to the action.

Con- The walls make harder hits than the players.

Pro- No matter what your favorite team’s record is, they will most likely make the playoffs. Last year the Utah Blaze made the playoffs after posting a 6-10 record. 

Con- The playoff race isn’t that exciting if everyone gets in. It’s almost as exciting as you favorite school in college football playing in the Whatcrappybowlwilltheycomeupwithnext.com Bowl.

If you are at all enticed to watch an AFL game now, you will have to wait until next year. The ’08 season ended with the Philadelphia Soul (which is partly owned by singer Jon Bon Jovi) defeated the San Jose Sabrecats (which are not owned by anyone cool). Give the AFL a try, you just might like it, or you just might think that it is nothing more than a NFL Development League, on crack.