Top sports story of 2011

In terms of impact at my hyperlocal shop, the top four, and five of the top six, had an impact. Can't argue with your No. 1 since it deviated (so to speak) from the normal course of play and haven't had a sicker story since Baylor 2003.

 

Sandusky/Penn State is so clearly No. 1 it doesn't really matter what else is on the list.

It could be No. 1 in 2012 as well.

 

I agree with Mark's list, but, really, I don't see Wheldon's death even that high. A fucking tragedy, to be sure, but it had none of the resonance that Earnhardt's death did, even among non-sports fans.

I realize that I'm arguing for what the average person — not just a sports fan — might consider big, but I don't think even traditional sports fans would think of Wheldon when considering the biggest sports stories of 2011. Open-wheel racing, except for the Indy 500, just doesn't register anymore unless Danica is getting naked.

 

North American or international?

If we're considering international, the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv plane crash has got to be up there. might call that a bigger story in hockey than the Bruins winning the Cup, only because someone wins the Cup every year but the "entire team killed in a plane crash" is rare and ridiculously tragic. Tie in the fact that about 1/3 of the team had significant NHL ties, and and it was the capper to an incredibly sad summer in hockey.

Also, throughout sports, the concussion issue, from increasing diagnosis to awareness to the emerging research about long-term effects. Sidney Crosby, the biggest name in all of hockey, missing essentially the entire year is a pretty good face of the problem.

 

1) Sandusky
2) Concussions -- the people they hit, the sports they've affected and the long term effects -- this will become the PED story on crack.
3) LeBron and Heat flame out (that was the story, not the Mavs winning it all. People will remember Miami coming up short)
4) Hellacious summer for hockey -- three deaths, two of them suicides, plus the KHL plane crashing, wiping out an entire team, including several former NHLers. For a Canadian list I put this up above the Heat, for the Americans I probably drop this to five or six, I took the average.
5) NFL labour. Nobody missed the NBA. And the NFL is only on here because of the all the different implications being the top viewed sport in North America, the antitrust suits, the circumstances surrounding the draft, etc.

 

I swear Smash you were writing your two points while I was writing mine. Also watching the bonus features on the Back to the future as I write, which is why I am so slow.

Also with your concussion point, it is more than just hockey it is hitting, it is hitting the NFL as well, they just haven't lost anyone on the scale as a Crosby to their league for a season yet. But you look at how it has forced them to change the way the game is officiated and how it has forced players to change the way they play (cough, James Harrison, cough). And now you have ex players suing the NFL over the concussions they suffered while playing. We are only at the tip of the iceberg.

 

I'm going to come at this differently. Here's my list:

1. Child sex scandals (Sandusky, Fine and Conlin)
2. Head trauma (Crosby, the NHL enforcer deaths and Boston University's study taking off)
3. NCAA violations (from Ohio State football to Boise State tennis and everything in between)
4. Lockouts (NFL and NBA)
5. Runs at perfection (the Packers and Djokovic)
6. Baseball's magical September/October
7. NBA super teams (the Heat's stumble, the Knicks' attempt, the Clippers' rare success, the Lakers' failed trade)
8. The rise and death of Dan Wheldon
9. The wild Sweet 16/Eight Eight weekend (Butler and VCU making the Final Four)
10a. Tony Stewart ending Jimmie Johnson's reign in spectacular fashion
10b. Rory McIlroy's weird season

It's difficult to remove the stories from the circumstances. Any of the sex abuse cases would have caused a huge stir if it had been the first. Sandusky takes that honor. Similarly, the Ohio State, Miami, Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Connecticut, Boise State, UCF, etc. scandals are simultaneously more and less affecting because of the the seemingly endless number reported this year.

In itself, the Packers winning the Super Bowl isn't unique enough to make my list. But the Packers winning 19 in a row, including a Super Bowl, is far more unusual and interesting. Similarly, the Mavericks winning the Finals isn't all that exciting unless paired with the uniqueness of the Heat's super-team attempt.

I know the lockouts were responsible for canceling all of one NFL preseason game and not even 20 percent of the NBA schedule, but they drew huge coverage this year for good reason.

 

I don't know why Djokovic's 2011 would rank ahead of Federer's 2006. Here's what I wrote in the AP Athlete of the Year thread:

I think it comes back to my point in my last post: The streak is more impressive than the season as a whole. Had he finished 70-6 (or better, I suppose) with 11 or 12 wins, including Cincinnati and the ATP Tour Finals and three major wins but lost between the Australian and French opens, it wouldn't be nearly as memorable, even if it had been just as -- or more -- impressive.

 

That's pretty damn good, but I would baseball much higher, possibly #2, at lowest, #3. The way you wrote concussions keeps it in the top three.