Best sports photo: Usain Bolt wins smiling
Any year with the Olympics is going to provide some great sports photos, but one shot from Rio stood out above the rest, instantly becoming its own meme and cementing itself as an iconic image.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Most unlikely championship: Leicester City
Yes, the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Cavaliers both won historic titles this year, but both entered their respective seasons as strong contenders, if not favorites. Leicester City did the mathematically near-impossible, winning the English Premier League as 5,000-1 preseason dogs, odds several times as long as the worst Vegas will offer on even the worst teams in American professional sports. In so doing, they ended a multiyear title drought and became folk heroes to the soccer world.
(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
AP Photo/Matt Dunham
Best buzzer-beater: Kris Jenkins
The Gonzaga College High School grad delivered one of the greatest endings in college basketball history, flushing a buzzer-beating three-pointer to lead Villanova to the national title over North Carolina.
(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Best local sports moment: Billy Hurley wins Quicken Loans
At the 2015 Quicken Loans National, Leesburg native and Naval Academy grad Billy Hurley III held an emotional, impromptu press conference to announce the disappearance of his father, who would later commit suicide. The tragic moment meant this year’s tournament was always going to be an emotional one, but to bring home his first PGA title in his hometown event was almost too good to be true.
(Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Most dominant performance of the year: Katie Ledecky Olympic 800 meters
I mean, come on. The women’s Olympic 800-meter race was never expected to be in any doubt, but it wasn’t even a race other than between Ledecky and her own former greatness. In the end, not even past Katie Ledecky could keep up.
(Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Most historic moment: Cubs win World Series
In a year of drought-busting championships, none was more historic than the lovable losers of Chicago’s North Side finally breaking through, overcoming a 3-1 deficit to win their first World Series since 1908.
(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Most overlooked local milestone: Alex Ovechkin’s 500th goal
Fewer than 50 players in NHL history have reached the 500-goal mark in their careers, including only four active players. So when Alex Ovechkin hit the milestone, it should have been a major local news story. Except it happened smack in the middle of a Redskins home playoff game on Jan. 10. Oh well.
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Worst political sports pandering (tie): Ted Cruz’s basketball “ring” | Carly Fiorina’s traitorous backfire
Ted Cruz standing on the floor of an Indiana gym calling a basketball hoop a “basketball ring” will go down in infamy as one of the most embarrassing panders in political sports history. But it is rivaled by Carly Fiorina’s heel turn against her own alma mater competing in the Rose Bowl to try to score points in the Iowa Caucus. Stanford promptly crushed Iowa 45-16 and Fiorina netted just 1.9 percent of the vote, dropping out of the presidential race nine days later.
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Best unintentional hit: FOX sound guy vs. Vikings
Oh, Bernie. First rule of football: Gotta keep that head on a swivel.
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Biggest coaching blunder: Buck Showalter leaves Zach Britton in bullpen
After turning in a truly dominant season as Baltimore’s closer, Zach Britton was left to watch in the bullpen as the O’s season slipped away to the Blue Jays in the AL Wild Card game. Showalter was crucified for the decision at the time, but it looked even worse through the historical framing of the 2016 postseason, which saw several managers juggle their bullpens in non-traditional ways, particularly the Indians and Cubs en route to meeting in the World Series.
(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
Craziest finish: Georgia vs. Tennessee
We’ve seen some crazy final plays this year, but nothing quite as nuts as what happened over the final 19 seconds of Georgia and Tennessee’s matchup in October. Trailing 28-24 just across midfield, Riley Ridley streaked up the sideline between defenders and hauled in an apparent game-winning touchdown pass. But two penalties and a decent return gave Tennessee one final shot from Georgia’s 43-yard line, where the Volunteers’ Hail Mary prayer was answered.
(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
Worst shot of the year: Golfer fails, flails, falls
This late entry just got in under the wire, but there really isn’t any question. It’s one thing to miss the ball by 6 inches, another to wipe out and crash down on the ice, and a whole other level to find yourself suddenly one with a frozen water hazard. This truly is failure at its finest and most refined.
(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
Best announcer call: Harlan describes fan on field
Television networks make it a point of not showing fans running on the field in the middle of games as a method of trying to keep from promoting the activity. But that didn’t stop Kevin Harlan from unleashing the year’s best radio call of a fan incident during this year’s abysmal Rams-49ers game, somehow made even better by the fact that we get to see the entire thing through the reflected, unamused gaze of Jeff Fisher.
(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
Best use of Crying Jordan: Brady courtroom sketch
You either love the Crying Jordan meme or rue its existence. But if Crying Jordan has taught us anything, it’s that your feelings don’t matter. Anyone can be photoshopped into the meme, and many people race with hack jobs to be the first following major moments, in sports or otherwise. But Bryce Wood’s work rises above the rest and his Crying Brady courtroom sketch following the announcement that the Pats QB would indeed draw a suspension for his role in Deflategate may be his finest work.
(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
Best mascot video: Stone cold highlights
Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff. I’m told the Indianapolis Colts mascot — featured prominently here, throwing soul-crushing stiff-arms — is named Blue. You’re my boy, Blue.
(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
Quickest judgment of karmic sports justice: Jon Ryan’s fake punt
Fake punts are cool. Of course, there are times when fake punts are a lot less cool, like when you’re pummeling a clearly inferior opponent in the fourth quarter of a game you already have put away, like when you’re the Seahawks and you’re leading the Rams 24-3 at home. But Jon Ryan decided that was the time to show off his wheels, scampering for a first down and much more. At least until he lost the football trying to change hands, juggling it in the air, then taking a vicious knockout blow and fumbling it, landing himself in the concussion protocol. Good job, good effort.
(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
Best sports fight: Rougned Odor vs. Jose Bautista
We don’t generally condone sports fights. And besides, most baseball fights don’t even rise to the level of a scuffle, with dugouts and bullpens casually emptying and most guys just standing around looking at one another. This was not one of those fights.
(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
Most Hollywood moment: Marcus Willis wins over Wimbledon
A local teaching pro is overweight, out of shape, teaching lessons on the side as he contemplates the end of his career until his girlfriend makes him give it one more shot. Improbably, he survives four rounds of qualifying to sneak in as a Wild Card, then topples the 54th-ranked player in the world to earn a match against Roger Federer on Centre Court? Nah, no film exec is buying that script.
It’s way too good to be true.
(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — As unprecedented as 2016 was in so many ways, it was a truly special year in sports. Longtime title droughts were busted while world records fell in Rio. Oh, and plenty of bad things happened, too.
The WTOP Sports staff collected an entirely arbitrary list of some of the best, worst, weirdest and wildest moments that 2016 had to offer.
