Just for Sport

Last night we were all graced with one of the great football games in recent memory.  It surely goes down as one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen.  If I had to choose the five greatest games in all sports in the last ten years without spending a bunch of time thinking about it or researching, they would go as follows:

5 - 2007 Fiesta Bowl, Boise State over Oklahoma, 43-42 (OT).  This makes the list for me because (A) I hate Oklahoma - see sidebar, (B) Nobody thought Boise State would stick it to OU for three and half quarters, much less pull the upset, and (C) Those last couple of plays - The Hook and Lateral and The Statue of Liberty.  Instant classic.

4 - Super Bowl XLII, New York Giants over New England, 17-14.  Not many people predicted a low-scoring game, much less a close one.  The three lead changes in the 4th quarter plus Eli Manning’s escape/David Tyree’s catch (Do we have a name for that yet?) made it a great game anyway.  The storyline behind the game (destroying the perfect season, etc.) put it on the list.

3 - 2004 AL Championship Series, Games 4 & 5, Boston over New York.  Game 4: 6-4 (12 innings).  Game 5: 5-4 (14 innings).  I think it’s fair to lump these two together because it was really the series that was impressive.  Also, Game 5 started 16 hours after Game 4 ended.  These games were great not only because nobody had ever come back from a 3-0 deficit before, but because the Yankees had so thoroughly dominated the series up until that point.  The way they won those games was just fantastic.

2 - 2006 Rose Bowl, Texas over USC, 41-38.  This one was just like last night’s game, except with 4 times the scoring.  USC were the overwhelming favorites, and Texas overcame the odds in the Championship Game, with Vince Young scoring the winning touchdown on 4th down.

1 - 1998 NBA Finals, Game 6, Chicago over Utah, 87-86. Michael Jordan hits "The Shot" (Does that play have a name?  What is it?) in his last game in a Bulls uniform to cap off a 45-point performance and the Bulls 6th Championship.

There are some others that perhaps mean more to me than the greater sports world:

1999 Stanley Cup Finals, Game 6, Dallas over Buffalo, 2-1 (Triple OT).  Creasegate.  Modano plays 55 minutes with a cast on his arm.

June 29, 2007, Chicago Cubs over Milwaukee, 6-5.  The Cubs rally from a 5-0 deficit to win on Aramis’ walkoff home run.  This game also turned the tide in the division race.

2007 NL Wild Card Tiebreaker Game, Colorado over San Diego, 9-8 (13 innings).  This was a great game even before the 13th inning.  Plenty of offense early, followed by dominant pitching and stellar defense.  There was a grand slam and a killer error that allowed the game to go into extras in the first place.  The Padres got 2 in the 13th, and the game was thought over.  But the Cinderella Rockies beat the odds and killed Trevor Hoffman.  The play at the plate, which is consistently the best play in sports, capped it all off. 

2006 NL Championship, Game 6, Florida over Chicago Cubs, 8-3.  I hate this game, but for the Marlins, this was a GREAT game.  Cubs fans, please don’t blame Bartman.  Blame Baker.

2007 AFC Championship Game, Indianapolis over New England, 38-34.  If this game was the Super Bowl, it might have made the list.  The Colts looked dead in the water, behind 21-3, then rallied to beat the team that had been keeping them down in dramatic fashion.

Feel free to disagree or suggest some other games. 

I’m too dumb to embed YouTube videos, so here’s a couple of links:

Great Play

Best Commercial 

Note: This post originally appeared on January 3, 2006.

Last night, ESPN did a special piece about a highlight video that Reggie Bush’s high school put together. Ugh.

A couple of weeks ago on ESPN Radio, Colin Cowsherd (who is a typical ESPN employee - cheers shamelessly for any team from New York, LA, Chicago, and Boston and never gives anybody else a chance) was raving about how the Rose Bowl was already decided when he stopped and declared that in his opinion, this year’s USC team is the probably the greatest of all time. I almost called in. Thankfully, somebody else did. The caller from Houston told Cowsherd that Bush won the Heisman because ESPN is USC’s number one fan. Cowsherd, of course, cut off the caller right away and got very defensive and angry. “We just report the most intriguing stories!” he thundered. I laughed for probably ten minutes. It’s so funny that a team as good as Texas gets almost no chance from anybody to win this game. Mack Brown said it very well himself today in a press conference: “I would like to thank all of the members of the media. I don’t even have to make a pep talk.” Here are 5 reasons Texas will beat USC tomorrow night:

1) Reggie Bush isn’t as good as everybody makes him out to be. I compare him to Ki Jana Carter. He’s great when he’s around people who can’t tackle, but he won’t make it in the pros. Every single one of his highlight runs have come against poor tackling teams. Every single one of those runs gets at most five yards against a team that will tackle well. This leads me to my next point…

2) Texas’ defense is way better than any other defense USC has seen all year. This is one fact that the talking heads will actually concede, and I think the fact that USC hasn’t really been tested hurts them. You can’t rely on converting 4th and 9 versus this team.

3) USC’s defense is suspect, and Texas has all the weapons to beat them. As a matter of fact, I’d have to agree with Vince Young that position for position, UT’s offense is superb to USC’s. The two O-lines are easily the best two in the nation. Vince is better than Leinart. Charles can play with Bush. Tweedie, Sweed, Pittman, and Strong are much better weapons than what USC offers.

4) UT only really had one close game this year (Ohio State). There were a couple that were close for a half or so (Texas Tech, Oklahoma State), but ultimately they dominated those games as well. USC had trouble with Notre Dame, Fresno State, and lest we forget, Arizona State. The analysts will tell you that USC is simply a second-half team that lowers its intensity when it meets a lesser opponent. I see weakness. Here are the results for these three teams in bowl games: Arizona State barely survived Rutgers, 45-40 in the Insight Bowl. Fresno State lost to Tulsa in the Liberty Bowl. Tulsa isn’t exactly known for its offensive prowess, but they outgained Fresno State 430-421 despite only holding the ball for 21:40. Kind of puts Reggie Bush’s big day in perspective, eh? Finally, there’s Notre Dame. They got whipped by an Ohio State team that gave Texas everything they had earlier in the season. Keep in mind, Notre Dame was the team on the other side of the “epic” game between so-called giants. Notre Dame is one of the most overrated teams of 2005, yet it took an illegal push for USC to beat them. Texas has played better all year long; is there any reason to doubt that tomorrow’s game will be any different?

5) Matt Leinart is bored. I’m all about athletes finishing school, but if you watch the interviews that he’s given in the past weeks, he’s got that “been there, done that” attitude about the National Championship game. He used to get really emotional and fired up whenever he talked about upcoming games, but last time I saw him on TV, he stifled a yawn twice. Even if he can elevate his play at gametime, that kind of attitude is contagious. Look for his USC teammates to be flat and unmotivated. After all, they’ve already been crowned one of the greatest teams of all time. What is there to play for?