“Greatest of the Latest” is back, and this time around we’re
going back to the world of sports. This list will break down the top 20 sports
moments of the last 20 years. These were the plays or games that either gave us
the goosebumps, made us lose our breaths, or got us out of our seats. I stayed
away from including violent or devastating moments, such as the “Malice at the
Palace” or Dale Earnhardt’s death. Still, there were many deserving candidates,
but only 20 could make the cut. Let’s get to it.
Before the 2004 Masters, Phil Mickelson was undoubtedly one
of the best golfers in the world, but he was the guy who couldn’t win the big
one. Down 3 shots with 7 holes to do on the last day of the tournament, it appeared
as if nothing would change. But then, Lefty went on a roll and had a long putt
to win it on the 18th hole. He sank it, the crowd erupted, and Phil
Mickelson won his first major.
From one guy who couldn’t win the big one to another. By the
1997 Super Bowl, John Elway was already a first-ballot Hall of Famer but he was
0-3 in Super Bowls. Everyone thought he was going to be 0-4 after he was done
with the heavily favored Packers. But with the score tied at 17 late in the
third quarter, Elway showed America how badly he wanted it. On a 3rd
and 6 play, Elway scrambled and gave up his body for the first down. He got
just enough yardage, and Denver went on to score and win the game.
Even though Brett Favre was the guy who didn’t miss games,
his status for a Monday night game in Oakland was in doubt when his beloved
father passed away the night before. Not only did Favre play in the game, he
might have played the best game of his career. He threw for 399 yards and 4
touchdowns, and even had the brutal Raiders fans cheering for him. Love or hate
Favre, this was one of the most incredible moments ever to take place on a
football field.
Yes, I know everything Mark McGwire did in his career is
tainted by steroid use. And yes, I know that he no longer owns the
single-season home run record. But the chase to #62 between McGwire and Sammy
Sosa was legendary. The 1998 MLB season was not long after the strike, so this
home run chase brought the game back to its glory days of popularity. The best
part of it all? McGwire hit the home run in St. Louis while they were playing
against Sosa’s Cubs. The post-homer hug between the two sluggers remains an
iconic image in baseball history.
Remember, this game was played in New York only TEN DAYS
after the events of September 11th. Just thinking about it now, it’s
mind-boggling that they played the game so soon, but America needed a
distraction from its pain and they got it from Mike Piazza. Down 2-1 in the 8th
inning, Piazza hit a bomb over the centerfield wall and sent Shea Stadium into
a frenzy. There was applause, tears, and it still gives me goosebumps.
The 2003 ALCS was the most intense MLB postseason series of
all time. It seemed like every game there was a fight, like Pedro Martinez
throwing the ancient Don Zimmer to the ground. In Game 7 it looked as if the
Yankees were done for, but they rallied off of Pedro and sent the game into
extras. Then, Aaron Boone crushed a knuckler from Tim Wakefield into the stands
and cemented his place in Yankee history. This probably would have ranked
higher if the Yankees had won the World Series, but eliminating the Red Sox is
good enough in my book.
Kobe Bryant has won championships, scoring titles, and an
MVP award. But when people look back on Kobe’s career, they’ll remember the
81-point game. When Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 in one game, the NBA was much
different and was built for a center to dominate. The fact that Kobe even
approached Wilt in the modern NBA is unbelievable. Literally every shot Kobe
put up was falling. It was a magical performance, and it cemented him as one of
the all-time greats.
Today Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are known as two of the
best ever at their positions in NFL history, but back in 2001 most people
thought they were flukes who were supposed to be crushed by the Rams. But the
Patriots kept it close, and they got the ball back with about a minute left and
no timeouts. America assumed they were going to knee the ball, but that’s not
the Patriot way. Brady set up a 47-yarder for Vinatieri, and then the most
clutch kicker of all time changed NFL history with one kick.
It had been 54 years since the Rangers, an Original 6 team,
had won a Stanley Cup. However, once they brought Mark Messier, Adam Graves,
and others into town, the losing culture within Madison Square Garden began to
change. Only two years after Messier’s arrival, the Rangers were in the Stanley
Cup Finals against the Vancouver Canucks. The series went back and forth until
Game 7 in New York, when the Messiah scored the game-winning goal and the
Rangers were finally champions again.
There have been other memorable Cinderella runs recently in
the NCAA Tournament, but none were more thrilling or captivating than that of
the George Mason Patriots. The most impressive thing about this run was that
George Mason was upsetting college basketball powerhouses. In the first round
they knocked out Michigan State, and in the next round the victim was North
Carolina. The legendary upset though was the one over top-seeded Connecticut.
UConn was a popular pick to win it all, but George Mason rallied to stun the
Huskies in an overtime classic. While they lost in the Final Four to eventual
champs Florida, America fell in love with George Mason during this tournament.
What George Mason did to March Madness, Boise State did to
the BCS. In 2007 the common belief was that the mid-major football programs
couldn’t hang with the big dogs, but Boise State got a chance to prove the
world wrong in a matchup with the Adrian Peterson-led Oklahoma Sooners. While Boise
State did not outmuscle Oklahoma, they did outsmart them with trickery, which
is enough to win a football game. First it was the hook and ladder on 4th
and long to send the game into overtime. Then it was the halfback pass to score
a touchdown in overtime. And finally, it was the Statue of Liberty handoff to
win the game. The rest is history. Ian Johnson throws the football into the
stands and runs off to propose to his cheerleader girlfriend. She said yes, as
did America to this loveable Boise State bunch. A playoff is coming to college
football in a few years (thank God), and Boise State is due plenty of thanks
for that.
It really speaks volumes about the magnitude of a sports
moment when it didn’t even last 10 seconds, yet it’s considered one of the
all-time greats. Usain Bolt, the greatest sprinter ever, managed to pull it
off. Just think about it. The race was only 100 meters long, it was against the
best the world had to offer, and he still managed to turn it into a blowout.
The 9.69 he posted was BY FAR the best time ever recorded, and he did so while
slowing down at the end to celebrate. Oh yeah, and he did it with a shoe
untied. In hindsight, it really just wasn’t fair.
Has there been a more exciting single play…ever? “The Music
City Miracle” is simply football porn. I’ve seen the replay over 100 times and
I still get the chills every single time. The look of bewilderment combined
with excitement on the face of the late Steve McNair is priceless. When I hear
the radio call of, “THERE ARE NO FLAGS ON THE FIELD!” I feel the urge to toss
my laptop and shotgun a beer. And no, I am not taking this too far. The Titans
were down by 1 at home with 16 seconds in the playoffs to the Bills, who had
already started celebrating after they kicked a field goal to go ahead. Then
all hell broke loose. Frank Wycheck threw a lateral that was literally parallel
to the yard line, and Kevin Dyson took it to the house. The cherry on top was
that it was the football gods’ way of kicking Wade Phillips in the balls for
benching Doug Flutie for Rob Johnson. If the Titans had gone on to beat the
Rams in the Super Bowl, this would have ranked even higher.
For all the non-tennis lovers, here me out. I didn’t just
place this here because I am in love with the sport of tennis. I placed it here
because this was the greatest match of tennis ever played. I actually wanted to
put it higher on the list, but I think I would have had to put an asterisk next
to it for bias. Literally every single point of the match was a battle. Two of
the greatest players of all-time, including the
best, were at their absolute best. Everyone who watched the match was
literally watching a changing of the guard in men’s professional tennis unfold
in front of them. Rafael Nadal had finally defeated the unstoppable Roger
Federer at Wimbledon. In total, the five-set match lasted 4 hours and 48
minutes. 4 hours and 48 minutes of pure greatness.
From the greatest Wimbledon final of all time to the
greatest BCS National Championship Game of all time. The 2006 Rose Bowl matched
Vince Young’s Texas Longhorns against Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush’s USC
Trojans. Remember, USC at this time was like all of today’s SEC talent compiled
into one team. They were THAT good. Most experts called them the greatest
college football team ever assembled. They had the two last Heisman winners on
the same roster, and Bush was in the midst of possibly the greatest season ever
by a running back in college football history. (Because of the sanctions later
handed down to Bush, his Heisman and statistics were all removed from the
record books. So I guess there’s no proof that PJ Moran wasn’t the running back
for USC that year?) Anyway, Texas was a great team, but they were supposed to
be crushed by the steamroller that was USC. Yeah, it didn’t really go that way.
The game went back and forth until late in the fourth quarter, when Young was
facing a 4th and 5 at the USC 9-yard line. The rest is history.
Young scrambled just inside the right pylon and put the Longhorns ahead for
good. Since then, the USC football program was been stuck in a downward spiral.
Ironically, so has Vince Young’s life.
I am among the biggest Giants fans in the world, and I will
admit, I came seconds away from missing this play. Don’t get me wrong, I
watched every single second of that Super Bowl. But as Eli Manning was stuck in
the grasp of Jarvis Green and Richard Seymour on that fateful 3rd-down
play, I started to leave the room because I couldn’t watch Eli go down. But then
I heard Joe Buck clumsily yell, “Stays on his feet!” and I sprinted back in
front of the TV and watched that beautiful football sail through the beautiful
Arizona sky onto the beautiful helmet of David Tyree. I still don’t know how he
caught that ball. I’ve watched every single Giants game for a long time, and
trust me when I tell you that David Tyree was a BAD wide receiver. He was on
that roster to play special teams. Not to mention I’ve lost track of how many
times Eli Manning has tripped over his own feet, but he somehow was able to
withstand the grip of two defensive linemen. But for whatever reason Eli
managed to stay upright and Tyree was in the right place at the right time, and
I’d like to thank them both for being able to sleep happily at night ever since.
Before he made this shot to win the 1998 NBA Finals, Michael
Jordan was already Michael Jordan. I would rattle off his numbers and awards
but it was take up pages of valuable space. But after Jordan sank this shot
over Russell, it cemented that he was more than just the greatest basketball
player of all-time. Michael Jordan became the greatest professional athlete of
all-time. If there’s any doubt, just look at that Game 6 of the 1998 NBA
Finals. It’s really a snapshot of Jordan’s career. He scored 45 points, more
than half of his entire team’s total alone. The Bulls were down one with 15
seconds left, so MJ took matters into his own hands. He stole the ball away
from Karl Malone, a legend in his own right, let some clock run off, the
drained the bucket over a great defender in Byron Russell. And to all of the
losers who cry, “push off” whenever they see that play, my ass. I’ve stopped
hating on LeBron James recently. I’ve actually grown to admire what the guy can
do on the court. But if anyone dares to even think of comparing him with
Jordan, think again. It’s really not even close, and I’d be shocked if that
ever changes.
If you are a sports fan in need of a good cry, and consider
yourself too much of a man to watch “The Notebook,” then watch the clip of the
Saints returning to the Superdome. That is just powerful shit. I wasn’t even
personally affected by Hurricane Katrina and it still hits deep with me. I like
to think that the Giants mean the world to me, but I can only imagine what the
2006 Saints team meant to the city of New Orleans. The Saints’ first touchdown
also could not have come in a more awesome way. Steve Gleason broke through the
punt block team, and Curtis Deloatch scooped it up in the end zone. People who
were in the building for that play said it was the loudest they have ever heard
a sports venue. The Saints could have been playing the 1972 Miami Dolphins or
the Steel Curtain that night and it wouldn’t have made a difference. No one was
going to take that night away from the Saints and the people of New Orleans.
Before his fall from grace in 2009 and his recent shortcomings
in major championships, Tiger Woods was on his way to becoming the best athlete
of the past 20 years. He has won 14 majors and has been ranked #1 for
practically the entire 21st century. Although Tiger has had many
great wins in his distinguished career, one stands out far above the rest: the
2008 U.S. Open. Tiger was at the top of his game, but he practically played the
entire tournament on one leg, considering he had a double stress fracture of
his tibia and a torn ACL. Despite these injuries, after four rounds of golf at
Torrey Pines, Tiger was tired for the lead with fan-favorite Rocco Mediate. It
was David vs. Goliath, but in this case, America was not collectively rooting
for the same winner. Everyone just wanted the tournament to last forever, even
though Woods’s injury was clearly worsening hole after hole. The two traded
birdie for birdie in the 18-hole playoff, and Tiger sank the last birdie on 18
to send it into a sudden-death playoff. That playoff didn’t last as long, as
Tiger won on the first hole. But still, it was the greatest battle between two
players golf fans had ever seen. Tiger Woods only added on to his legacy, and
Rocco won over the hearts of all viewers.
I know that for greatest sports moment of the last 20 years,
the title of this event isn’t instantly recognizable. Let me help you out.
In this race at the 2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing, Michael Phelps won the 2nd of his record 8 gold medals.
While this race wasn’t the one that got him
the record, it was by far the most entertaining and intense event that Phelps
participated in. Not only that, it was the best event of the entire Olympics.
And even one step further, it was the best Olympic event of the past 20 years.
This was the one race of Phelps’s that he was not favored to win, as the
American team of Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak was
predicted to come in second to the French. That prediction looked correct going
into the anchor leg of the 4x100 relay, especially considering the fact that
the United States had already used Phelps. Lezak was going to have to pull off
a miracle, and he didn’t let his country down. He swam the fasted 50 meter
split in Olympic history and touched the wall literally milliseconds before
France’s Alain Bernard. In real time, it seemed like there was no way that the
Americans came back to win. But in the slow-motion underwater view, it was
clear that Lezak was the first to touch the wall. From this moment on, it became a strong possibility that Phelps was going to break the record. The rest is history. Michael
Phelps became the greatest Olympian in history. He’s the greatest athlete of
the last 20 years. Now, he’s also the co-owner of the greatest sports moment of
the last 20 years. As if the guy needed another award.
Disagree with the rankings? Think there was a moment left
out, like Andy Murray’s recent triumph at Wimbledon? Comment and let us know at
Ice Bath Report!
- PJ Moran
Follow PJ on Twitter
at @PEEJ9493
