A look back at 2003

[DEAD!]

Now that the year is coming to a close. I just want to know what were the most important sports stories of 2003 in your opinion?

[Saintsfan]

I can't really think of too many important sports stories this year. Maybe the start of the Kobe trial, maybe the NBA draft (Anthony and James could maybe possible be two of the biggest stars for years in the NBA). I can't think of anything earth shattering but a few things have happened that might have significance that we only see in later years.

[yh]

I can think of a few significant if not earth shattering stories . . .

* Five Yellow Shirts in Lance Armstrong's (Bacheolor Pad) closet.

* The surprising and rapid descent of both of last year's Super Bowl teams.

* Keyshawn getting the boot.

* The A-Rod trade debacle

* Jack McKeon trading his fishing pole for a World Series Ring.

* The curses of the Bambino and the Billy Goat clinging to life despite very close calls.

* Roy Williams fulfilling his destiny to be the TarHeels' head BB Coach.

* (Like it or not) The Ducks

* The Wild's incredible inaugural playoff run

* Spurs win a title without an asterisk

* Beckham leaves ManU for Real Madrid

* More attention being paid to steroid use in pro sports

* Freddy Adu signs with DC United at 15

* Syracuse's improbable NCAA hoops title

* The BCS Mess

* Longest winning streaks in NCAA Division 1A and 1AA both end with lopsided losses.

* The Heatley/Snyder tragedy.

* RIP Otto Graham and Warren Spahn.

I'm sure I'm missing quite a few, but that's what I could come up with off the cuff.

[DEAD!]

All good choices. Others that stood out for me were England's rugby world cup victory, New Jersey winning the Stanley Cup only because I was the only one amongst my friends that picked them, and the comeback of Aussie Rules player Jason McCartney

http://theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/22/1071941669261.html

[fiasco!]

*the deaths of dan snyder, keith magnuson, roger nielson, and herb brooks

*j.s. giguere's playoff run

*martin brodeur's playoff run and subsequently getting robbed of the conn smythe

*the florida marlins world championship

*the marlins' hiring of a 'too old' jack mckeon

*mckeon's 'stupid' decision to start josh beckett on 3 days rest

*jamal lewis threatening to break the single season rushing record and breaking the single game rushing record

*corey dillon dragging my fantasy football team to the depths of hell

*curt schilling going to boston

*pavel datsyuk's breakout season and showing wings fans that fedorov really isn't needed

*kariya and selanne signing with colorado for less money than they could have gotten

*marvin lewis' impact on the bengals

*steve mariucci's lack of impact on the lions

*the carolina panthers surprising season

*the detroit pistons firing rick carlisle for chronic underachiever larry brown

*the pistons surprising trip to the eastern conference finals *the pistons drafting darko instead of carmelo

*dominik hasek coming out of retirement.....meh

*the red wings not being able to dump cujo

*eric gagne's absolute dominance over the national league

*the retirement of the greatest goalie ever....patrick roy (coming from a wings and leafs fan, that says alot)....best. goalie. ever.

*the american league's complete dominance over the detroit tigers :angry:

*the heritage classic

*the looming NHL work stoppage

*grady leaving pedro in the game

[JQK]

Ohio State wins BCS amid ref's late flag controversy

Yet another boring Super Bowl

Syracuse Winning the National Basketball Championship

New Jersey and Ottawa participate in the best 7-Game series since New Jersey and the Rangers played in 1994.

The Minnesota Wild make it all the way to the Conference Finals, where they relinquish the glass slipper to the Mighty Ducks

The Devils win their 3rd Stanley Cup in 9 seasons by beating the Ducks in 7 games

Roger Clemens get's 300

Michael Vick breaks his ankle, destroying the Falcons hopes for the new season before it began.

Chad Pennington broke his wrist, destroying the Jets hopes for the new season before it began.

The NFL season again opens up on a thursday night, seeming to begin a new NFL tradition. The Redskins defeat the Jets.

After week 1 in the NFL, everyone annoints the Bills and Tampa Bay "Super Bowl Bound"

Danny Heatley kills Dan Snyder in a car crash before the season.

Edmonton defeats Montreal for the Grey Cup. No one in America seemed to notice.

ESPN begins "Hockey is made in America" ad campaign. Everyone in Canada laughs.

Kansas City goes 9-0 to start off the NFL season.

The New York Giants decide to quit playing after week 9

The Cincinnati Bengals

Kobe bought his wife a 4 million dollar diamond ring. Oh, and he may or may not have raped a girl...

The Second Coming of the Christ Child? No, it's just LeBron

USC isn't in the National Championship Game? Ohhhhh Joy to us BCS haters....

Jason Wite wins the Heisman, and deservedly. You blow up both your knees and do what he's done.

The NFL is still addicted to monochrome.. how long this plague will be with us... i don't know.

The Flyers and Devils decide to play "Beat That Streak" as both go on supurb winning streaks

Canadian are still laughing at "Hockey is Made in America"

Happy New Year's to all, and to all, fu*k off.

[Ez Street]

Edmonton defeats Montreal for the Grey Cup. No one in America seemed to notice.

ESPN begins "Hockey is made in America" ad campaign. Everyone in Canada laughs.

The Cincinnati Bengals

Happy New Year's to all, and to all, fu*k off.

1. I noticed

2. I'm laughing too....

3. Is that like THE Ohio State

4. My Favorite line of them all, i wish i could tell my customers that today.

your harsh wit is appreciated  

[CrookedThumb]

Bucs' Super Bowl Championship

Kobe Trial

A-Rod Trade issues

The Bengals of 2003

Countryside Cougars (my high school team) winning districts in football and going the farthest in the Florida state playoffs than any other team in the county.

Michael Vick and Chad Pennington injuries and their teams' demises

LeBron and Carmelo

Bartman's Ball

Annika at the Colonial

[Saintsfan]

* Five Yellow Shirts in Lance Armstrong's (Bacheolor Pad) closet.

But the guy is married!

And I to mention a few sports stories worth mentioning from an british perspective

1 England win Rugby World Cup, with dramatic last minute drop goal, (If you haven't yet and you get a chance watch the game, not the most thrilling but as tense and dramatic a game as you could want!)

2 Beckham leaving Man Utd for Real Madrid

3 Roman Abramovic buyong Celsea FC and then buying any damn player he chooses

4 Armstrong's 5th T d F win, brilliant story and a dramatic race

5 Drugs in sport, particularly best British sprinter Dwain Chambers.

6 Poor behaviour, including some illegal behaviour, by some of our young soccer players (think Kobe but less high profile!)

and from a personal perspective

7 Southampton reaching the FA Cup Final.

[yh]

* Five Yellow Shirts in Lance Armstrong's (Bacheolor Pad) closet.

But the guy is married!

Separated and headed for divorce.

[yh]

Happy New Year's to all, and to all, fu*k off.

John, could you please watch your language?  It's not proper to end a sentence with a preposition, G*ddammit!

[Phil]

From a Canadian perspective...

*Mike Weir wins the Masters

*That Canadian girl (Perdita Felicien) winning the Hurdles at the World Championships.

*Edmonton vs. Montreal x3 (Grey Cup for the 2nd year in a row, MegaStars game, NHL game)

*The ball-playing pride of Montreal, Eric Gagne winning the Cy Young, while Blue Jays' Roy Halladay wins it for the AL.

*The Expos hang in there for another season. Bye bye Vladdy.

*Jean-Sebastien Giguere carrying the Ducks so close.

*Hayley Wickenheiser steps on the ice with the men in Sweden.

*Paul Tracy dominates the fading CART circuit.

*The Mike Comrie fiasco (Canada's version of the A-Rod talks)

[Roger Clemente]

That super duper awesome sports play that'll happen next weekend that will stun the world and you will have forgotten to add.

--Roger "Time?" Clemente.

[DEAD!]

The Leafs streak is better

And speaking of streaks......

http://www.thestreaker.org.uk/

[JQK]

The Leafs streak is better

And the Leafs have how many cups in the last 30 years?

Just hope your good enough to get into the playoffs so the Devils can knock you out once again...    

Go Devs Go!  ::

[CC97]

The Leafs streak is better  

And the Leafs have how many cups in the last 30 years?

Just hope your good enough to get into the playoffs so the Devils can knock you out once again...    

Go Devs Go!  ::

Hey, hey, hey, you said this season  

He's feelin' the heat... the Devils are in 4th place, unfamiliar territory!  

[NJTank]

4th Place hmmm Thats where the Devils were in 2000.

[CC97]

4th Place hmmm Thats where the Devils were in 2000.

*sneezes*

[Discrim]

this needs to be first: the war in Iraq and the rebels who want to continue it, using religion as a crutch for senseless killing of our troops and their fellow Iraqis

this also needs to be at the top: the capture of Saddam(finally!)

An Ohio State University beating Miami in OT of the Fiesta Bowl

Univ. of Spoiled Children getting screwed out of a shot at this year's BS Championship

Rice winning College World Series...now all we need is for Vanderbilt to do something important ::

LeBron.

Sen. Herb Kohl puts Bucks up for sale, yanks em back amid worries MJ might move Bucks

The Ducks...The Wild...The Upsets Heard Round the Rink

Bartman.

Marvin Lewis restores Bungles into Bengals after more than a decade

The Greatest Goalie Ever: Patrick Roy retires as the all time winningest player in any N.A. team sport

Zim vs Pedro

Orioles return to MLB

A-Rod for Manny-the craziest trade never made

TO for Governor

Governator

the Paris Hilton sex tape

strange birds of a feather: Ja Rule and Louis Farrakhan; Britney Spears and the Ying Yang Twins; Eric Lindros and a hockey puck

the 'dang you all who said i couldn't do it' award: David Aebischer, the understudy to the great Roy...all these idiots were saying to the Avs 'get a goalie' when they already had one...so dang those people.  

the 'against all odds' award: Cal-Stanford, pro style: the Saints' amazing series of last second laterals on teh way to a touchdown...only thing missing was a band.  And then we all know what happened next: one of the great kickers, John Carney, misses the extra point and the Saints go from elated to heads down

the 'Discrim's Predictions' curse: on a board i used to frequent, I predicted that Mount Union would win the Division 3 title, and Oklahoma would run the table and be named NC.  First, OU got bitchslapped by Kansas State in teh big xii title game...and last weekend, St. John's of minnesota did the unthinkable: they outplayed Mount Union and won 24-6.  I'm still wondering wtf happened.  i think i'm just gonna predict an LSU win here and now, cus I want an OU win.

Jin tha MC: first Chinese rapper

Gigli: Bennifer and an apparent train wreck of a movie

Isiah vs Bird, revisited: Bird Fires Thomas, Isiah hired by Knicks

Fire John Shoop!!!  Please!!!

"I CAN'T TASTE MY BEER!!!  AAAAAAH!!!!"

"Ooh, fajitas!"

Chad Johnson

Joe Horn on his celly: "Hey fam, Joe here.  Joe just scored...well, better get off fore Joe gets fined!"

Parcells: return of dem Cowboys

Jimmy Johnson: Giants head coach?

Matt Kenseth: NASCAR champ from WI

Ulice Payne leaves Brewers over salary dumping; Sexson traded, Jenkins could be next

Sammy.  The Cork.  The best thing that happened to him this season, IMO.  Saved his season, for real he was looking scared after he got nailed in the head in the Steel City, got his swing back after the cork incident.

The Royals are back.  

East Tennessee St. dropping football after this year

[Saintsfan]

I thought of something nobody brought up yet. Roy Jones Jnr wionning a world heavyweight title. Not bad for a middleweight