Amalgamblog

Our “Best* of the Decade” series carries on. Here is one man’s opinion on the ten best sports moments of 2000-2009. Feel free to leave your favorite sports moments in the comments below.

10. Meb Re-takes New York for America
The average person doesn’t really bother with major marathon results. Kenyans, Ethiopians, and their east African brethren have dominated the 26.2 for so long that victory is a given. Or at least it was until November of this year when Meb Keflezighi broke the tape at the New York City Marathon. Keflezighi and his family came to the United States when he was twelve, seeking refuge from their war-torn homeland. A naturalized U.S. citizen for over a decade, many thought that Keflezighi’s career was virtually over. Instead he led as U.S. runners made a big statement running through the five boroughs; 6 Americans finished in the Top Ten. It might be time to start paying more attention to marathon results.

9. Kevin Dyson: From Miracle Man to One Yard Short
My Nashville native wife isn’t going to like this, but Kevin Dyson’s reach coming just short of the goal line at the end of Super Bowl XXXIV is one of the indelible sports images of the decade. But the Tennessee Titans would have never been in the big game in the first place if not for Dyson’s Music City Miracle. The Titans receiver took Frank Wycheck’s lateral and went 75 yards for a touchdown to stun the Buffalo Bills in the first round. But back to Mike Jones dragging Dyson down short of a potential game-tying score. After the 1990s gave us plenty of Super Bowl snoozers, the Titans and Rams made the first title game of this decade a thriller.

8. The Head Butt
If I lived anywhere except the United States, I suspect that this would be #1 on my list. Soccer or, as the rest of the world calls it, football is not really our thing. Even still I, a person whose father not-so-subtly mocked soccer as I was growing up, was riveted by the 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France. And then out of nowhere, France’s Zinedine Zidane head-butted Italian Marco Materazzi. The French star was red carded and correspondingly kicked out of his final game. With the game tied at the end of regulation, Italy won the shootout 5-3 over the Zidaneless Frenchmen. It was insane. Imagine if in less than a month, Colt McCoy sucker punches an Alabama defensive linemen with the game tied in the fourth quarter and gets kicked out of the game. Now put that in the context of the most popular sport in the world. We’re honestly lucky that The Head Butt didn’t result in World War III.

7. Bringing Down the Big House
This kills me. It really does. But I could not do a honest list of the decade’s best sports moments without including Appalachian State’s epic 34-32 upset over #5 Michigan. Never had a I-AA team defeated a Top 25 I-A team. For it to happen to Michigan, the winningest program in college football history, in the Big House was unthinkable. But App. struck a populist blow for I-AA and gave credence to the fact that, yes indeed, any team can win any given Saturday. Even though they have caused me no end of superficial football-related misery, I can give App. State credit for that.

6. The Helmet Catch
Super Bowl XLII was a formality. The game was supposed to be a coronation for the New England Patriots as the Greatest Team in the History of the National Football League™. Didn’t happen. And the way it didn’t happen was one of the most incredible plays in Super Bowl history: The Helmet Catch. I tried to write out what happened on the play, but it didn’t do any justice at all. So in summary, Manning was Houdini, Tyree some sort of Magnetized Man, and a few plays later the Pats were 18-1 while the New York Giants were Super Bowl Champs.

5. Bolt
Showboat? Yes. Arrogant? You betcha. But to watch Usain Bolt sprint is jaw-droppingly amazing. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics 100 meter final, he blew away the field and shattered the world recordwhile slowing down at the end. At the 2009 World Championships, he ran through the end of the 100 and broke his record by 0.11 seconds; you can decades in track without seeing a world record drop that much. That’s not to mention his Olympic and World Championship world record wins in the 200 meters. Thus far he has tested clean, which is impressive because Bolt seems to have a superhuman gear that no one else can currently match.

4. Vince Young and the Fall of Troy
The BCS is a flawed system that, despite what its supporters say, rarely gives I-A football a true national champion. But even a flawed system can give us some incredible moments. Exhibit A: Vince Young destroying Southern Cal in a thrilling Rose Bowl shootout. That year’s Trojan team was supposed to be in the conversation for the greatest ever; Heisman Trophy winners Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush led a incredible offense. But the Longhorns’ had a one man wrecking crew in Young. The Texas QB accounted 437 yards of offense, ran the game-winning TD in on 4th and 5, and capped it off with a two-point conversion. One of the most amazing individual performances I have ever seen.

3. Aquaman
Despite what he says, the 2008 Olympics had to be monstrously intimidating thing for Michael Phelps. For Beijing to not be a disappointment, the American swimmer only had to win more gold medals in a single games than anyone ever before. His record-breaking 8 golds came with plenty of drama including beating Milorad Čavić by a hundredth of a second in the 100m butterfly. But the greatest moment of Phelps’ gold rush was not provided Phelps himself. In the 4×100m freestyle relay, American anchor Jason Lezak was a half body length behind Alain Bernard (who said that the French would “smash” the Americans in the relay) and yet he somehow passed the Frenchman in the gutsiest swimming related sight I’ve seen (not saying much, but it was still impressive).

2. No More Curses
No team had ever came back from a 3-0 deficit in the baseball playoffs. And there was now way that the accursed Red Sox, on the goose egg side of the mighty Bronx Bombers’ three were going to be the first. Not when in Game 3, the Yankees smashed Boston 19-8. Not when the Red Sox, an inning away from elimination, faced the greatest closer of all time in Mariano Rivera. And not with Games 6 and 7 being played in the venerated Yankee Stadium. Yet somehow, someway the Boston Red Sox shattered the Curse of the Bambino and mounted one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.

1. Boise State’s Trick Play Upset Fiesta
Upsets have appeared all over this list. Meb over the elite African runners. App over Michigan. Giants over Pats. Texas over USC. Red Sox over Yankees. But none were as thrilling or as ludicrous as Boise State’s 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Why? Because the way in which the Broncos busted open a crate of backyard football’s greatest hits. A fifty-yard pass/hook and lateral touchdown to tie with 7 seconds to go. A halfback pass to pull within one in overtime and the Statue of Liberty play on a gutsy two-point conversion play for the win. Throw in the fact that Ian Johnson ran the gamewinner in and then ran to propose to his girlfriend on national TV and there has never been a game like it. Exciting, surprising, and an underdog victory. It’s everything you want out of sports (unless you were a Sooners fan). And that’s why, in my opinion, it has to be #1.

Tags: 2004 ALCS, 2007 Fiesta Bowl, App. State-Michigan, Boise State, Boston Red Sox, Meb Keflezighi, Michael Phelps, Rose Bowl, Super Bowl XXXIV, The Helmet Catch, Usain Bolt, Vince Young, World Cup Head Butt

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