The Golden Age of Sport

We've heard it from our fathers and our grandfathers all our life.

"It was better in our day. The players were better. The teams were better. It wasn't about the money back then."

And for the most part, it's been true. Legends build over time, and anytime there is a grainy, black-and-white video of some old time sporting event, we view it as a historic relic into the history of when the world was cleaner, people were friendlier and sports were better.

Well, not anymore. We are currently witnessing our own golden age of sport right now, in HD.

Lets look at the sporting events over the past few months, in no particular order...

• Kansas came back from a ten point deficit with two minutes remaining to hit a game-tying three pointer, sending the game to overtime, in which they prevailed over Memphis for the NCAA national championship.
• The Patriots, unbeaten all season, had a 14-10 lead with :59 seconds left against the Giants in the 4th quarter of Super Bowl XVII. Then Eli Manning and David Tyree combine to make the best pass-and-catch in Super Bowl history. The result is the best ending in Super Bowl history. Not bad. Where you at on that one grandpa?
• Fresno State became the ultimate underdog, winning the College World Series as the equivalent of a 14-seed in basketball. That's like IUPUI beating UCLA two out of three games. More importantly, it had the entire country talking about college baseball. Not an easy thing to do.
• Rocco Mediate improbably took Tiger Woods to his limits in the 18-hole playoff at the U.S. Open, before Tiger Woods improbably fought him back on a broken leg and torn ACL. More importantly, it had the whole country talking about golf. Not an easy thing to do.
• The NBA and the NHL both had their dream match-ups, with the the Red Wings facing the Penguins and the Celtics facing the Lakers.
• Roger Federer took his five straight Wimbledon championships and 60-plus straight wins on grass to Wimbledon this year, only to lose to Rafal Nadal in what some are calling the best tennis match ever. More importantly, it had the whole country talking about tennis. Not an easy thing to do.

There you have it, some impressive sporting events to say the least. The only major event left out would be the BCS title game. But I think outside of LSU, the only people who enjoyed that game would be those who took LSU with the points. Oh wait, that was me! (By the way, I hate exclamation marks, but money makes me happy.)

So as your grandfather and father slips more and more into senility with each passing day, you can can let them think they lived through the best era of sports. Because even if you told them the truth, they wouldn't remember anyways.



Am I missing a sporting event? Feel free to add your thoughts. Unless it's about soccer.