The greatest thing about sports is that any team can win any game. In 2007, that statement was obvious from the first day of the year to the last, and I considered myself fortunate to be able to witness it.
The year of 2007 wasted no time rocketing out of the gates, when Boise State’s college football team pulled off one of the greatest upsets in recent memory, shocking the Oklahoma Sooners and the world in what many consider the greatest game in the history of college football. The little team that could pulled off trick play after trick play and even threw in a marriage proposal afterwards for good measure. Never in my life have I turned off a game with such a smile on my face.
Some of the most impressive upsets in all of sports history took place this year, starting with Division I-AA Appalachian State defeating the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor. Seven #2's losing and a 41 point underdog’s upset later, and we left off the year right where it started.
As college football madness gave way to professional football, the biggest game of the season took place right here in South Florida. Miami hosted the Super Bowl, but Mother Nature wasn’t letting this one happen easily. In a rain-soaked affair, Peyton Manning finally got the doubters off his back, in beating the Chicago Bears for the Super Bowl championship. However, this was not the real story of the football year. The New Orleans Saints, returning to the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina attempted to destroy it, advanced all the way to the NFC championship game. With their run, they brought joy, love and happiness back to the city that needed it most and many goose bumps to all of us lucky enough to observe it.
In what most people consider the end of spring, we sane people knew that it was simply the end of hockey and basketball season. On the ice, hockey battled low ratings and poor attendance issues while it still fought to come back from its devastating lockout year. While the Ducks were bringing a Stanley Cup to California, the Spurs continued their dominance on the hardwood. If there’s anything I’ve learned in life, it’s that there are only three guarantees: everybody dies, everybody pays taxes and the Spurs win the basketball championship at least every other season.
Then the dog days of summer hit and with it, baseball scandals popped up everywhere. An otherwise fine season was marred with rumors of steroids and human growth hormones. One of the greatest records in all of sports, the all-time home run record, fell to Barry Bonds, who spent more time denying that he had ever taken steroids than actually celebrating his great achievement.* Baseball faces a very steep uphill climb, with some of its greatest stars named in conjunction with steroids.
To some, 2007 will be remembered in a negative light. With hockey struggling for survival, baseball searching for any player at all that didn’t take steroids, and the recent death of Washington Redskins’ safety Sean Taylor, this certainly wasn’t a year filled with jubilation. However, never has so much parity overtaken the sports world than in the year 2007. A hockey team born just 14 years ago won its first championship. College football saw more upsets this year than perhaps this entire past decade combined. While I hope that 2008 brings us many more joyous moments than the previous year, I can only hope that it is just as unpredictable.
* No Barry Bonds statement may be typed without an asterisk.
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