Every year is a good year to be a sports fan, but 2021 was better than most, primarily because it was the year that stadiums around the world were able to return to full capacity after the crowd-less days of 2020. Vaccines allowed sports fans to gather by the thousands in sold-out arenas to be reminded that there’s nothing better than watching your favorite team in person.
And those fans were treated to plenty of memorable moments, like Giannis Antetokounmpo's taking over the NBA playoffs and leading the Bucks to their first title in 50 years, Major League Baseball playing a game in the middle of an Iowa cornfield, and Tom Brady winning his seventh Super Bowl (and then enjoying himself a little too much in the ensuing parade).
I was lucky enough to witness some great moments myself, like a thrilling ninth inning in my first Yankees game since 2019 and AEW’s electric Grand Slam show at Arthur Ashe Stadium. I was also fortunate to cover everything from the year in sports in my daily column, Hot Clicks.
For the third year in a row, I’ve gone through every edition of Hot Clicks to pull out my 100 favorite stories, videos, tweets and photos of the year to compile a list of things that defined sports this year. (They’re not listed in any particular order, but they are numbered to prove there’s actually 100 of them.)
100. FAU’s Caleb Pendleton started his college career with a bang
99. Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota played the longest game in NCAA men’s hockey tournament history (nine minutes shorter than a 2015 conference tournament game, though).
98. A cricketer got hit in the crotch on consecutive plays
97. Missouri State’s Siale Suliafu refused to go down on a kick return
96. The Kraken scored their first goal in franchise history
95. D.K. Metcalf ran the 100 meters in a pro track meet
94. 18-year-old Anthony Neuer became the fourth bowler to convert a 7–10 split on television, and the first in 30 years
93. Wrestler Gable Steveson celebrated his NCAA national championship and Olympic gold medal with backflips
92. The Kings’ AHL affiliate played the first all-Black line in a pro hockey game since the ’40s.
91. Wilmer Difo won a game for Triple A Indianapolis with some tricky baserunning
90. The coach of Bishop Sycamore said that it is “not a school.”
89. Dick Vitale made his emotional return to broadcasting after a cancer diagnosis
88. Aaron Rodgers told the Soldier Field crowd “I still own you”
87. Miami fans caught a cat falling from the upper deck
86. Miloš Teodosić pulled an AND1 mixtape move in a real game
85. Karl-Anthony Towns revealed his odd pregame routine
84. Colts running back Nyheim Hines said he tells himself “I don’t care about my life” before every punt return
83. A high school linebacker intercepted a pitch to the running back
82. Giannis had an iconic block in the Finals
81. Haiti’s Josué Duverger surrendered an all-time bad own goal
80. This video of Brooks Koepka being annoyed with Bryson DeChambeau went viral
79. Yankees fans finally got to yell at the Astros in person
78. Tom Brady had one too many during the Bucs’ Super Bowl parade
77. This Swiss soccer fan experienced the entire range of human emotion in two minutes
76. Rob Refsnyder gave us a classic blooper
75. A terrible missed call sent the UConn women to their 13th straight Final Four
74. Kirk Cousins floated the idea of enveloping himself in plexiglass rather than getting the vaccine
73. Trevon Diggs’s son couldn’t wrap his head around meeting Dak Prescott
72. The Ravens’ defensive coordinator gave an amazing scouting report on Justin Herbert
71. Derrick Henry zipped through the defense on a long touchdown, reaching the top speed of any ball carrier to that point in the season
70. Jorge Soler hit a home run all the way out of Minute Maid Park that was retrieved by a fan across the street
69. Diamondbacks rookie Tyler Gilbert threw a no-hitter in his first MLB start, and his dad was overcome with emotion
68. Courtney Vandersloot had no idea she had a triple double until her postgame interview
67. Charlie Morton kept pitching on what turned out to be a broken leg
66. Saquon Barkley made a ridiculous one-handed catch
65. So did Daniel Jones
64. There were some amazing goals in soccer’s lower levels
63. Yankees announcer John Sterling got confused broadcasting a road game off of a monitor and called a replay of a home run
62. Deandre Ayton had an amazing game-winning alley-oop that looked even cooler from a fan’s perspective
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