The Biggest Sports Moments of 2012
The year is almost over. 2012 brought us many things: an election, a Chrihanna reunion and great sports moments. Lebron James was crowned, Jerry Sandusky was locked up, Manny Pacquiao was sleep and so much more.
Check out our biggest sports moments of 2012 in the following gallery
Honorable Mention: Break –Ups
The Money Team, Floyd Mayweather and 50 Cent, had an ugly twitter feud that resulted in their relationship being ruined.
Former Oklahoma City Thunder guard, James Harden, turned down a 4 year $55.5M contract extension. Harden’s refusal to sign, forced the team’s hand in which they traded him to the Houston Rockets where he was able to sign a max deal for 5 years $80M.
15. Jovan Belcher Murder/Suicide
Tragedy struck on December 1, 2012 when Kansas City Chiefs linebacker, Jovan Belcher, murdered his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, who was also the mother of his child. After killing his girlfriend, he drove himself to the Chiefs facility and killed himself in front of his head coach, Romeo Crennel and his position coach, Gary Gibbs. I have absolutely no respect for a man that voluntarily orphans his own child.
14. Miguel Cabrera Wins Triple Crown
The Detroit Tiger took home baseball’s triple crown. It was the first time the feat had been accomplished in 45 years.
13. Manny Pacquiao Loses Twice
The man Floyd Mayweather refuses to fight lost both of his fights in 2012. The first was a controversial loss to Timothy Bradley. No one expected to win, not even Timothy Bradley. The next fight was a knockout to Juan Marquez that gave Black Twitter the meme of the year. Personally, I think Pacquiao was playing possum. Floyd wasn’t going to fight Pac until he saw noticeable flaws in Pac’s game.
12. Lance Armstrong Stripped
On August 24, 2012, the United States Anti-Doping Agency stripped Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour De France titles and banned him from the sport of cycling. He lost several sponsors including his biggest, Nike. Yes, Lance donated millions to cancer research, but that wouldn’t have been possible had he not been cheating, the perfect catch 22.
11. Bounty Gate Suspensions
On May 2, 2012, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell brought down the hammer giving out the leagues harshest penalties to current and former members of the New Orleans Saints. The biggest penalty was that Saints head coach, Sean Payton, would be suspended for an entire season.
10. Replacement Refs
So, the NFL didn’t want to pay the referees so what did they do? They used replacement refs. The game wasn’t the same and everyone was up in arms, especially after this Monday Night Football mockery.
9. Augusta National Adds Female Members
We had a black President before we had female members of the prestigious and prejudice Augusta National Golf Club smh. In August, the first two women members were Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore.
8. Tiger Woods ends PGA streak
Tiger back? On March 26, 2012 he was as he destroyed the field in Tiger Woods fashion at the Arnold Palmer Invitational ending his drought of winning a PGA Tour tournament since his sex scandal in November 2010.
7. Michael Phelps’ Dominance
On July 31, 2012, Phelps took home the silver medal in the 200m butterfly and gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay to tie and surpass Larisa Latynina to become the most decorated Olympian ever with 19 medals. Young Phelps wasn’t done as he went on to win three more medals and bring his grand total to 22.
6. Penn State Sex Scandal Comes to an end
On January 22, 2012, legendary Penn State head coach Joe Paterno dies of lung cancer. If you ask me, he died of a broken heart. On June 22, 2012, Jerry Sandusky was convicted on all 45 counts of sexually assaulting young boys ages 10 – 15. Finally on July 23, the NCAA steps in and issues crippling sanctions against the Penn State football team.
5. Gabby Douglas
In the 2012 Summer Olympics, Gabby Douglas became the first African-American to win the gold medal in the individual all-around competition.
4. Mario Manningham
Mario Manningham’s sideline tip-toe catch propelled the New York Football Giants to win their second Super Bowl title in five years.
3. Lebron James
The King was finally crowned in June of 2012. Lebron James led the Miami Heat to win the NBA Finals in five games over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
2. Tebowmania unfortunately continued
Tebowmania continued into January of 2012 when he led the Denver Broncos to a first round playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in dramatic yet typical Tebow fashion. The Tebowmania continued as he became a member of the New York Jets this past NFL offseason.
1. Linsanity
For two weeks in February, Jeremy Lin, took New York City, the nation and the world by storm. The undrafted point guard dropped 25 points in his first game, knocked down buzzer beaters, landed a Nike contract and $28 million dollar free agent contract with the Houston Rockets in the off-season.
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