By Allan Brown
Deflategate, alleged rape and players being injured at an alarming rate.
In other words, just another day at the office in the rollercoaster world of professional and collegiate sports.
With the year winding down, most media outlets will focus on the negative headlines sports generated in the past 12 months.
That makes sense.
Tragedy and scandal sell.
However, in keeping with my year-end tradition of highlighting some of the most intriguing players and teams in sports, the focus of this column will be to look past the negative and highlight the positive in what certainly was another action-packed and up and down year in what Jim McKay so appropriately used to call The Wide World of Sports.
Certainly, Tom Brady and Deflategate dominated the headlines all year. Heck, it even was the final question that somehow won Miss America 2016, Betty Cantrell, her crown.
While my opinion on the whole fiasco has been duly noted in prior columns, the upside of it has been that it lit a fire under Brady, who is arguably playing some of the best football of his career, posting MVP numbers and likely leading the New England Patriots to yet another Eastern Division title in the American Football Conference. Number 12 - and the whole team for that matter - has been playing lights out football, trying to get that negative chip off their shoulder and showing the whole league that they don't need deflated footballs to capture another Super Bowl Ring.
It's hard to imagine that the defending champions won't be playing deep into January - and likely into February, too - as they try to capture a fifth Vince Lombardi Trophy.
If any team can beat them, it might be the still-undefeated Carolina Panthers, led by Quarterback Cam Newton, who is making his own case for NFL MVP.
That story has yet to reach its denouement, but both teams have dominated the headlines with their records and aggressive play.
Other teams that many prognosticators had picked to challenge the Patriots have fallen short.
The Buffalo Bills under new Head Coach Rex Ryan have yet to find their way or their quarterback.
The Miami Dolphins, who secured defenseman Ndamukong Suh in the offseason, had looked to be a real contender to dethrone the champions in the AFC East, but to date - and two coaches later - look more like a clumsy pretender, rather than a contender. One has to assume a new coach for the team will be named in the offseason, one who can lead the team and command the respect of its most popular player and maybe make the once-mighty Fins an elite NFL team once more.
Perhaps, their time will come, but not this year. Still, they deserve mention as both - especially the always outspoken and certainly intriguing Ryan - have made the NFL season a little more interesting, even if their teams haven't performed to the level most expected they would.
As for other notable figures in the NFL in 2015, Quarterback Andy Dalton has silenced the naysayers - so far - with his exceptional signal calling while leading the Bengals to a commanding lead in the AFC North. It has been a strong year for Cincy, tho 2016 will be the real barometer as to whether this team can get to that next level under Dalton and Head Coach Marvin Lewis, both who have yet to win a playoff game on their watches.
With rookie quarterbacks Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota at the helm, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans have generated their own fair share of headlines this season. Both have made stupid, yet to be expected, mistakes in their freshman year in the NFL, but both have also - at times - looked brilliant and worthy of their teams' first-round draft picks. They are the future of the league.
But back to the not-so-distant past, this year has seen an alarmingly increased number of injuries in all sports, but particularly in the NFL. Whether those injuries are related to the increased competition in the league or some bigger problem - think PED use - it certainly seems that the league must look at the high rate of players being carted off the field - and the reasons behind it - in the upcoming year.
Staying with the gridiron, but moving on to the College Football scene, the year started off big for fans of the Ohio State Buckeyes, who under the guidance of Urban Meyer completed a second consecutive undefeated season en rout to their first National Championship in 12 years.
OSU has continued to thrive under Meyer, whose Buckeyes only loss in his first three seasons in Columbus came at the hands of an exceptional Michigan State team last month.
As for the other College Football elite, the Alabama Crimson Tide, who were OSU's biggest victim in their championship run, look poised to run the gamut this year and would have to be prohibitive favorites to win next month's National Championship. Under Nick Saban, this season's Tide have returned to form and are 'rolling' at just the right time. It would be hard to imagine - though not impossible - that they couldn't beat any of the remaining contenders - all of which have at least one glaring flaw - once January gets here. Despite having a great, undefeated season and winning the ACC Championship, the Clemson Tigers - intriguing and deserving of inclusion on this list in their own right, - will have their work cut off for them in the college football playoffs as their run blocking is atrocious and their entire offensive line is flawed.
Not that the Tide isn't flawed.
They produce a lot of turnovers, lack depth at running back and tend to let teams stay in the game just a tad bit too long, all flaws that could catch up to them and be their Achilles Heel in the playoffs.
2015 was also the year that the University of Georgia realized that Mark Richt just wasn't right for their program, as the popular head coach stepped down after 15 seasons that saw the Bulldogs undercompete in the competitive SEC. While Richt was a two-time SEC coach of the Year and helped his teams capture two SEC championships and six Eastern Division titles, he couldn't get a talent-packed squad - that, unfortunately, was often was replete with injury - to win the big one, a national championship.
Perhaps Richt will have better luck with his new team, the University of Miami Hurricanes, who fired Head Coach Al Golden mid-year after he posted only one nine -win season in his five years down South. Perhaps Richt will be the one to rejuvenate a Hurricanes squad that used to dominate in college football and perhaps he will be the one who will make it "All About the U" again.
Moving on to the baseball diamond, the Kansas City Royals were more than intriguing this past year. Despite a paltry payroll, the Royals proved money doesn't matter as they won their second consecutive American League title en route to capturing the World Series pennant for the first time in 30 years.
In contrast, the team with one of the highest payrolls, the Boston Red Sox, were intriguing for a different reason.
Having dwelled in the cellar of the American League East three of the last four seasons, the Red Sox were intriguing more for what they did off the field in the off season than what they did - or didn't as the case may be - do on the diamond.
Last week's signing of David Price to a seven-year $217 million contract, which makes him the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history, should help settle the team's woes as far as pitching rotation goes. It remains to be seen as to whether this move will be a boom or a bust. However, I have two words for any of the naysayers who believe that Price won't be able to deliver in the post season, Randy Johnson.
A player's past is not necessarily an indication of his future productivity, as Johnson can attest to. After years of post season mediocrity, he was finally able to win that elusive World Series Championship with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001. Maybe Price awaits the same fate. Time - and $31 million a year - will tell.
I'm admittedly not a huge NBA fan, but I'd be remiss not to take at least a short trip onto the hardwood and give credit where it's due to a few basketball-related legends and a team that won it all this past summer. First off, congratulations to the Golden State Warriors, the squad that defied the odds and came out as NBA champs, defeating an injury-depleted Cleveland Cavaliers squad, whose leader, LeBron James made a triumphant return to town and almost got the city its first World Championship in any sport since before any of you reading this column were even born. Even without a Championship banner being hung in Northeastern Ohio, 'the King's' return righted a wrong and made fans hopeful that 2016 will, indeed, be the year that a Cleveland-based team wins it all.
And any column on the year in review would be incomplete without honoring Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who announced that he would be retiring from the sport, effective at the end of the season. A five-time NBA champion and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, Bryant became one the true legends of the game in his 20 years in LA and his jersey numbers, both #8 and 24 - not just Number 8 as Shaquille O'Neal has suggested - should be immediately retired upon his leaving the game.
Finally, we take to the ice, where the Chicago Blackhawks have carved out a real dynasty in winning their third Stanley Cup in six years. The Hawks will have a difficult time defending that title in the coming year, as salary cap and free agency issues forced them to lose the services of Brandon Saad, Patrick Sharp, Antoine Vermette, Brad Richards and Kris Versteeg. Still, there's plenty of talent to go around in Chi-Town and the Blackhawks - like the Patriots in the NFL - have proven they can win no matter what the circumstances are. With star right winger Patrick Kane having survived an off-season rape allegation - a charge which was later dropped - and despite, their current just average record, it wouldn't probably be a good idea to bet against them come playoff team next spring.
Down South in Sunrise, Florida, the Panthers look to contend - or at the very least improve - with this year's Calder Memorial Trophy Winner for Best Rookie of the Year, Aaron Ekblad, who looks punishing each time he takes the ice.
And while the New York Islanders have moved to Brooklyn, the change of scenery hasn't affected their chances of eventually returning to the glory days of the early '80s. They remain my sleeper team to do some serious damage in the Stanley Cup playoffs, despite most analysts saying the surging Washington Capitals will be the ones to beat in the Eastern Conference. Once the post season begins, anything can happen, just ask the 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup Champions, the Los Angeles Kings.
As for the other team most chose to contend in the East, the defending Conference Champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, their kudos will have to wait for another day, as an upcoming blog will be devoted exclusively to them.
For now, every player and every team on this list is special for a specific reason. They may not all have had a stellar year - Rex Ryan and the Red Sox come to mind - but all are intriguing and all are worthy for inclusion for their own special reasons.
All have made the past 12 months a little more interesting, a little more intriguing, if you will. And all figure to be players in 2016, as well. Their ultimate fates, of course, like always, are still Under Review.
Until my Christmas Lightning blog, enjoy the holidays and Happy Chanukah!
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