You know those long montages that SportsCenter plays at the end of each year that shows all of the previous year's highlights while a song like “Clocks” by Coldplay is in the background? It shows the winning QB of the Super Bowl hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, the last seconds of a huge college football upset, and the winner of the Daytona 500, stuff like that. Then Rick Reilly will have a 10 minute segment talking about the year in review.


“Tiger Woods did this again”, “Tiger did that again.” “Wow! Tiger hitting that 15 foot chip shot from the bunker at Bluepickle Hollow Country Club was better than me hitting a hole-in-one on the 2 foot long, 8th hole at the mini golf course when i was 15!” (Yes Rick, we know you like covering Tiger).


Then he will say, in a nutshell, that the past year was the greatest sports year of all time. But I've been thinking: What is the greatest sports year of all time? Here's how it will go down: I'm going to name a year, name some of it's top sports moments, then give my verdict.


Maybe 2004? Some events were: The LSU-USC double championship controversy, Pats beat the Panthers in the Super Bowl, Peyton's TD record, Greece upsetting Portugal to win UEFA Euro, Ichiro's hit record, Pistons shock the Lakers, Lance Armstrong dominating the Tour de France, Lefty's 1st Masters, the Athens Olympics, oh, and the Sox winning it all (my favorite).
Big sports year. It's definitely up there, but one thing holds it back: the NHL lockout. Does anyone remember that? That was anarchy. ABSOLUTE ANARCHY. It may have been the worst thing that hit the sports world that decade. Just for that alone, 2004 isn't the best sports year.


How about 2001? No, because of 3 letters: XFL. I'm not going to waste space, so Google how bad it was. 1986? No, not enough good games, plus I'm past Buckner and the Refrigerator Perry's TD, even though the Celtics won it all.


Oh, I went off track. I only named 1 or 2 things for all the years after I talked about 2004. My bad.


1980? Now we're getting somewhere. The Miracle on Ice, baby! The Phillies finally win a world series after close to 100 years, the Steelers win the Super Bowl, and Russia (aka the USSR) dominates the Olympics. Actually, pause there. Russia dominates the Olympics? No, no room for that here, 1980 isn't the year. 1996? Possible: Bulls go 72-10, the Atlanta Olympics, Yankees, sadly, winning the World Series. But it lacks the greatness power. All of these years were good but none match up to this year (no not 2010, this next year that I'm going to show in the next paragraph). So the best year is (drum roll).....


It's 2008. I mean if you take a look, it is JAM-PACKED with memories, good and not so good: The LSU Tigers being the 1st NCAA football champions with 2 losses, the Super Bowl that I will not talk about.


Fine I will, but not with joy. It was maybe the best Super Bowl ever, definitely in the top 5. OK, you know the whole thing about that Super Bowl, I don't have to remind you and myself........ fine. Tyree's catch is the greatest ever, and the fact that we came this close to being perfect. Alright, that's it. I promise. Now back to the actual year in review.


One of the top 5 NCAA Championship games ever with the Kansas Jayhawks winning it all (Rock-Chalk-Jayhawk! Sorry, that was needed), Celtics finally winning again, Pacquiao beating De La Hoya, Tiger's clutch US Open win when I liked him, Big Brown and his Triple Crown chase, Red Wings brining a title back to Hockeytown, the best Wimbledon men's finals ever with Nadal finally beating Federer off clay, Danica finally winning a race, Ryan Newman's win at Daytona, the Rays making an incredible run in the MLB, only to lose to the Phillies, oh, and 1 more thing.


THE GREATEST OLYMPIC GAMES IN THE HISTORY O THE OLYMPICS, WINTER OR SUMMER, EVER. None of the Olympics comes close! I could make probably an entire page reviewing these games, but I won't, don't want to bore you. Anyways, a great opening and closing ceremonies, Shawn Johnson and Nastia (Sick Nasty) Liukin, the whole “I'm 10, I MEAN 16, and I'm a Chinese Olympian gymnast!” issue, the Men's volleyball team for the USA after suffering a loss of a murdered team friend, the introduction to BMX, Bolt: that sums up the men's track events, Brian Clay of the USA winning the decathlon, the US shockingly losses to Japan in softball, Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor and US women's basketball continuing Olympic dominance in beach volleyball, the US men's “Redeem Team” and when everybody woke up at 1 AM to watch them dominate Spain in the gold medal game, South Korea pulls off a baseball and gold medal game version of the US “Miracle on Ice” by beating the role of the baseball version of the USSR: Cuba, Bob Costas' hair, and this guy you may have heard of: his name is like Michael Phelps? (and with that question mark, the world's longest run on sentence is finished.) Ya, that guy, the world's best swimmer. He only won 8 gold medals and broke 7 world records, no big deal. Do I make my point?


So there, 2008's highlights can be played over and over again in the sports heavens with “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol in the background. Do you think different? So be it, try to make a better point. But just take a minute and think if anything tops 2008.