Top Five Fridays: Shocking Sports News

This is my regular feature called Top Five Fridays. Here I'll list some of my favorite things like, Top 5 Ways to Annoy a Michigan Fan or Top 5 Most Overrated Athletes (cough cough, Brett Favre, cough cough)..... Have no fear, we'll get to both those topics in good time. At the end there will also be a section for those that just missed the cut.

I read an article two nights ago about Len Bias that led off with a sentence about how he has now been dead longer than he lived. I honestly didn't realize that it had been 22 years since his death, though I do remember vividly the day I first heard the story. It was shocking in an awful and saddening way that is rarely equaled in the sports world, but it got me to thinking. What are some other stories that truly shocked the sports world (not necessarily in a bad way) in my lifetime?

Now, keep in mind that certain stories were left off this list on purpose because they weren't exactly shocking in the way that I mean. This post's intention is to talk about the things that were really unexpected in every way possible. Some examples of things that don't really count as shocking:

2003 Chicago Cubs collapse – come on, it's the Cubbies. 100 years of futility and you're surprised that they fell apart?
2007 Patriots Spygate – Belichick was one of the worst coaches in the NFL when he was with Cleveland and all of a sudden the man is a genius? Not likely.
Michael Vick's dog fighting scandal – The guy and his brother were both in trouble with the law before, so the only shocking thing was that he didn't use his money to hide it better.
Rampant steroid use in baseball – Sure, we didn't know the extent of the problem, but steroids had been the elephant in the room for well over a decade.

Do you see what I'm getting at? Without further Freddy Adu, here are the...

Top 5 Most Shocking Sports Moments in Sports in My Lifetime

1. The United States Plays Hockey?

It seems that the USA Men's Olympic Hockey team from the 1980 Winter Games should be at the top of many lists, but this is the first time I've managed to squeeze them in. Greatest upset. Greatest moment. Greatest broadcast call. Greatest everything.

Just days before the Olympics started, the young group of American college and amateur hockey players lost to the Soviet Union 10-3 in Madison Square Garden. The same Soviet team beat the NHL All-Stars 6-0 a year earlier. The Soviets outscored their five group play opponents by a combined score of 51-11 despite tough two-goal wins over Finland and Canada. They had won the gold medal in 1956, 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976. They would go on to win gold again in 1984 and 1988.

Not only was it next to impossible to beat the USSR at hockey, it was also the height of the Cold War, and the United States as a whole was in a funk. A couple of months earlier, the USSR invaded Afghanistan, and the United States would boycott the Moscow games later that summer as a result. It was believed that the Soviets might not show in Lake Placid, but they did, and that's when the Miracle on Ice was born.

The Americans trailed 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 in the game. They would tie the score for the third time 8:39 into the final period and Mike Eruzione would score the game-winner with exactly ten minutes to go. That the Americans were even in the game was a shock to everyone except the American players and head coach Herb Brooks. That win was a truly shocking miracle that will never be forgotten.

2. Mellow Johnny
Lance Armstrong was a World Champion cyclist in 1993, three years before being diagnosed with testicular cancer, so we knew the dude could ride. But when he found out about the cancer, the initial thought that went through Lance's head was that he'd never ride again. When it was discovered that the cancer had metastasized to his lungs and brain, it no longer became a matter of winning anything except his life.

Lance's weakness, pre-cancer, was that he was arrogant and didn't take well to the strategy of cycling. After becoming a star triathlete at an early age, he developed a cockiness that had never really been seen before in the endurance sport world. He was too impulsive, and because he was a swimmer, he was also too big to be a stage race cyclist. When he made the switch to professional cycling full-time, he was considered an excellent single-day rider because he was so powerful. Yet nobody believed he would win a stage race like the Tour de France, because his upper body size would be too much to pull through the mountain stages.

The cancer did two things to Lance that actually helped his cycling career. The first was to strip him down of his body mass and turn his frame into a sleek, lean, mountain climber and time trialist. The second was to strip him of his pride…a little bit. He's still cocky as hell, but it's a different kind. Before he was brash and created enemies in the peloton, now he is considered confident and strong-willed.

Living through cancer was a miracle. Getting back on the bike was nothing short of courageous. Winning the Tour de France was unbelievable. Breaking Miguel Indurain's record of five victories by rolling to seven straight is one of the most shocking things in the history of sport, let alone the last thirty years.

3. I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson
The baddest man on the planet in the 1980s was - without question - "Iron" Mike Tyson, and not just because he was arrested 38 times by the age of 13. As a professional boxer, Tyson won 26 of his first 28 fights by knockout including his first 19 straight. Not only that, but 16 of those 26 knockouts came in the first round. He unified the belts and became the undisputed heavyweight champion when he knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds in 1988. His hand speed, coordination, and power intimidated opponents, and along with his defensive abilities led many to suggest that he was the greatest boxer of all time. He became the youngest heavyweight champ ever, and when he later became the youngest ever to lose the belt, it was one of the most shocking things in modern sports.

James "Buster" Douglas was listed as a 42-1 underdog when he fought Mike Tyson on February 11, 1990 in Tokyo and only one Vegas casino was even taking bets because the outcome seemed to be a foregone conclusion. However, the Columbus, Ohio native had a 12-inch reach advantage, and he used that to perfection by enlisting a series of right-handed jabs that kept the champ at bay and caused his eye to swell shut in the 5th round. Instead of his usual strategy of slipping punches and countering, Tyson was looking for the one big knockout swing. He thought he got in the 8th round when he knocked Douglas down with his trademark uppercut. Video shows that Buster was down for 14 seconds, but the referee started his count late, and he was able to get to his feet.

Angry, Tyson came out in the 9th looking for the quick knockout with a massive strike, but was unable to land it as Douglas went back to the jab to keep his distance from the powerful slugger. In the 10th, Douglas dominated early and landed an uppercut of his own, followed by a rapid combination to knock Iron Mike down for the first time in his career. Tyson struggled to his knees and attempted to put his mouthpiece (which had ended up on the canvas) back in, but failed to get up in time. Douglas was the new heavyweight champ.

To emphasize how shocking this knockout really was, don't forget that in his very next fight, Douglas was knocked out in the 3rd round. His opponent on that night in October of 1990 was Evander Holyfield, and afterwards Douglas would immediately retire and balloon up to nearly 400 pounds.

4. Which leads me to my next point kids, don't smoke crack.
At the age of 22, Len Bias was on top of the world. He was the second pick of the 1986 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics after becoming an All-American in college. He grew up in the backyard of the University of Maryland, where he was a star on the court, and was considered the most complete forward to ever come out of college by most experts.

However, on June 19th - less than 48 hours after being selected and signed by the Celtics - Bias suffered a fatal cardiac arrhythmia that resulted from a cocaine overdose. He was partying at an off-campus apartment with some friends and teammates in celebration of his new professional basketball career. At the time of his death, many people claimed it was the only time he'd ever done drugs and the incident sparked a series of anti-drug commercials intended to scare American kids straight. In fact, one common misconception at the time was that crack and cocaine were the same drug. Evidence later pointed out that it was likely not his first experience with drugs, but many still believe it was his only time.

At the memorial service, more than 11,000 people packed the Cole Field House where Bias played for the Terrapins. He was loved and admired, and was a strong and gifted athlete in the prime of his life. Len's death was shocking in a way that would be remembered by people in the same way as tragedies such as JFK and the Challenger shuttle disaster. He's the one that people remember, but only eight days later, the NFL's defensive rookie of the year, Don Rogers of the Cleveland Browns, also died of a cocaine overdose.

5. Great Oden's Raven!
Speaking of the Brownies, it's been ten years now since the reincarnation of what was once considered the New York Yankees of professional football. The Cleveland Browns dominated all four years of the existence of the All-American Football Conference and went on to win three NFL championships in their first six seasons. In the other three seasons, they lost in the title game to the Los Angeles Rams and the Detroit Lions twice. After a few more competitive seasons, including another loss to Detroit in the 1957 NFL Championship, the team was sold to Art Modell in 1961.

After a couple seasons with a better than .500 record, Modell fired Paul Brown, and the Browns went on to win their eighth championship (fourth in the NFL), with a monumental upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in 1964 by the score of 27-0. It would be the last championship for the Browns, the last in Cleveland by any sports team, and ironically, Modell would eventually move the franchise to the city of Baltimore.

After years of saying that he would never move the team out of Cleveland, Modell's patience with the city finally grew thin. The completion of the Gateway Project meant that Municipal Stadium lost one of their primary tenants, the Cleveland Indians. It was Modell who claims to have rescued the city, as they were losing gobs of money with "the mistake on the lake," when he leased the stadium from the city for $1 per year and agreed to absorb all of the costs associated with the aging building. He lost a number of suite holders that left for Jacobs Field when he refused to lower the price on sky boxes at Municipal, despite 81 less home dates per year. The Stadium Corps. and the Browns organization were in heavy debt and Modell officially moved the team after the 1995 season.

Even Pittsburgh owner Wayne Rooney and many Steelers fans protested the move, as they understood the importance of the rivalry and were sad to see the Browns stolen from their city. Baltimore fans weren't ecstatic about the new team either - mostly because of the way it happened. Twelve years earlier, the Colts had literally packed up and moved to Indianapolis in the middle of the night, and their fans felt that Modell was doing the same thing to Clevelanders that Robert Irsay had done to them.


"Juuuuust a bit outside. He tried the corner and missed."

2006 Zinedine Zidane – Zizou was always stoic, a picture of poise and calm on the soccer field - until the World Cup Final against Italy. He was also considered one of the top players in the world. With the match tied at one and nearing the end of a second overtime, Zidane wheeled and snapped a vicious headbutt into defender Marco Materazzi's chest. Materazzi dropped quickly and Zizou was sent off with a red card, a lasting scar on a brilliant career. Italy would win in penalty kicks 5-3.
1985 March Madness – In the first year that the tournament was expanded to 64 teams, eight-seed Villanova shocked the hoops world by knocking off two two-seeds and two one-seeds, including the champion game victory over a dominating Georgetown squad.
1993 AFC Wild Card – The Buffalo Bills trailed 35-3 at halftime to the Houston Oilers and completed the greatest comeback in NFL history with a 41-38 victory on their way to a third consecutive Super Bowl loss. Not only that, but they did it without Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly. Frank Reich, the man who also completed the biggest comeback in college football history as a backup, would be the architect.
2001 Daytona 500 – Nearing the end of the race, Dale Earnhardt was involved in what appeared at the time to be a minor crash by NASCAR standards. Ken Schrader, who collided with Earnhardt, peered into the car after getting out of his own and immediately jumped back and signaled for EMTs. Later that day, the sport of racing lost a legend.
2003 Kobe's Rape Trial – These types of things aren't shocking in sports, especially the NBA, but Bryant was built up as a clean-cut American star by the league and endorsement deals.