This past year certainly had some memorable moments in the world of sports and gave us some stories that we will never forget.
In 2014, a trend for a great cause took over social media and had current and former athletes from every sport challenging one another. One athlete made a courageous decision and changed the landscape of American sports forever. Some players made choices that transformed them from villain to hero and vice-versa. And others used the sports platform to make sure we knew their names.
In fact, this year was filled with so many huge sports headlines that we had to give honorable mention to a few stories that didn’t make our Top 10 list.
In September, the NCAA announced that it was lifting the Penn State football team’s bowl ban. The Nittany Lions, which incurred several sanctions after the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case, will get scholarships back for the upcoming 2015-16 season. The initial sanctions included a vacation of all Penn State victories from 1998 through 2011; a four-year postseason bowl ban, which started in the 2012-13 season and a four-year reduction in football scholarships that began in 2013.
Several moments from the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi also deserve honorable mention. One being Bode Miller’s emotional final run that earned him a bronze medal and cemented his legacy as one of the greatest Alpine skiers of all time. Another was when Shaun White, one of the greatest snowboarders of all time, narrowly missed the podium placing fourth in the men’s halfpipe. And another that hockey fans enjoyed, was when St. Louis Blues winger T.J. Oshie, helped the men’s U.S. team defeat Russia with his four-of-six shootout performance.
Now, let’s take a look at the sports stories we thought deserved a spot on our 2014 Top 10 list.
image courtesy of Elder Ordonez/INFphoto.com