As 2021 comes to a close, we’re granted the opportunity to look back fondly (or not so fondly) on all the insane things that happened in sports this year, from the athlete anti-vax movement to the entire Urban Meyer saga, from the NHL’s near-constant blunders to the NCAA’s unprecedented coaching carousel and the hilarity that accompanied it, and everything in between.
What a trip around the sun!
So as we head into the new year, it’s probably not necessary to take everything from the past year with us. Compiled here is an non-exhaustive list of what’s getting left in 2021, what we’re hoping to see in 2022, and some wild predictions for our favorite headline-makers over the next 365 days. Here’s to another year on this spinning rock in space.
Predictions
- The Atlanta baseball team finally recognizes the error of their ways and changes their name, but to something really dumb and too on-theme like the Bravehearts.
- Aaron Rodgers retires after winning MVP, announces that he’s starting his own libertarian talk show.
- Brian Kelly attends his daughter’s graduation this May at Notre Dame, complains to national media about “cancel culture” after being heckled by students.
- Ben Simmons gets traded to the Sacramento Kings. After six weeks there, a mysterious and unspecified injury keeps him off the court yet again for the remainder of the season.
- Dan Campell’s 2022-23 Lions go 13-4, make the playoffs, lose almost immediately.
- Jackson Mahomes gets arrested on a public nuisance charge or something similar, video leaks of him asking the cops “do you know who I am?” Patrick forced to make a public apology.
- Trevor Lawrence cuts his hair, the world comes to a grinding halt for about three hours.
You’ll notice that baseball is (mostly) conspicuously absent from our look forward at 2022. With the lockout deadline a few months away, we might be leaving baseball in 2021 too.