This was a decade of debauchery

By: Matt Lee – The Peak

BURNABY, B.C. (CUP) – It seems like the past decade has come and gone with its fair share of decadence, successes, and scandals. If this decade was any indication, we’re in for another wild ride in the world of sports, so it’s time to count down some of the moments that stood out in the first decade of the 21st century.

1. Steroids in baseball taints the sport’s reputation

It was, without a doubt, the most-talked about story in sport the last decade. No other story became synonymous with a sport quite like steroids and baseball. As fans grew up idolizing Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens, little did they know the ugly truth: steroids were being used and baseball players were far from pure athletes. The story evolved into such a debacle that United States Congress even called baseball players in to testify. As investigators delved deeper into the scandal, it became known that steroids had been used in the sport for decades and league officials, owners, and players did little about it because of the increased popularity of the sport and all the money that was being raked in. Everything baseball embodied was in question.

2. The NHL Lockout

Hockey fans in North America were deprived of professional hockey in 2004-05 due to a labour dispute that cancelled the whole season, the first time one of the four major North American team sports lost an entire season. Players and owners pitted themselves in a fight to the death until the players succumbed to the owners’ demands of a salary cap. Amazingly, salaries are seemingly as high as ever.

3. Patriots fall short of making football history

The NFL’s New England Patriots almost accomplished something done only once in NFL history in 2008: achieve the perfect season. Tom Brady’s crew broke records and steamrolled competition. Seemingly destined for immortality the Pats lost to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl in one of the most memorable championships in history. 18-1 was the worst feeling any sports fan could have and their perfect regular season amounted to nothing.

4. Lance Armstrong beats cancer and everyone else on a bike

Whether you consider cycling a sport or not, Lance Armstrong overcame tremendous odds to dominate his ’sport’ in the past decade. In 1996, the legendary cyclist was diagnosed with cancer and given only a 50 per cent chance of survival. He didn’t just beat cancer, he beat everyone in the Tour de France – seven times in a row (1999 to 2005).

5. Michael Phelps swims into the record books

It takes a rare kind of person to win an Olympic gold medal, but swimmer Michael Phelps won an eye-popping 14 in the 2000s. He won a record-breaking eight gold medals in his eight events in the 2008 Games in Beijing to add to the six he won in 2004. Perhaps his name has been surrounded by the smoke of a certain green plant, but you don’t need to be high to know just how great he was in 2008.

6. Team Canada wins Olympic Gold in 2002

The Team Canada Olympic men’s ice hockey team had gone 50 years without winning the gold but finally reached the top of the podium in Salt Lake City. Burnaby’s Joe Sakic was named the most valuable player and it was the catalyst towards Canada reclaiming worldwide dominance for the next few years.

7. The Lake Show returns to the NBA

The Los Angeles Lakers won more championship titles than any other professional sports team in the decade, registering the elusive “three-peat” after winning in 2000, 2001, and 2002 before winning the NBA Championship once more in 2009. Before their friendship turned sour, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal had the kind of dominance which is so rare in basketball outside of Michael Jordan.

8. Barry Bonds breaks baseball’s most hallowed record

Steroid allegations aside, there’s no denying there was something magical about Barry Bonds’ 2001 season as he shattered the homerun record with 73, doing it in less than 500 at-bats. Just to be clear though, anyone with half a brain knows that any record attached to Bonds comes with an asterisk.

9. Michael Vick goes to the dogs

From 2000 to 2006 when he was with Virginia Tech and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, Michael Vick changed everything that entailed the quarterback position as he was one of the fastest pivots in the game and talented to boot. In 2007, however, Vick pleaded guilty to running a dog-fighting ring and served 23 months in prison. He has since returned to the Philadelphia Eagles but is now on the short leash of football fans.

10. The rise and fall of Tiger Woods

For the majority of the decade, Woods was not just the superstar of golf, but the superstar of sport itself. He won 12 major championships and while dominating his sport, kept a quiet confidence while maintaining a clean reputation. But in the last two months he has taken an indefinite leave from golf, admitted to problems in his personal life, and has been ditched by many of his sponsors. Suddenly this Tiger has earned some pretty bad stripes.