As we enter a new year, once more we find ourselves having just completed what has proven to be a tumultuous twelve months.  Unfortunately like 2022, this past year had more “downs” than “ups.” But the difference is this year, the “downs” aren’t nearly as ominous (for the most part), and the “ups” offer far more hope.

Having said that, here’s the 15 stories we here at Dubsism feel define the year in sports that was 2023.

15) LeBron James Becomes The NBA’s All-Time Leading Scorer

While the National Basketball Association (NBA) is still nosing out the National Football League (NFL) in terms of actively making it’s product unwatchable, the fact remains that it isn’t everyday somebody becomes the all-time leader in a “major” category. Nobody loves the “greatest of all time” debate more than NBA fans; this puts another big log on the fire for the LeBron-o-philes.

14) The Pat Fitzgerald And Mel Tucker Situations

The athletic programs at Northwestern and Michigan State are at respective cross-roads, and while they are heading in opposite directions, the quagmires surrounding their respective former football coaches both stink of “swamp” politics.

In the case of Michigan State, that program has been drowning in an unseemly morass ever since the Larry Nassar/USA Gymnastics scandal. It always felt wrong when Michigan State hired Mel Tucker; go find something in his career before coming to East Lansing that said this guy was worth $95 million. Less than two years later, after a serious case of “buyer’s remorse” set in, Tucker got fired for a story which has some serious holes in it. But to be fair, those holes match those in Tucker’s version of the story. In short, I don’t trust anybody anymore if they are connected to the Michigan State athletic department.

Down the road at Northwestern, another story with some credibility was used as a “hit” job on the athletic department. Everybody forgets the baseball coach also resigned; nobody knew who he was. But by connecting Pat Fitzgerald to this mess, now the scandal has a face and a name. We can argue the merits of the case against Fitzgerald all day long, but the thing that this feel like a “hit” on the athletic department is why did one of the biggest demands from those who filed the lawsuit against Northwestern involve an immediate halt to the construction of the new $800 million athletics facility. Please explain to me what that could possibly have to do with ending “hazing?”

What’s not debatable is both Fitzgerald and Tucker are fighting back in court. That’s a big step as there no such thing as keeping anything quiet once it gets into a courtroom. There’s no way we’ve heard the last of this saga.

13) The Impending Relocation Of The Oakland A’s

Baseball went through an unprecedented wave of franchise relocation between 1953 and 1970, but since then it has been the most stable of the “big four” sports leagues. Since then, there have only been two MLB team change cities, The Washington Senators moved to Texas in 1972 becoming the Rangers, and the Montreal Expos replaced them in D.C. in 2005 as the Nationals. In contrast, each of the three football franchise that at one time called Los Angeles home have each moved more than that.

Now with the Oakland A’s relocation to Las Vegas all but official, could there be another wave of moving coming for baseball? The Baltimore Orioles just inked a 30-year lease on Camden Yards, but there are teams like the Tampa Rays, the Chicago White Sox, and all making noises about new ballparks, and cities like Montreal, Salt Lake City, and Nashville with investment groups talking about major league baseball and/or have plans drawn to build new parks.

12) The Merger Between The NFL And TMZ

Whether you want to admit or not, no matter what happens with America’s 21st-centurty version of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, we all just watched the official marriage of the NFL and “tabloid” entertainment. Up until three months ago, the only time you saw the NFL in those supermarket-checkout line rags was if the initials “O.J.” were involved, and the only time NFL fans cared about somebody like Taylor Swift was if they were the Super Bowl halftime show.

That was the “peanut butter meets chocolate” moment for the NFL and the TMZs of the world. Once the “Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift” thing red-lined ratings and clicks numbers across the universe, you can expect at least one of these every year. You can pencil in the yearly “who is the power-couple going to be?” discussion right now and put it right up there with “who is going to be on the Madden cover?” and “who will be the Super Bowl halftime show?”

Speaking of the halftime show, Has Taylor swift done that yet? I wouldn’t know since haven’t watched one since everybody freaked out over Janet Jackson’s nipple.

11) It’s Time To Admit The New York Jets Are Cursed

Let’s all take a deep breath and say it all together…shit like this only happens to the New York Jets. Every year, this team finds another way to fall on it’s collective face. If you’re a Jets fans or have one near and dear, you know the list. You’ve heard that Jet fan bemoan every thing from the very first Monday Night Football game in Cleveland to last Monday’s debacle against the Browns.

But to watch Jets’ fans take the roller-coaster that was 2023 had to get to your own gut. I’ve never seen the scenes of Super Bowl dreams swirl down the bowls of half the toilets in the Tri-State Area faster than the snap of a single Achilles’ tendon.

Maybe that could be another one of those annual question we just mentioned…”How will the Jets blow it this year?”

10) Jim Harbaugh And Sign Stealing

If there were a Dubsy award for the stupidest story, this would certainly be a contender. Think about it. In a world as competitive as that of “big-time” college football, how can anybody not understand that if you’re using any sort of signaling system, somebody might try to crack your code?

How far up your own ass does your head need to be to believe that just because there’s a rule against something, somebody won’t do it anyway…especially if it offers a competitive edge? Face it, burglary is illegal, but people still buy home security systems.

Let’s be even more honest. Jim Harbaugh was accused of doing something everybody does…everybody. In other words, this is all about some hypocritical “holier than thou” finger-pointers who are pissed off that Harbaugh is proving to be better than they are…both on and off the field.

After all, nobody wants to admit they got schooled by Screech’s cousin…

9) The Face-Plant Of U.S. Women’s Soccer

Some aren’t going to like this, but when a team needs apologists, they fucked up. I’m not getting into the whole “anthem protest/equal pay” thing. The bottom line is when you do a lot of talking, you have to back it up.

The USWNT didn’t. It’s that simple.

The apologists for this team will point out their 14-0-4 in all competitions in 2023, but it was one of those draws that marked the face-plant. The U.S. women’s soccer team is a dynasty of unmatched proportions, not even the New York Yankees can claim such a dominant history. But there’s another recent dynasty which marks the perfect comparison. Mention the 2007 New England Patriots, and nobody brings up their 18-0 record heading into the Super Bowl.

That’s because the only thing anybody remembers is the loss on the big stage. When a team is heavily expected win the “big” game and they don’t deliver, fair or not it’s considered a failure. When your star player shanks a penalty kick for an early exit from the World Cup, nobody cares about the record that got them there.

8 ) The NFL Continues It’s Attempt At A “Global” Market

First it was England, then Germany…coming soon is Brazil. Does the NFL really believe it can grow the game in countries like these? Maybe. Does the NFL want to create more 9 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) kick-offs? Damn right they do.

The reason…and the true purpose…for creating another broadcast window on Sunday is to carve off another slice of the NFL pie to offer to streaming services. As the world exists today, the NFL is not quite ready to abandon the gargantuan coffers of the traditional over-the-air/basic cable networks. That why we are nowhere near the Sunday 4:25 p.m. ET or the 8:20 p.m. ET windows going exclusively to a streamer. That’s what Thursday night is for. If you can sell that, why not create another lower viewership window with early Sunday games from (insert different time zone here) for the same reason?

7) Coach “Prime:” The Rise Of “Deion Sanders The Brand”

In December 2022, The University of Colorado thought they were merely tossing a pebble into the pond of the college football world when they hired Deion Sanders to be their head football coach. Little did they know it was a boulder they dropped in Boulder, and instead of a few ripples, Deion Sanders would ride the crest of the resultant tsunami all the way to winning the Sportsperson of the Year award from Sports Illustrated.

The Buffaloes stampeded on to the scene with a win over then-ranked #10 TCU. ”Deion-mania” only grew as Colorado continued winning; they started the season 3-0. That early success generated enough momentum to propel the rise of “Deion Sanders The Brand.”

While Colorado lost eight of it’s last nine, that didn’t keep Coach “Prime” from cashing in on his own Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal. He’s already selling you stuff ranging from supplemental insurance to California almonds, and we all know there’s more to come.

6) Baseball: Bigger Bases, Bigger Ratings?

Hi…my name is J-Dub, and I’m a baseball “purist.” But I’m also able to admit when I wrong. The changes MLB made for 2023 worked…despite what I thought of them. The pitch clock shortened games and picked up the pace of play. The importance of the stolen base is back as part of more action in the infield in general. A long time ago I resigned myself to the inevitability of the universal designated hitter And despite the World Series getting low ratings thanks largely to the absence of one of the big baseball markets, regular season television ratings were up 7%.

While I still think Commissioner Rob Manfred is a boob, I have to give credit where credit is due. His goofy ideas worked, and I can’t argue with success.

5) The PGA-LIV Golf Merger

The words that changed golf forever…

“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love. This transformational partnership recognizes the immeasurable strength of the PGA Tour’s history, legacy and pro-competitive model and combines with it the DP World Tour and LIV — including the team golf concept — to create an organization that will benefit golf’s players, commercial and charitable partners and fans.”

~ PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan

If Baseball is the Catholic Church of sports in terms of it’s slavish idolatry of traditions and it’s deliberately glacial approach to change, then Golf is the Episcopalians. They’re just Catholics who were the first to abandon Latin.

Ironically, it was King Henry VIII desire to divorce which was the genesis of the Church of England, the Episcopalians of sports are going to transform their world fundamentally with a marriage that nobody thought was possible, but the prescient knew was necessary.

The boom days of professional golf ended with Tiger Woods’ exit from his peak years. Once the game didn’t have his galactic star power driving it’s revenues, things began to stagnate. That’s why the draw of LIV’s rivers of cash were too much for the games young starts to pass up. With a product in need of updating and a drain of young talent, the powers-that-be in the PGA understood a stubborn adherence to the way things were was a recipe for a slow suicide.

So, like Rob Manfred in Baseball, Commissioner Monahan had to break away from his “purists.” Only time will tell if he will enjoy Manfred’s level of success.

4) The College Football Map Changes Yet Again…

From the day the four-team College Football Play-off was invented, it seemed self-evident that model was based on having four “power” conferences. Ten years ago, it looked as though the Big 12 would be the one to dissolve. But to show how much times changes, it was Pac-12 that faded into extinction.

But don’t think this marks the “Final Four.” There’s more jockeying to come; eventually I think the top-level of college football will be ruled by two mega-conferences. There’s already a major power imbalance between amongst the four…which is already nearly the Big Two and the Little Two.

3) Three Harbingers Of Doom For Sports Media

Thanks to it’s own fumble-fuckery, more Americans distrust the media now than at any other time in our history. Sports media is no different, and they are suffering the same fate. 2023 saw outlets across the sports media-verse having to pare operating expenses as they continue to find ways to lose money is a sports world that is expanding every day. Nobody was immune to the cuts of the budgetary blade; cuts went across the spectrum from the New York Times and ESPN to the NFL Network and Barstool Sports.

On top of all that, there’s three things that also happened in 2023 that do not bode well for the future of sports media in America.

• The New York Times disbanded it’s sports department; abandoning all sports coverage by funneling it all into The Athletic, a website it obtained in 2022 for $550 million.
• The bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group and it’s lawsuit against it’s parent company Sinclair Sports Group. Diamond owns the 19 Bally’s regional sports networks, over which the vast majority of local sports is broadcast.
• The Washington Post is leading the charge to bring Artificial Intelligence into the sports media world…and the results are what you might expect.

Do a little homework on those three topics, digest what you find, and draw your own conclusions. I think we can all agree they aren’t good.

2) The Knicks-Raptors Lawsuit

In yet another indicator of what a clown show the NBA has become under Commissioner Nosferatu Adam Silver, this league now has two of it’s franchises suing each other. 

Without getting into all the “whereas” and “where to fores” (you can do that here), this is basically a tale of corporate espionage; “sign stealing” taken to a whole new level. In short, the New York Knicks allege that their former employee Ikechukwu Azotam took a dossier of internal documents along with him when he was hired by the Toronto Raptors.

In his capacity as a assistant video coordinator, then as a director of video/analytics/player development, assistant, Azotam had access to lots of stuff the Knicks considered confidential, such as video scouting reports, research files on opposing teams, and detailed information about plays run by other teams. The Knicks allege Azotam took over 3,000 such files along with him to Toronto. Naturally, the Raptors denied such chicanery, but the Knicks doubled-down on the accusation by stating publicly they believed Azotam’s espionage was part of a plot directed by Raptors’ head coach Darko Rajaković.

This matter is still winding it’s way through the courts and while the snowstorm of legal briefs is accumulating an impressive depth, there’s one thing which is crystal-clear. Commissioner Nosferatu has found himself in yet another situation he has no idea how to handle.

1) The Death Of Adam Johnson

To be honest, before this tragedy, I didn’t even know England had a professional hockey league. But what really matters here (besides the obvious) is that while the NFL does all of it’s meaningless fumfering about “player safety,” there are other sports with serious issues as well. I’m not one of those “Polly-Annas” who think we can separate sports form their gladiatorial nature, but we must also not forget that it was a death in the ring that ended boxing’s popularity.

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