Sports in 2022: The good, the bad and the ugly | Opinion

As we say goodbye to another eventful year in sports, let’s look back — fondly or otherwise — at some of the highlights and lowlights of 2022.

Roll the trailer, please: A 37-year-old retiree received an 11th-hour invitation to join the L.A. Rams in the playoffs and won a Super Bowl ring. The Utah Jazz held what looked like a going-out-of-business sale with their roster. Tom Brady retired and, after all the grand sendoffs, the praise, the pats on the back, the congratulations, he unretired 40 days later. Well, that was awkward.

The Pac-12’s flagship schools announced they’re leaving. BYU was victimized by an unproven accusation and then was verbally abused by students at two universities, proving the Left Coast crowd is all about inclusion as long as you think like them. The World Cup was held in the soccer hotbed of Doha, the best host city that bribes can buy. And the LIV golf circuit freaked out the PGA Tour’s good-ol’-boys club.

Let’s get started and dig a little deeper into 2022.

Pants on fire

A Duke volleyball player named Rachel Richardson, who is Black, said she heard  “a very strong and negative racial slur” coming from the student section during a match at BYU. It was like pouring gas on a flame. The condemnation was swift. The national media went right to work fanning the flames, with story after story of the incident, followed by self-righteous commentary. The problem was, there was no evidence it was true. No one else heard the slurs — not even her teammates, and no one in the crowd. In the aftermath, many of the same media outlets that had done so much to inflame the incident were strangely silent. They felt no obligation to correct the record. You got the feeling they were disappointed. Richardson was strangely silent, too.

Inclusiveness for whom?

It was the year everyone continued to talk about “inclusiveness” for all — except when it came to BYU. The Cougars, on the heels of the Duke player’s unproven accusations, were fair game, apparently. During football games against BYU, students at Oregon shouted a vile chant at the school, and the Stanford marching band performed a halftime skit poking fun at the religion that BYU represents. Last year USC students also directed profane chants at their BYU guests. School officials apologized each time, but they don’t really speak for the students.

NFL hypocrisy goes into overdrive

The league suspended Calvin Ridley for the entire season for betting on games, making it clear the NFL does not tolerate gambling. “There is nothing more fundamental to the NFL’s success — and to the reputation of everyone associated with our league — than upholding the integrity of the game,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Fine, this is blatant hypocrisy given the way the league has cozied up to legalized gambling. NBC reported that the NFL has formed lucrative sponsorship deals with “gambling companies, casinos and lotteries,” forming sportsbook partnerships with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars in five-year deals worth nearly $1 billion. NBC also noted that the NFL agreed to “secondary deals’ with BetMGM, WynnBET, Fox Bet and PointsBet.

So Ridley gets a yearlong suspension, but DeShaun Watson originally drew a mere six-game suspension for sexually assaulting at least 25 women (later it was increased to 11 games). Go figure.

The Super comeback

Jason Behnken, Associated Press

Eric Weddle, the former Utes star, was called out of a two-year retirement at the age of 37 by the L.A. Rams to fill in for injured players during the playoffs. It was no token role. In four games he had 10 solo tackles, eight assisted tackles, two sacks, five pass deflections and one interception, and he won the first Super Bowl ring of his 14-year career. It was a story so good that someone should turn it into a movie.

Against all odds

The University of Utah needed four things to happen during the last week of the regular season to advance to the Pac-12 championship game — UCLA had to beat Cal, Utah had to beat Colorado, Oregon State had to upset Oregon and Washington had to win a road game against Washington State. That couldn’t possibly happen, could it? It did. The Utes beat No. 4 USC in the championship game to claim their second consecutive berth in the Rose Bowl.

The fire sale

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

What do you do when your team makes the playoffs — again — and loses in the first round — again? You start over. The team’s fearless GM, Danny Ainge, traded away Bojan Bogdanovic, Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Royce O’Neale and Joe Ingles in exchange for a few veteran players and 11 first-round draft picks spread out over seven years. It was a recipe for tanking this season, but the new Jazz haven’t cooperated.

Wardrobe malfunction

The only thing worse than watching the dismantling of the Jazz was seeing the Jazz trot out their new uniforms. When the team broke out the new duds in the offseason, they were panned. In one poll, 46.9% of fans said of the change, “I hate it.” Can’t you just hear the players’ mothers standing at the locker room door saying, “You’re not wearing THAT, are you?”

Those silly Russians

The Russians continually embarrass themselves, acting the part of a terrible houseguest at major sports events, but the IOC keeps accommodating them. While the Russians were rattling their swords at the Ukrainian border, they were embroiled in an Olympic figure skating controversy in Beijing. Russian’s Kamila Valieva, it was belatedly discovered, had flunked a drug test several weeks before the Games, but was allowed to compete for reasons that the IOC never adequately explained.

None of which should’ve been surprising. Figure skating and the Russians always seem to be in the middle of some scandal. Valieva, the favorite, crumbled under the additional pressure of the drug controversy, and fell on the ice, then was chewed out afterward by her coach. Overhearing this, Valieva’s teammate, Alexandra Trusova, shouted at the coach, “I hate you all, I hate this sport, I hate her (Anna), I will never skate again.” 

Just one big happy family. No wonder Russian skaters tend to retire prematurely.

The bigger question was why Russians were allowed to compete at all. Their years-old, state-sponsored drug program and massive coverup (for more than 1,000 athletes) were well documented by journalists, the World Anti-Doping Agency, whistleblowers and a documentary. As a result, Russia was banned from the next two Olympics. The IOC allowed Russian athletes to compete anyway if they didn’t fly the Russian flag and competed as a neutral team. This was such a silly idea that the Russians themselves must’ve been laughing themselves sick in the back of the room.

Musical chairs redux

Mark J. Terrill, Associated Press

There were more seismic shifts in the college football world. UCLA and USC, the most iconic brands of the Pac-12, announced they’re leaving the conference — their home for a century — to join the Big Ten. This came a year after the Big 12 learned it will lose its most iconic teams, Texas and Oklahoma.

This opened the door for BYU, an independent for 12 years. The Cougars will join the Big 12 July 1, 2023, ready or not — and they don’t appear ready. The football team was 8-5, which includes a win over Utah Tech and a lopsided loss to Liberty. The basketball team so far has lost to Utah Valley (by 15) and South Dakota.

Beam me up, Lincoln

Use of the name, image and likeness rule and the transfer portal continued to grow. The 45-day winter portal window opened Dec. 5. Three days later there were already more than 1,300 football players signed up, hoping to be beamed up by another team.

No one has exploited the rule like USC. When Lincoln Riley traded his head coaching job at Oklahoma for the head coaching job at USC, some 20 players followed him there, including several from Oklahoma, one of them being Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams. USC’s record improved from 4-8 to 11-2 in one year; Oklahoma went from 11-2 to 6-6. Utah got the last laugh, handing USC its only two losses of the year.

It’s easy to criticize the excesses and failures of the portal — for one thing, it gives players freedom of movement that is rightly denied at every other level of sport, and only about half of the players who enter the portal are claimed by another school — but it does create opportunities. After Jalen Hurts was beat out for the starting quarterback job at Alabama by then-freshman Tua Tagovailoa, he transferred to Oklahoma and flourished. He is the leading candidate for MVP honors in the NFL this season.

One for the books

Aaron Judge, the Yankees’ 6-foot-7, 280-pound slugger, broke Roger Maris’ American League record by hitting 62 home runs in one season. Maris’ record was 61 and it endured 61 years.

Sportswashing for 220B, please

On the international stage, countries tried to clean their image by hosting sporting events — you know, like normal countries. None of the international governing organizations cared that those countries had a terrible record for human rights. The IOC gave China the 2022 Winter Olympics bid, even though the country didn’t have —  watchamacallit? — snow. Almost all of the snow had to be human-made. Qatar bribed FIFA to host the World Cup, never mind the complete lack of infrastructure and any kind of soccer pedigree. The country spent $220 billion for infrastructure — about 15 times more than any World Cup in history — though it might have been much more if it hadn’t had cheap (read: slave) labor to build facilities.

Matt Slocum, Associated Press

The Saudis had their own version of sportswashing. They spent $784 million in the first year of their LIV golf experiment, which caused much heartburn for the PGA Tour. The Saudis are losing money, but that’s not what this is about. It’s more sportswashing, a practice that has been underway for a while. China hosted the 2008 Summer Games, Russia hosted the 2014 Winter Games and Doha was host to the 2019 World Track Championships, which were so hot that the marathon had to be held at midnight.

The sports world talks a good game about human rights and various social causes right up until money is involved (ask the NBA).

Move over, LeBron

By winning another NBA title in 2022, Stephen Curry and the Warriors have appeared in six NBA Finals in eight years, winning four of them. That matches the number of titles won by the vainglorious LeBron James, the self-proclaimed “greatest ever,” and Curry didn’t accomplish it by forming all-star teams with his buddies. The Warriors have quietly become a dynasty.

Move over, Yankees

The Houston Astros were universally vilified for cheating their way to the 2017 World Series title with an elaborate system of sign stealing, but it has not slowed them down. They have appeared in four of the last six World Series and won two of them, including the 2022 edition.

Another head case

The NFL has spent years creating concussion protocols and rules to increase player safety, but it all fell apart this season. Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was visibly wobbly and weak-kneed after a hard hit early this season, but all he had to do was claim it was because of his back, not his head, and he was sent back into the game. Four days later he was on the field for another game and left it on a stretcher with his brains scrambled. The NFL was called out for this one by coaches, media and players alike.

Brady botches the ending

When Tom Brady announced his retirement, he was, as George Constanza calls it, going out on a high note. But of course he unretired and now he’s botching the ending, losing games, throwing errant passes and looking half-ticked off and frustrated most of the time. And you thought the endings of “No Country for Old Men” and “La La Land” were all wrong. He should’ve listened to the wisdom of George.

Maybe soccer isn’t so bad after all

The World Cup final between France and Argentina was so good that even Americans might convert to the “the beautiful game.” The incomparable Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe accounted for five goals and two penalty kicks, and after regulation play and extra time (aka overtime in America) and a series of breathtaking near misses at the net, the game was tied 3-3. Argentina won the penalty kick 4-2. It was indeed a beautiful game.

Francisco Seco, Associated Press