Thursday, January 9, 2014

Water Cooler Talk: Top 5 Sports Pictures of 2013


 
It is always fun to look back at the past year and remember all of the great moments in sports.  We enjoyed seeing new champions, records being broken and amazing games and plays.  Most of these moments are captured in unforgettable pictures.  These pictures help us to immortalize certain athletes, teams and plays.  In no particular order, I am going to show you my top five favorite pictures from 2013.

 
At the start of 2013, Alabama had just won their second consecutive national championship and third in four years.  They had started the season undefeated and were attempting a game winning field goal to beat their rival, Auburn.  This field goal was short and allowed Chris Davis to return it 100 yards for a touchdown.  This ended Alabama’s pursuit for another title and helped push Auburn into the BCS title game.  The picture I chose shows how close the Alabama player was from forcing overtime.
 

This year we saw something in UFC that we had never seen before, Anderson Silva lost.  The greatest fighter of all time was knocked out by Chris Weidman.  Personally, I hated seeing this.  Silva is my favorite fighter of all time.  I loved his fighting style but in this fight he was too cocky and it caused him to get knocked out.  Everyone could not wait for the rematch of these two fighters.  Unfortunately, that fight ended in a worse way for Silva fans.  I will not post the picture of Silva’s leg after that fight and save everyone from having to see that gruesome leg injury.  Hopefully in 2014 Silva will have a quick recovery and maybe fight again before the year is over.
 

This picture is pretty awesome for anyone that isn’t a Michigan fan.  Louisville is celebrating their Final Four victory as Trey Burke walks off the court for the last time as a Wolverine.  The Louisville team was able to rally around losing Kevin Ware in the previous game against Duke.  This motivation helped them to win the national championship and win a bet with Rick Pitino that made him have to get a tattoo.    

In my top 5, I had to choose one image that was funny.  There were a lot to pick from this year but this moment may be my favorite.  Chad Qualls of the Miami Marlins celebrated an inning ending strikeout with a ferocious that caused him to lose his balance and fall flat on his face.  This moment is much better as a video but the picture can still do it justice.  It also summarizes the Marlins season; Even the best moments end up ending in disaster.  To anyone that is reading this and is a Marlins fan, I am sorry but at least you finished eleven games better than the Houston Astros.
 


  In April, the city of Boston experienced a terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon.  This was an awful experience for the people in the city to have to live through.  In the following months, the whole country support Boston and the “Boston Strong” slogan was born.  The Red Sox were not only able to overcome this tragedy but bounce back from a very disappointing 2012 season.  There are so many images I could have chosen of the Red Sox’s magical playoff run.  Some that come to mind include David Ortiz’s grand slam in Game 2, Shane Victorino’s double off the wall in Game 6, or something from the victory parade through the city.  Instead I chose this image which I believe better sums up everything entirely in Boston.  
 
These were my favorite images from the past year.  They are some of the biggest moments for each of the teams involved and then one not so great moment.  These images help us to remember how great of a year it was in sports.  2014 has started out great with the BCS Championship Game but has to produce a lot of amazing moments to top 2013.     
 
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Greg Monforte is a Drexel University Sport Management pre-junior from South Jersey.  Currently he works at Not Just Pizza in Sicklerville, NJ and Daddis Fight Camps in Philadelphia where he has social media and marketing responsibilities.  Greg is also the SMTSU Director of Marketing & Outreach.  Follow Greg on Twitter @Greg_Monforte.

Connect with Greg Monforte on LinkedIn.

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