A taped broadcast of the the 2008 USA Rock Paper Scissors Championship airs tonight on Fox Sports Net (check your local listings). Broadcasting renaissance man Master Roshambollah to provide commentary. (via Deuce of Davenport.)
You don’t have to be getting hit over the head with news alerts to realize that tomorrow the House will reconvene to try to reach a solution, for better or worse, concerning the financial bailout proposal. Thus, I thought it appropriate to recall some of the great bailouts in sports history.
My personal contribution is Drew Bledsoe coming off the bench, after losing his starting job to a then injured Tom Brady, and leading the Patriots to victory in the 2001 AFC Championship Game, only to be relegated back to the bench for the Super Bowl.
I tasked some of the sports blogosphere to come up with other great bailouts in sports history. Here are the top-3, and many other below…
1.) The Tackle
Courtesy of Melfi, NYHoosier.com, a Colts fan who had the pleasure of experiencing this game on ESPN Gamecast. Here’s a rather indulgent video of the play. The anguish of a Colts fan having to follow that game on ESPN.com, with the 18-minute delay time and the kind-of-moving football dot, warms my heart. It’s the little things that get us through these tough economic times.
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2.) The 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals
James Christensen, from NEPatriotsDraft.com, was the first to suggest this, but his sentiments were wildly echoed by others for this one…
Isaac, from World of Isaac, gets the nod for sending in the clip of the no-call that only the most entitled of Wall Streets’ out-of-work millionaire CEOs could defend…
My buddy Derek, who’s the biggest hockey fan I know, gets a shout out for this one…
The Pittsburgh Penguins were bankrupt, and on the verge of leaving the city, when the franchise’s most storied player bought the team. In a deal that had to be approved by the Federal Government, Lemieux assumed control of the team in 1996, and vowed to keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh. Also, as part of the deal, he agreed to pay back the close to $100 million owed to creditors.
Apparently, most of that debt has been paid back. And with the addition of Sydney Crosby (who lived in Lemiuex’s house when he first joined the team), the Penguins are now selling out games left and right, and moving towards the black.
This is a bailout backers of the Bush’s plan would like you to remember, simply, because it’s worked. However, as things shake out in the financial world over the next couple days, I ask that you also keep Drew Bledsoe in mind taxpayers – he was asked to step up when Brady went down, and then discarded with near immediacy.
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The sports blogosphere’s most distinguished statesmen stepped up with some other great examples, so here are all the honorable mentions…
A big bailout? How about MLB relocating the Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C. and christening them the Nationals? Jeffery Loria sold the Expos to MLB for $120 million, and a few years later, MLB sold the team to the Lerner family for over $500 million. Add to that, Washington, D.C. threw in a $611 million stadium with very little ownership equity. (Maury Brown, President of Business of Sports Networks, BizofBaseball.com)
The NBA stopping the Cavaliers from themselves in the early 1980s, preventing them from continuing to trade away consecutive first round picks for past-prime talent. (Kelly Dwyer, Balls Don’t Lie)
How ’bout Jeff Hostetler coming in for an injured Phil Simms (foot), winning the last 2 games of the season and the Super Bowl XXV (Chimpanzee Rage, Deuce of Davenport)
George Steinbrenner bails out the Red Sox by signing A-rod (Jodie Boduch, GossipOnSports.com)
Gretzky saving hockey any place West of Detroit (Ethan Jaynes, NESWsports.com)
Kevin McHale bailing out his buddy Danny Ainge by trading KG to the Celts (The Sports Culture)
Ray Lewis NOT Convicted of Murder (Trey Kirby, TheBlowtorch.net)
Ed Hochuli coming to the rescue of the Denver Broncos in Week 2 this season. (Ryan Phillips, Rumors & Rants)
Throw your personal favorite sports bailouts in the comments below!
