Top 5 lists: Sports
9 lists
Top 5 Sports That Are Weirdly Perfect When You Don't Care Who Wins
Sports where you can have no team and no clue about the rules and still lose your whole afternoon to the couch.
1–3: PDC World Darts Championship — Alexandra Palace · Tour de France · Sumo — Grand Sumo Tournaments
Top 5 Stadium Traditions Worth the Ticket Price Alone
Rituals so good you'd show up even if the home team was guaranteed to lose.
1–3: "You'll Never Walk Alone" at Anfield — Liverpool FC · "Jump Around" at Camp Randall — Wisconsin Badgers · The Lambeau Leap — Green Bay Packers
Top 5 Sports Mascots More Unhinged Than the Fans
The costumed chaos agents who make you wonder whether anyone in the front office ever approved the script.
1–3: Gritty — Philadelphia Flyers · Phillie Phanatic — Philadelphia Phillies · Benny the Bull — Chicago Bulls
Top 5 Athlete Retirements That Still Feel Way Too Early
They walked away near their peak, and fans are still quietly doing the math on what could have been.
1–3: Barry Sanders — Detroit Lions, 1999 · Andrew Luck — Indianapolis Colts, 2019 · Björn Borg — Tennis, 1983
Top 5 Play-by-Play Calls You Can Still Recite Word for Word
Broadcast moments so perfect that the call gets remembered right alongside the play, and sometimes beats it.
1–3: "The Giants win the pennant!" — Russ Hodges, 1951 · "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" — Al Michaels, 1980 · "The impossible has happened." — Vin Scully, 1988
Top 5 Sports Rivalries That Are Still Deeply Personal
Matchups where the fans hold grudges older than the players and nobody calls it 'just a game.'
1–3: El Clásico — Real Madrid vs. Barcelona · The Old Firm — Celtic vs. Rangers · The Game — Ohio State vs. Michigan
Top 5 Underdog Wins That Still Give You Goosebumps
Upsets so unlikely that even people who don't follow the sport still get a little misty about them.
1–3: Miracle on Ice — USA vs. USSR, 1980 Winter Olympics · Leicester City Win the Premier League, 2015–16 · Buster Douglas Knocks Out Mike Tyson, 1990
Top 5 Rec League Sports for People Whose Knees Have Opinions
Low-impact, high-banter sports for adults who want to compete on weeknights without an ice pack waiting at home.
1–3: Disc Golf · Curling · Bowling
Top 5 Sports Documentaries for People Who Don't Watch Sports
You don't need to know the rules to get hooked on obsession, rivalry and a few people pushing far past what seems sensible.
1–3: Senna — Asif Kapadia · Free Solo — Jimmy Chin & Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi · Hoop Dreams — Steve James