Looking Back From 2020

Wow, so here we are in the crazy era of 2020!! Man, that Tristan really aged well. What a sexy slab of man that guy still is. It's really depressing, though, that he still has nothing better to do than blog about stuff.

While we're here, let's take a look back through the last decade or so back through to the start-up of IWICQYTB:

1) Tiger Woods bounced back from his tabloid mess and pretty much kept on winning. He made it clear that he felt bad about what had happened, but never gave in to the pricks who wanted him to come and kiss their asses. He ended up passing Nicklaus' Majors record, and while he never regained his standing as a major endorsement figure, the whole scandalous element blew over the way these things always do. He never really turned into the villain, either, he just kept to himself and won a ton of tournaments, basically a golf version of Kobe Bryant.

2) Speaking of Kobe Bryant, he won another championship with the Lake show and Pau Gasol. As Kobe started to fade a little, Gasol became more highly appreciated as a big-time NBA star, even though he never reached the level that Kobe did. Bryant retired as one of the top 10 players of all time, despite having only won 1 MVP. He might have won more, had it not been for....

3) Lebron James and his 4 MVPs, the second of which followed the 2009-2010 season. He remained in Cleveland despite the long discussions that he might leave, ultimately leading the Cavs to a championship in 2011. That title came at the point where Boston and the Lakers had passed their prime and before the beatings of the seasons started to wear James down. In subsequent years James makes it public that Mike Brown, the head coach up until the Championship season, was potentially responsible for messing up years of James' career running clear outs 20 times a night.

4) Albert Pujols retired in 2016 being hailed as one of the great hitters of all time, drawing comparisons to Ruth, Williams, and Dimaggio. He finished with 600 home runs, but more impressively with 5 MVP awards and a staggering 12 seasons voted in the top 5 of the MVP race, none of which are tainted by the steroid scandal of the 2003-2009 era.

5) Alex Rodriguez finishes his career limping to surpass Barry Bonds as the all-time home run leader. He settles into the last 6 seasons with the Yankees as a high-level role player, a preferable situation to the limelight he had previously enjoyed. He ends up at 800 home runs, but never fully regained a strong fan allegiance.

6) Tom Brady and Payton Manning both retired, Brady in 2016 and Manning a year later. They conclude their careers as 2 of the top 5 quarterbacks to play the game (with Montana, Elway, and Johnny Unitas) and with a combined 6 MVP awards and 6 Championships. Inevitably debate rages as to which of the 2 was better, and the opposing views never come to a firm stance. Manning ends up with more MVPs, and Brady more titles. This blog admittedly has a well-known personal preference on the issue.

7) The 2016 Olympics are an enormous debacle, leaving people to wonder how the IOC could have seen Rio as a sufficiently modern and functioning city to host the millions of people traveling to the games. Massive fraud and corruption charges taint every element, leaving the Olympic brand in danger of becoming permanently damaged.

8) The financial issues of the NFL received substantial press but in the end, there is little impact in terms of overall league operation. In 2013 the Jacksonville Jaguars moved to Los Angeles, despite their having made numerous attempts to gain support (namely the drafting of Tim Tebow). The labor dispute lead to a delay in the 2011 training camp schedule and threats of a lockout, but this was resolved without major disruptions in the regular season. The other major change was the development of a pay-per-view system by which fans can watch any game for about $8 per game from the NFL directly. This replaces the less successful NFL Ticket that DirecTV had marketed heavily.


Whew!! What an update over the last few years. It's been a crazy time, but we've sure as hell had a good time of it.