2024 Recap: A Year of Repeat Champions and New Starts in American Sports
As we say goodbye to the 2024, it was undeniably a great year in American sports for some flagship franchises that added a new championship to their collection, including the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Dodgers.
It was a huge year for the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs officially becoming a dynasty with their third recent Super Bowl win in February in an overtime classic against the 49ers. We also had a very memorable 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris with many great performances by American athletes, and 2024 was the most successful year ever for the WNBA thanks to the arrival of Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark.
Not everything was great though. We’d be better off forgetting that Netflix paid Jake Paul and Mike Tyson millions of dollars for that boxing match. However, their sports documentaries have been solid as Receiver, Starting Five, and even the Aaron Rodgers documentary are worth your time on Netflix, which just streamed live NFL games for the first time ever on Christmas.
But before we move into 2025 with the potential for a Kansas City three-peat, a Boston repeat, and much more, let’s look back at the highlights from American sports in 2024.
Table of Contents
College Football: Harbaugh’s Championship and Hunter’s Heisman
After a controversial season with a suspension and cheating scandal, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh finally won his first major championship by directing the Wolverines to a 15-0 record. They routed Washington 34-13 in January’s championship game for Michigan’s first national championship since 1997.
That concluded a 9-year run for Harbaugh at Michigan before he returned to the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers, who he is already leading back to the playoffs. But Harbaugh wasn’t the only major coach to leave the college game after the 2023 season. Alabama coaching legend Nick Saban also called it a career, and his Crimson Tide finished 9-3 and were left out of the new expanded playoffs in its first year this season.
We’ll see who ultimately wins this year’s championship soon, but the Heisman Trophy race was one of the closest in years with Colorado’s two-way sensation Travis Hunter beating out Boise State’s dominant running back Ashton Jeanty. Hunter is the first defensive player since Charles Woodson (1997) to win the Heisman, but he is of course also a fine wide receiver and won the Fred Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s best wideout too.
Time will tell if Hunter will play corner or wide receiver (or both) in the NFL and if he will be the No. 1 pick in April’s draft.
NFL: Jackpot, Kansas City
We’ve been covering the main NFL storyline for all of 2024: Will the Kansas City Chiefs become the first team to ever win three straight Super Bowls?
In February, they ended the longest drought in NFL history without a repeat champion when they came back to defeat the 49ers in overtime in a 25-22 classic. They are the first team to repeat since the 2003-04 Patriots.
But now the Chiefs are 15-1 and the No. 1 seed, tying the best record ever for a defending champion as they look to make history with three more playoff wins to secure the three-peat in February.
Outside of the Chiefs, the 2024 NFL draft class has also been a huge story this year with a historic that saw 14 offensive players drafted before the first defender, including a record six quarterbacks in the first 12 picks. The quarterbacks, wide receivers, and tight end Brock Bowers have even lived up to or in some cases exceeded the hype. Jayden Daniels is having one of the best seasons ever for a rookie quarterback, and he has Washington with 11 wins for the first time since 1991.
The future looks bright for these rookies, but right now, we are waiting to see if anyone can stop the Chiefs from immortality. Don’t discount someone like Sam Darnold or Baker Mayfield, two cast-offs from the 2018 draft who are having career years, from having their Eli Manning/Nick Foles moment in the postseason.
College Basketball: Familiar Faces, Familiar Results in 2024
Even though there were many upsets throughout the 2023-24 men’s college basketball season, things ended in a familiar fashion. Purdue’s Zach Edey was the AP Player of the Year for the second year in a row, but his team lost in the championship game to UConn, which became the first team since the Florida Gators in 2006-07 to repeat as national champions.
On the women’s side, a very similar thing happened. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark was the Player of the Year for the second year in a row, she broke the NCAA’s all-time scoring record, and she led her team to the championship game once again. But she also lost it for the second year in a row as top-ranked South Carolina completed a perfect 38-0 season under coach Dawn Staley.
But Clark would go on to be the No.1 pick in the WNBA draft and make her mark there in a big way after growing a fanbase in college for her impressive style of play.
WNBA: Caitlin Clark Takes the League to Unseen Heights
The WNBA has existed since the late 1990s, but it never received more attention, drew higher ratings, put more butts in seats, or just mattered as much as it did in 2024. While this riles up some people when you say it, rookie phenom Caitlin Clark is the No. 1 reason for this explosion in interest. People wanted to see the top pick by the Indiana Fever play, and the ratings proved that as they were always the highest for her games even if you had to find them on ION TV.
There was also the rivalry with rookie Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky, which dates back to their college days as competitors, but it was clear to most that Clark was the Rookie of the Year. She set a slew of records, including some career records and all-time records like the most assists in a WNBA game (19).
But while Clark was in the playoffs, it was a short-lived run for her Fever. The WNBA also had a three-peat storyline to follow with A’ja Wilson, the best player in the game, trying to lead the Las Vegas Aces to their third-straight championship. She’s like the Patrick Mahomes of the league. But her team fell in the postseason this time.
The New York Liberty, always a bridesmaid in the past, finally won their first WNBA championship after winning an overtime thriller against the Minnesota Lynx in Game 5 in October.
Expect a lot more WNBA coverage in 2025, especially with rookie Paige Bueckers coming from UConn.
NHL: The Florida Panthers Finish the Job
Two seasons ago, the Florida Panthers made an impressive run to the Stanley Cup Finals before coming up short to the Vegas Golden Knights. But coach Paul Maurice saw his team improve dramatically and return right back to the Cup.
However, the Edmonton Oilers were standing in their way as superstar Connor McDavid finally reached the big show in his ninth season with the team. But like many stars in the past in their first trip to the Stanley Cup, McDavid’s team was humbled, and they trailed 3-0 with a sweep possible.
But after lighting up the Panthers for 18 goals in the next three games, McDavid’s Oilers forced Game 7, the two greatest words in sports. Unfortunately, it played out like many Game 7s do with the home team standing strong in a low-scoring game that Florida won 2-1 to clinch its first-ever Stanley Cup.
NBA: Jayson Tatum’s Turn
The NBA has received some criticism for falling ratings and a lack of great playoff games in recent years. The end of the 2023-24 season saw Nikola Jokic win his third MVP in four years as he hoped to win back-to-back championships for his Denver Nuggets, but they shockingly blew a 20-point lead at home in Game 7 against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards in the second round.
Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks ended up emerging as the Western Conference champions, but they ran into a much stronger Boston Celtics team as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown finally won their first championship together. Brown was actually named the MVP of both the Eastern Conference Finals and Finals, but Tatum won’t mind as he still got a ring and became the highest-paid player in NBA history this summer, surpassing Brown for that record.
But some will say the Celtics are almost boringly dominant as they shoot a record number of 3s and wear you down with great defense. They are favorites to repeat this season, which would be the 19th championship in Boston history. This summer was the team’s first win since 2008.
Another huge story in the NBA this year was LeBron James taking the court with his son Bronny, the Lakers’ second-round draft pick, in the opening game of the season, becoming the first father-son duo to ever play together in an NBA game. We’ll never see that again, and we’ll likely never see another player like LeBron again.
2024 Summer Olympics in Paris: Team USA Basketball’s Last Hurrah?
The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris were a smashing success. You just had to catch the highlights on social media before the Olympics had the posts removed for copyright reasons. But there were many great performances, including Simone Biles’ epic return to gold medal victory to solidify her legacy as the greatest gymnast in US history.
But the highlight for many at the Olympics was Team USA’s basketball team. Sure, they were heavy favorites to win another gold medal, but this year was special since it was the first time Steph Curry played at the Olympics, and it will likely be the last time we see Curry, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant playing at the Olympics given their ages and the way it only happens every four years.
That trio combined for some special moments in the final two games, including the monster comeback win in the semifinals, and then the unbelievable flurry of 3-point shots that Curry made to beat France and Victor Wembanyama in the gold medal game.
Golf: Scottie Scheffler on Top of the World
In golf, no one dominated like Scottie Scheffler in 2024. He won seven events, including The Masters, The Players Championship, and the Tour Championship, totaling $62 million in prize money. He also won a gold medal in Paris.
Pretty impressive for a guy who was also briefly arrested after a misunderstanding at an event this year. Scheffler is in a league of his own right now.
Tennis: American Surge?
While 2024 saw Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner take over as the No. 1 player in the world, it was a very good year for American tennis players, which could be seeing a resurgence. For the first time in 21 years, multiple Americans (men and women) reached the semifinals of a major tournament at the US Open.
Hey, maybe the Zendaya movie Challengers (2024) will spark a whole new legion of tennis players from the US too.
Soccer: Messi and the Galaxy Shine
In 2024, the American men’s national soccer team got a new manager in Argentinian Mauricio Pochettino. But the big headliner on the field in MLS was superstar Lionel Messi, who won the Landon Donovan MVP award in his second season with Inter Miami.
But it was the LA Galaxy who won their record sixth MLS Cup (first since 2014) after defeating the New York Red Bulls 2-1.
Speaking of the Red Bulls, they were part of history on Monday, October 28, 2024 when they lost a game, joining the New York Giants (lost in Pittsburgh on Monday Night Football), New York Yankees (lost Game 3 of the World Series), and New York Knicks (lost a game) to make New York the first metro city to have four major sports teams all lose in the same day.
MLB: Ohtani to the Dodgers and to the World Series
Big contracts were all the rage in MLB in 2024. Before the season started, the Los Angeles Dodgers made headlines when they signed Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani to a record $700 million contract over 10 years to hit for them as he was not healthy enough to pitch in 2024.
The Dodgers were the preseason favorites to win the World Series, and they did not disappoint on that. Neither did Ohtani, who won the NL MVP award after he became the first player to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season. Pretty good after the guy’s career was in jeopardy for a betting scandal that was ultimately blamed on his interpreter, which Pete Rose joked about before his death this year.
Ohtani faced the AL MVP award winner Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees in the World Series, and the Dodgers won in five games with Freddie Freeman taking home MVP honors.
But 2024 was also the final season in Oakland for the Athletics as they will be moving to Las Vegas. They are going to play their home games in Sacramento for the next three years before officially relocating to Vegas in 2028.
It’s always about money, isn’t it? While Ohtani’s $700 million contract was the largest in professional sports, that record didn’t even last a year. Juan Soto just surpassed it with $765 million over the next 15 years to play for the New York Mets.
We’ll see if the Dodgers can edge out another New York team to win another World Series behind Ohtani and their stars.
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