Hot Clicks 100: The Best Stories, Tweets and Videos of 2021

100 moments, big and small, that helped define the year in sports.

Every year is a good year to be a sports fan, but 2021 was better than most, primarily because it was the year that stadiums around the world were able to return to full capacity after the crowd-less days of 2020. Vaccines allowed sports fans to gather by the thousands in sold-out arenas to be reminded that there’s nothing better than watching your favorite team in person. 

And those fans were treated to plenty of memorable moments, like Giannis Antetokounmpo's taking over the NBA playoffs and leading the Bucks to their first title in 50 years, Major League Baseball playing a game in the middle of an Iowa cornfield, and Tom Brady winning his seventh Super Bowl (and then enjoying himself a little too much in the ensuing parade). 

I was lucky enough to witness some great moments myself, like a thrilling ninth inning in my first Yankees game since 2019 and AEW’s electric Grand Slam show at Arthur Ashe Stadium. I was also fortunate to cover everything from the year in sports in my daily column, Hot Clicks. 

For the third year in a row, I’ve gone through every edition of Hot Clicks to pull out my 100 favorite stories, videos, tweets and photos of the year to compile a list of things that defined sports this year. (They’re not listed in any particular order, but they are numbered to prove there’s actually 100 of them.)

100. FAU’s Caleb Pendleton started his college career with a bang

99. Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota played the longest game in NCAA men’s hockey tournament history (nine minutes shorter than a 2015 conference tournament game, though).

98. A cricketer got hit in the crotch on consecutive plays

97. Missouri State’s Siale Suliafu refused to go down on a kick return

96. The Kraken scored their first goal in franchise history

95. D.K. Metcalf ran the 100 meters in a pro track meet

94. 18-year-old Anthony Neuer became the fourth bowler to convert a 7–10 split on television, and the first in 30 years

93. Wrestler Gable Steveson celebrated his NCAA national championship and Olympic gold medal with backflips

92. The Kings’ AHL affiliate played the first all-Black line in a pro hockey game since the ’40s.

91. Wilmer Difo won a game for Triple A Indianapolis with some tricky baserunning

90. The coach of Bishop Sycamore said that it is “not a school.”

89. Dick Vitale made his emotional return to broadcasting after a cancer diagnosis

88. Aaron Rodgers told the Soldier Field crowd “I still own you”

87. Miami fans caught a cat falling from the upper deck

86. Miloš Teodosić pulled an AND1 mixtape move in a real game

85. Karl-Anthony Towns revealed his odd pregame routine

84. Colts running back Nyheim Hines said he tells himself “I don’t care about my life” before every punt return

83. A high school linebacker intercepted a pitch to the running back

82. Giannis had an iconic block in the Finals

81. Haiti’s Josué Duverger surrendered an all-time bad own goal

80. This video of Brooks Koepka being annoyed with Bryson DeChambeau went viral

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Breezy Golf (@breezygolf)

79. Yankees fans finally got to yell at the Astros in person

78. Tom Brady had one too many during the Bucs’ Super Bowl parade

77. This Swiss soccer fan experienced the entire range of human emotion in two minutes

76. Rob Refsnyder gave us a classic blooper

75. A terrible missed call sent the UConn women to their 13th straight Final Four

74. Kirk Cousins floated the idea of enveloping himself in plexiglass rather than getting the vaccine

73. Trevon Diggs’s son couldn’t wrap his head around meeting Dak Prescott

72. The Ravens’ defensive coordinator gave an amazing scouting report on Justin Herbert

71. Derrick Henry zipped through the defense on a long touchdown, reaching the top speed of any ball carrier to that point in the season

70. Jorge Soler hit a home run all the way out of Minute Maid Park that was retrieved by a fan across the street

69. Diamondbacks rookie Tyler Gilbert threw a no-hitter in his first MLB start, and his dad was overcome with emotion

68. Courtney Vandersloot had no idea she had a triple double until her postgame interview

67. Charlie Morton kept pitching on what turned out to be a broken leg

66. Saquon Barkley made a ridiculous one-handed catch

65. So did Daniel Jones

64. There were some amazing goals in soccer’s lower levels

63. Yankees announcer John Sterling got confused broadcasting a road game off of a monitor and called a replay of a home run

62. Deandre Ayton had an amazing game-winning alley-oop that looked even cooler from a fan’s perspective

@beaumontroth

❄️❄️❄️ #deandreayton #suns #sunsin4

♬ original sound - Beau Roth

61. Yermín Mercedes hit a homer on a 3–0 pitch against a position player, and his manager was not happy about it

60. Ben Simmons passed up an open dunk in the final minutes of a Game 7

59. The Pirates made a stunning defensive blunder

58. Max Scherzer shook his manager’s hand instead of giving up the ball in the wild-card game, and then gave a great postgame interview

57. NASCAR driver Daniel Suárez threw up in his helmet and kept driving

56. Gronk figured out how to skate on virtual workouts

55. One of the survivors of the 2016 Chapecoense plane crash led the team to the championship of Brazil’s second division, bringing the club back to the top tier. A month later, an aviation technician who survived the crash survived a bus crash that killed two dozen people in Bolivia.

54. Lonnie Walker was taken aback by this melodramatic graphic about his minor injury

53. Kyle Shanahan got existential when asked about his quarterback situation

52. Nikola Jokić was seen kicking it old school in his native Serbia after getting bounced from the playoffs

51. Rays outfielder Brett Phillips had a blast when called upon to pitch

50. A Paralympian was proposed to by her guide runner after a race

49. Randy Arozarena stole home in the World Series

48. Carson Wentz threw a baffling interception

47. Virginia’s Stephen Schoch gave a fantastic interview about Dippin’ Dots

46. Tom Brady had everyone guessing who was the “motherf---er” he was talking about

45. A ball girl at Dodger Stadium took down a fan running on the field

44. And Sam Kerr leveled a guy in a similar situation

43. Jaguars defensive lineman delivered his own baby daughter in his living room

42. Julio Jones made an absurd catch off of a deflection

41. The Jets and their fans were briefly enamored with backup quarterback Mike White

40. England fans stormed into Wembley Stadium for the final of the European Championship

39. Liam Hendriks thought his microphone was broken and treated America to plenty of cursing

38. People were (wrongly) convinced that the cardboard beds in the Olympic Village were to prevent athletes from having sex

37. Pitchers had some funny reactions to getting checked for foreign substances for the first time

36. Giants minor leaguer Drew Robinson hit his first home run since losing an eye in a suicide attempt

35. The Oklahoma softball team hit 13 home runs in a game that was called after five innings

34. Trey Mancini got a warm welcome in his first appearance since being diagnosed with cancer

33. 14-year-old Zhang Ziyu’s highlight reel went viral

32. A starstruck opponent handed his baby to Lionel Messi for a photo after a game

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 𝘼 𝙣 𝙖 𝙍 𝙖 𝙟 𝙠 𝙤 𝙫 𝙞 𝙘 (@rajkovic__ana)

31. Gus Johnson was thankfully on the call for a 109-yard field goal return

30. Tony Hawk did a 720 for the last time

29. 12-year-old Gui Khury became the first person to land a 1080 on vert in competition

28. Giannis took forever shooting his free throws

27. ESPN fell for a fake Adam Schefter Twitter account

26. Erik Lamela scored a beautiful Rabona goal

25. Norman Powell lined up with the Raptors in his first game after being traded

24. Texans coach David Culley made a really stupid fourth-down decision

23. Robin Lopez made a good joke about doing his “own research”

22. Dolphins lineman Robert Hunt caught a screen pass and rumbled to the end zone

21. Dan Campbell set the tone early in his introductory press conference

20. Tom Brady got a mixed reception in his return to Foxboro

19. Giants first baseman Darin Ruf pointed out the irony of his team’s season ending on a bad check swing call

18. Canada’s Blayre Turnbull was injured celebrating the world championship and rejoined the festivities on a stretcher

17. Ronald Acuña Jr. beat out a routine grounder to shortstop

16. The Rangers got their revenge on Tom Wilson after he punched Pavel Buchnevich in the back of the head

15. Shaq went through a table on AEW Dynamite

14. Bo Bichette hit a home run that landed where his parents met

13. Mike Evans didn’t know that he gave away the ball from Tom Brady’s 600th touchdown pass

12. South Dakota State ran a slick fake QB sneak

11. NHL ref Tim Peel got fired after getting caught saying he “wanted” to call a penalty

10. Josh Imatorbhebhe posted a ridiculous vertical at his pro day

9. Villanova’s Daniel Smith threw a touchdown pass that boggled the mid

8. Chase Claypool celebrated a first down with the clock ticking down

7. Kansas walk-on Jared Casey’s family had a great reaction to his game-winning catch against Texas

6. Jalen Suggs hit an incredible buzzer beater in the Final Four

5. Tim Anderson hit an epic walk-off homer in the Field of Dreams game 

4. Trae Young had his villain moment at the Garden

3. Texas’s special teams coach was linked to a strange story about a pet monkey

2. Patrick Mahomes made two preposterous throws on back-to-back plays

1. Brian Kelly suddenly adopted a Southern accent