From Janet Jackson to Maradona, most shocking sports moments

Over the years there have been numerous incidents in sports that completely floored us, from an untimely death, to a gruesome injury, to a stunning upset, to the simply bizarre.

Many of these moments have become universal experiences, memories shared by sports fans everywhere.

 

Janet Jackson Wardrobe Malfunction

Super Bowl XXXVIII, which was broadcast live on February 1, 2004 from Houston, Texas on the CBS television network in the United States, was noted for a controversial halftime show in which Janet Jackson's breast, adorned with a nipple shield, was exposed by Justin Timberlake for about half a second, in what was later referred to as a "wardrobe malfunction". 

The incident, sometimes referred to as Nipplegate, was widely discussed. Along with the rest of the halftime show, it led to an immediate crackdown and widespread debate on perceived indecency in broadcasting.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined CBS a record $550,000, but that fine was appealed and ultimately voided by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2011 ruling.

Brandi Chastain took off her jersey after striking the winning goal against China in the final game of the 1999 Women’s World Cup.

 

The Tennis Girl

The Tennis Girl is a popular poster. It shows a young woman from behind walking towards the net of a tennis court with a tennis racquet in her right hand and her left hand reaching behind lifting her short tennis dress, showing she is not wearing any underwear.

The photograph was taken by Martin Elliott in September 1976 and features 18-year-old Fiona Butler (now Walker), his girlfriend at the time. The photo was taken at Birmingham University, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, using a borrowed dress, racquet and balls. 

 

Derek Redmond’s courage 

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona he tore his hamstring in the 400 metres semi-final but continued the race limping and, with assistance from his father, managed to complete a full lap of the track as the crowd gave him a standing ovation.

The incident has become a well-remembered moment in Olympic history, having been the subject of one of the International Olympic Committee's 'Celebrate Humanity' videos and been used in advertisements by Visa as an illustration of the Olympic spirit and featured in Nike's "Courage" commercials in 2008.

  

 

Edward Carl Gaedel was an American with dwarfism who became famous for participating in a Major League Baseball game.

He gained recognition in the second game of a St. Louis Browns doubleheader on Sunday, Aug. 19, 1951. Weighing 65 pounds (29.5 kg), and standing 3 feet 7 inches tall, Gaedel became the shortest player in the history of the Major Leagues. 

 

Hand of God

Six minutes into the second half of the quarterfinal match between Argentina and England during the 1986 World Cup, Argentina’s Maradona scored one of the sport’s most notorious goals.

Both Maradona and the English goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, attempted to play a lifted ball near the goal. Maradona got there first—well, his fist did at least—and the ball went into the goal. Referee Ali Bin Nasser did not see the handball, and allowed the goal.

Four minutes later, of course, Maradona would goal simply referred to as "The Goal of the Century." 

 

Maradona's second goal, just four minutes after the hotly disputed hand-goal, was later voted by FIFA as the greatest goal in the history of the World Cup. 

He received the ball in his own half, swivelled around, and with 11 touches ran more than half the length of the field, dribbling past five English outfield players (Peter Beardsley, Steve Hodge, Peter Reid, Terry Butcher, and Terry Fenwick) and goalkeeper Peter Shilton. This goal was voted "Goal of the Century" in a 2002 online poll conducted by FIFA. 

 

On September 24, 2000 in Dallas, Terrell Owens showed off his excitement after his two touchdown catches by running from the end zone to midfield and celebrating on the Dallas Cowboys' famous star logo.

The second time Owens made a trip to the star, Cowboys safety George Teague hit him during the celebration.

Teague would be ejected for his actions, while Owens was suspended for a week by his head coach. The celebration and subsequent hit were named one of the ten most memorable moments in the history of Texas Stadium by ESPN in 2008, and is ironic given his later stint in Dallas.

  

 

Borg won his fifth consecutive Wimbledon singles title, the 1980 Wimbledon Men's Singles final, by defeating McEnroe in a five-set match, often cited as the best Wimbledon final ever played - the only comparable match being the Federer - Nadal final in 2008. Having lost the opening set to an all-out McEnroe assault, Borg took the next two and had two championship points at 5–4 in the fourth. 

However, McEnroe averted disaster and went on to level the match in Wimbledon's most memorable 34-point tiebreaker, which he won 18–16. 

In the fourth-set tiebreak, McEnroe saved five match points, and Borg six set points, before McEnroe won the set. Bjorn served first to begin the 5th set and fell behind 15–40. 

Borg then won 19 straight points on serve in the deciding set and prevailed after 3 hours, 53 minutes. Borg himself commented years later that this was the first time that he was afraid that he would lose, as well as feeling that it was the beginning of the end of his dominance.

 

Starks was at the center of one of the most famous plays in Knicks history, which has now become known simply as "The Dunk". 

In Game 2 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals against the Chicago Bulls, Starks was in the right corner of the court being closely guarded by B.J. Armstrong.

Ewing came to set a screen for Starks, who faked to the left like he was going to use the pick, and then drove along the baseline and dunked over Michael Jordan and Horace Grant with his left hand.

  

 

Peter Edward, also known for his nickname "Charlie Hustle", is a former Major League Baseball player and manager. Rose played from 1963 to 1986, and managed from 1984 to 1989.

This photo shows his dedication towards the game. 

 

Tyson and Holyfield fought again on June 28, 1997. Originally, Halpern was supposed to be the referee, but after Tyson's camp protested, Halpern stepped aside in favor of Mills Lane. The highly anticipated rematch was dubbed The Sound and the Fury, and it was held at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena, site of the first bout.

It was a lucrative event, drawing even more attention than the first bout and grossing $100 million. Tyson received $30 million and Holyfield $35 million, the highest paid professional boxing purses until 2007. The fight was purchased by 1.99 million households, setting a pay-per-view buy rate record that stood until the May 5, 2007, De La Hoya-Mayweather boxing match.

Soon to become one of the most controversial events in modern sports, the fight was stopped at the end of the third round, with Tyson disqualified for biting Holyfield on both ears. The first time Tyson bit him, the match was temporarily stopped. Referee Mills Lane deducted two points from Tyson and the fight resumed. 

However, after the match resumed, Tyson did it again; Tyson was disqualified and Holyfield won the match. One bite was severe enough to remove a piece of Holyfield's right ear, which was found on the ring floor after the fight. Tyson later stated that his actions were retaliation for Holyfield repeatedly headbutting him without penalty.

In the confusion that followed the ending of the bout and announcement of the decision, a near riot erupted in the arena and several people were injured.

  

 

By 1990, Tyson seemed to have lost direction, and his personal life was in disarray amidst reports of less vigorous training prior to the Buster Douglas match. 

In a fight on February 11, 1990, he lost the undisputed championship to Buster Douglas in Tokyo.

Tyson was a huge betting favorite, but Douglas (priced at 42/1) was at an emotional peak after losing his mother to a stroke 23 days prior to the fight; Douglas fought the fight of his life.

Contrary to reports that Tyson was out of shape, sources noted his pronounced muscles, absence of body fat and weight of 220 and 1/2 pounds, only 2 pounds more than he had weighed when he beat Michael Spinks 20 months earlier.

Mentally, however, Tyson was unprepared. Tyson failed to find a way past Douglas's quick jab that had a 12-inch (30 cm) reach advantage over his own.

Tyson did send Douglas to the floor in the eighth round, catching him with an uppercut, but Douglas recovered sufficiently to hand Tyson a heavy beating in the subsequent two rounds. (After the fight, the Tyson camp would complain that the count was slow and that Douglas had taken longer than ten seconds to get to his feet.)

Just 35 seconds into the 10th round, Douglas unleashed a brutal combination of hooks that sent Tyson to the canvas for the first time in his career. He was counted out by referee Octavio Meyran.

The knockout victory by Douglas over Tyson, the previously undefeated "baddest man on the planet" and arguably the most feared boxer in professional boxing at that time, has been described as one of the most shocking upsets in modern sports history.

  

 

In 1936, Jesse Owens arrived in Berlin to compete for the United States in the Summer Olympics. Adolf Hitler was using the games to show the world a resurgent Nazi Germany. He and other government officials had high hopes that German athletes would dominate the games with victories (the German athletes achieved a "top of the table" medal haul).

Meanwhile, Nazi propaganda promoted concepts of "Aryan racial superiority" and depicted ethnic Africans as inferior. Owens countered this by winning four gold medals. 

   

Strug became a national sports hero after her performance at the 1996 Olympics for her final vault, visiting President Bill Clinton, appearing at various television talk shows, making the cover of Sports Illustrated and appearing on a Wheaties cereal box with other team members. Actor Chris Kattan notably parodied her adolescent-sounding voice and appearance on Saturday Night Live (in a segment in which she appeared alongside him). 

ESPN's "This is SportsCenter" ad campaign poked good-natured fun at her injury with two ads featuring various ESPN workers carrying her around. 

 

On October 18, Beamon set a world record for the long jump with a first jump of 8.90 m (29 ft. 2 1/2 in.), bettering the existing record by 55 cm (21 3/4 in.). 

When the announcer called out the distance for the jump, Beamon – unfamiliar with metric measurements – still did not realize what he had done.

When his teammate and coach Ralph Boston told him that he had broken the world record by nearly 2 feet, his legs gave way and an astonished and overwhelmed Beamon suffered a brief cataplexy attack brought on by the emotional shock, and collapsed to his knees, his body unable to support itself, placing his hands over his face. In one of the more enduring images of the Games, his competitors then helped him to his feet.

The defending Olympic champion Lynn Davies told Beamon, "You have destroyed this event," and in sports jargon, a new adjective – Beamonesque – came into use to describe spectacular feats. 

 

This picture was taken when arguably the best fielder in the world Jhonty Rhodes flew to run out Pakistan batsmen. 

 

After stunning Sonny Liston as a brash 22-year-old, Muhammad Ali and Liston schedule a rematch, the ending of which is one of the most controversial moments in the history of boxing.

In what many have dubbed a “phantom punch,” as many in the crowd never saw it, Liston fell to the canvas in the first round, and Ali stood over him in the iconic photograph pictured here. Though Liston would remain down for nearly 20 seconds, Ali had refused to go to his corner, and thus, the fight should not have ended as a knockout.

Speculation after the fight suggests that Liston may have purposefully taken a fall, either betting on himself due to money owed the Mafia, or losing out of fear of the Ali-backing Black Muslims. Nonetheless, the controversy surrounding the incorrect knockout call is enough for this crazy match to make the list.

  

 

The 1970 Stanley Cup Final NHL championship series was contested by the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues, appearing in their third straight finals.

The Bruins were making their first appearance in the Final since 1958. The Bruins would win the series 4–0, their first Stanley Cup victory in 29 years.

Bobby Orr scored the Cup-winning goal on Glenn Hall, with an assist from Derek Sanderson, at forty seconds of overtime, and the subsequent image of Orr flying through the air, his arms raised in victory — he had been tripped by Blues' defenceman Noel Picard at the moment of shooting — is arguably the most famous and recognized hockey image of all time.  

  

 

Bathroom Celebrations

Basketball champion Cuban 2011 took the trophy with him to the bathroom and got clicked.