2011 Scrapbook: Memories From the Year in Sports

Every day this week, reporters and editors for The Times will recall the people, teams and moments that made the past year memorable. Readers can share their favorite moments of the year below.

The Return of a New King

Of course Novak Djokovic cared. How could he not? It was the semifinals of the United States Open, with an overflow crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium anticipating an imminent resolution to an exhausting match, an elegant ending for that most elegant of champions, Roger Federer. All Federer needed to secure victory was one more point, and up by 5-3, 40-15 in the fifth set, he had not one but two chances with his wicked serve to get it.

?I don?t know how it happened,? Djokovic said at the postmatch news conference, and neither did anyone else.

Down two match points, many players would take a somewhat conservative approach, intent on merely returning the ball before trying to leverage the point in their favor. Federer, for one.

But not Djokovic. Deep into one of the most dominant campaigns in tennis history (as of that day, he had lost a total of two matches), Djokovic had already done so much to leverage the entire season in his favor. He had adjusted his diet, his exercise regimen, even his serve. It somehow seemed dishonest to try for anything less than a steal-your-breath-away shot.

The serve from Federer zoomed toward the far corner at 108 miles per hour. The forehand return from Djokovic, short and compact and exquisite, whizzed back across the court at an angle that would stump a geometry teacher. It kissed the line.

His arms outstretched, Djokovic turned to the crowd and grinned. The fans had been rooting for Federer, for him to prove that his 11-tournament winless streak was more mirage than harbinger. But they knew brilliance when they saw it and saluted Djokovic with gusto. Djokovic won the next point, the next three games and the next match, in the final over Rafael Nadal, for his third Grand Slam title of 2011.

In a year filled with remarkable moments, Djokovic?s gamble that September afternoon served as the consummate coda, delivering a lesson that applies to life as much as sport: swing as if you mean it, swing as if you care.

? Ben Shpigel

The Raw Truth of Pro Football

We lost Peter Gent this fall. He was a decent wide receiver, but he was one heck of a storyteller. For my money, he is the father of jock lit.

His book ?North Dallas Forty? may have been the first adult novel I read. It was the tale of the fictional North Dallas Bulls, and it read an awful lot like the late 1960s Dallas Cowboys team that Gent had played and given his body for.

Seth Maxwell, the sly good ol? boy quarterback, was a dead ringer for Dandy Don Meredith. For a kid who learned to read by devouring the sports page on the kitchen table each morning and Sports Illustrated clandestinely by flashlight at night, ?North Dallas Forty? was like discovering ?Lord of the Rings.?

The classics would come later. Wild orgies, powerful drugs and a peek behind the curtain of the N.F.L. were irresistible.

That the Cowboys? president, Tex Schramm, and other league pooh-bahs dismissed it as lies only added to its allure.

The truth, however, is the truth, and here we are nearly 40 years after the novel?s 1973 publication, and what Gent told us about some of the outlaw elements, abuse of painkillers and football players? devotion to a violent game that wrecks their bodies still holds true.

?There was something about pro football,? he once said. ?It was violent, it was cruel. There was a part of the game that was literally insane. And I loved it.?

Not long after Gent died Sept. 30, the former N.F.L. defensive lineman Kris Jenkins confessed on these pages that part of his body remained numb and he still had brain fog after 10 bruising years in professional football.

He, too, has no regrets.

?Winning, the physical part, the mayhem, finding the line between insanity and sanity, that?s the exact reason why you play,? Jenkins said.

Earlier this month, Chicago Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd was arrested on federal drug charges.

Crippling injuries and bad behavior are not the sole domain of the N.F.L; other professional sports have had their turn in the headlines. Football, however, is what Gent knew and what he shared with us.

?Football players aren?t people, who leave home to try and play football,? Gent wrote. ?They are football players, who come home to try and play people.?

That is a pretty good insight. I appreciated him sharing it with me then, and reminding me of it now.

? Joe Drape

A Super Bowl to Include the World

In one sense, the most important football game of 2011 was played on July 16. In Vienna.

That was when the United States national football team lined up against Canada in the gold medal game at the world championships of American football.

You probably missed it.

Just as the world?s version of ?football? has its World Cup, so the American version has had its own quadrennial championship since 1999.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/sports/memories-from-the-year-in-sports.html

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