Friday, September 2, 2011

Bad case of the Drops

All professional athletes put themselves through intense and agonizing training on a daily basis and enter their sports' season with one goal in mind: win the championship and bring the -insert championship trophy here- back to their sports city to parade to the fans. But imagine how a player must feel when the physical symbol of all their hard work and effort, literally, slips from their grasp.

Dropping championship trophies during celebrations and seems to be all the rage in the latter half of this decade. Thanks to the 24 hour sports news cycle, there seems to be more video evidence of athletes mishandling trophies than ever before. When any athlete drops a championship trophy, regardless of the circumstances or the sport, any video evidence will quickly rise to the top of SportsCenter's Not Top Ten list. So with all of that in mind, let us take a look at the five worst cases of victory slipping from the hands of athletes.


Number 5: Michael Ryder's table in Newfoundland drops the Stanley Cup



If the Stanley Cup could talk, it would be able to add falling from a table to it's long list of stories. Former Boston Bruin Michael Ryder (now of the Dallas Stars) was having his day with the Stanley Cup that travels with the players, and by the end of the day, the cup had a dent the size of Newfoundland. That being said, the Stanley Cup has had been through hell and back God knows how many times. So a dent on the side is nothing this tough trophy couldn't handle. That being said, Michael Ryder will never hear the end of this.




One would think that putting a championship trophy in the hands of a goalie would keep it safe from harm. Unfortunately for AFC Ajax, goalie Maarten Stekelenburg was unable to hang on to the Eredivisie trophy as the team paraded through Amsterdam. Stekelenburg held the trophy a little too close to some power lines, 
which wrenched the trophy from the safe hands of the Ajax keeper and flung the trophy onto the street. Fortunately for the team the trophy was fine, but the fact that the only player on the team allowed to use his hands dropped the trophy is an ominous sign.





At the 2006 U.S. Open, Maria Sharapova was on top of her game. That is until her festive celebration separated the top half of the trophy from the bottom half. Perhaps it was that the U.S. Open trophy has been around longer than most of us, or maybe that Ms. Sharapova did get a bit too carried away. Regardless, Sharapova everyone who witnessed the event unfold was able to laugh it off in the end. With no real damage being done to the trophy, all this did to Maria Sharapova was set her up for some "blonde" jokes.

Number 2: The 2008 Memorial Cup has durability issues


Spokane Chiefs captain Chris Burton was doing what any normal hockey player would do, lift the trophy over his head in celebration. But as soon as Burton went to hand the trophy off to his teammate, the trophy snapped and fell to the ice. The trophy survived the captain celebrating with it, but as soon as he went to share the success with his team, the trophy gave way.  So the Chiefs did the only thing they could do, they kept celebrating with a broken trophy.

Number 1: Copa Del Rey gets run over by a bus


Real Madrid Midfielder Sergio Ramos was the guilty party in the funniest recorded trophy mishap in sports history. For whatever reason, Ramos let go of the symbol of Real Madrid's hard work, dedication, and effort of the past season as the entire parade watched the Copa Del Rey get run over. Not only is the trophy getting run over a bad omen for Real Madrid's next season, but the bus driver never attempted to stop the bus. Think about it, the bus driver had a good five seconds to see the trophy fall in front of him and stop the bus. Fortunately for the sake of our humor he did not, and for that we thank you.

All of these trophy mishaps are funny, but the people who give out all of these trophies are not laughing as much as we are. So remember athletes, celebrate responsibly.

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