Top 10 most surprising sports stories of 2023 – and yes, we mention Taylor Swift a lot

The year in sports was packed with plenty of record-breaking performances, comeback wins and historic championship victories. But you already know the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl and the Denver Nuggets won the NBA Finals and some team presumably won the World Series (sorry, we stopped watching before the end just like the rest of the country).

What keeps us coming back for more as sports fans is the unpredictability, so instead of simply looking at the biggest moments in 2023, how about we count down the top 10 most surprising moments from the year?

And yes, let you be forewarned, we will be cutting away to Taylor Swift in the crowd.

10. Sho me the money!

Talk about surprising, how about 700 million reasons for your jaw to drop? After months of speculation, and plenty of tracked flights on FlightAware, Shohei Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The deal obliterated the previous highest overall deal (Mike Trout's $425.6 million) and highest annual deal (Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer's $43.3 million) in history. Admittedly, it's kind of like you're signing two players at once, so maybe $350 million per player isn't so bad?

Of course, adding to the shock was the news that Ohtani will actually be deferring $68 million per year! The vast majority of the contract ($680 million) will actually be paid out from 2034 to 2043, according to ESPN. So, the good news is I still have 10 years to become best friends with Ohtani.

9. How far can you run in 2 hours?

OK, so admittedly this is a bit of a pre-surprising moment, but sometimes a sports moment is so shocking you have to prepare yourself mentally. Maybe the most famous marker in sports history was the 4-minute mile. It's so famous that many people know the name Roger Bannister even if they couldn't tell you anything about him other than he was the first to run a mile under 4 minutes. No other race distance and time has rivaled that fame, but that may be ending soon.

In October's Chicago Marathon, Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum (say that five times fast) lowered the world marathon record to 2 hours and 35 seconds, tantalizingly close to breaking the two-hour mark. It's likely, especially in an Olympic year, that the barrier could be broken in 2024.

8. 92,000 of your closest friends

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College volleyball team musters record-setting crowd

The University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium was the site of a new record-setting event, as over 92,000 people gathered to watch its women's volleyball team.

In a banner year for women's college sports, we couldn't help but take note of two insane attendance records set this year. In August, the Nebraska women's volleyball team played in front of a crowd of just over 92,000 fans. No, that is not a misprint. It wasn't just the largest crowd for a college women's sporting event, or largest for a women's sporting event in the U.S. It's actually the largest crowd ever for a women's sporting event in the entire world.

The match was played at Memorial Stadium, home to the Cornhuskers' football team. (Not like Nebraska football was worth watching.) Before you ask, yes, it was paid attendance.

Sticking to the Midwest, the Iowa women's basketball team set a record of its own with an outdoor game in October at Kinnick Stadium, their football field, where 55,646 fans showed up. For an exhibition! Of course, Ms. Hawkeye Caitlin Clark was there, so we're a little surprised the entire state of Iowa didn't show up. She posted a triple-double in the win over DePaul, which set a record for the largest attendance ever for a women's basketball game.

7. Semi-controversial

When is an undefeated record in a Power 5 conference not as good as a one-loss record in a Power 5 conference? When you're Florida State and you've lost your star quarterback. The final year of the four-team College Football Playoff snuck in one final controversy before expanding to 12 teams in 2024-25 when the Seminoles were left holding the bag despite winning every game they played. Two one-loss teams (Alabama and Texas) snuck in ahead of Florida State in what was a no-win situation for the selection committee.

On one hand, the controversy filled talk shows for a week. On the other, Jordan Travis was out for the year and Alabama and Texas are likely the better teams on the field at this point.

By the end of December, Florida State had sued the Atlantic Coast Conference, saying the Seminoles' snub "crystalized the years of failures by the ACC to fulfill its most fundamental commitments to FLORIDA STATE and its members." This came one day after the ACC had filed a preemptive lawsuit against the FSU Board of Trustees, saying the school has "obligations to the Conference to which it has belonged and from which it has profited from for more than 30 years." As if the state of conferences in college sports weren't a big enough mess, we're now hurtling toward a complete collapse of the system.

6. So much for the 'twisties'

Simone Biles, with nothing left to prove on her all-time great resume, surprised everyone with her announcement in June that she wasn't quite done owning the rest of the world in gymnastics. Biles missed most of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 due to mental health issues. She cited a case of the "twisties" -- a mental block that causes you to lose your bearing in the air -- as a reason for pulling out of most events.

But at 26, she said she wasn't quite ready to let that be the final memory she left on the international stage. Biles returned to competition and looked exactly like she did in the lead-up to Tokyo, winning everything in sight, including the U.S. championship (for the eighth time) and world championship (for the sixth time). She'll be the favorite in Paris to take home several more golds, including her second all-around title.

Oh, she also got married in April to Green Bay Packers safety Jonathan Owens and started a little Biles vs. Swift controversy, but that was just for funsies.

5. The Best in the World is back in WWE

There is no name more polarizing in the world of pro wrestling* than CM Punk and, if you reside on a certain portion of the internet, no name more heavily discussed. Punk spent the better part of the last 10 years ranting about how terrible it was working for the WWE and how glad he was to be rid of the company when he walked out in early 2014. He promised to never wrestle for WWE again and even dueled in court with the company's head doctor.

But after a truly bonkers first half of 2023 working for WWE's main rival, All Elite Wrestling, in which he got into multiple fights backstage, including allegedly lunging at company owner Tony Khan, guess who was back in WWE in November? Punk showed up at Survivor Series in his native Chicago to a massive pop. It's not exactly the Monday Night Wars yet, but the drama behind the scenes is often more exciting than on screen.

(*Save your philosophical discussions for another time, because we're considering pro wrestling a sport for the purposes of this list.)

4. Messi Mania comes to the US

The jury is still out -- as it has been for decades -- about whether the U.S. will ever truly love soccer, but there's no question the best player in the world kicked up a new level of interest in the sport in the States this year. Lionel Messi, coming off Argentina's win in the 2022 World Cup last December, decided to join MLS side Inter Miami in June. Maybe most impressively, he spurned a massive contract offer from a team in the Saudi soccer league, where clubs have been snatching up A-list players for hundreds of millions of dollars in a "sportswashing" campaign.

Messi debuted in July with Inter Miami winning the Leagues Cup in August and then debuting in MLS competition in August and scoring 11 goals in 14 matches. He also generated increased ticket sales everywhere he went. His team didn't make the playoffs, but Messi did win the Ballon d'Or in October as the world's best player -- his record eighth trophy.

The league is definitely looking forward -- no pun intended -- to a full season of Messi in 2024.

3. Shock to the heart

Many of the moments on this list are light-hearted, but reality came crashing into the sports world just a few days into 2023 when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a prime-time game with the Kansas City Chiefs. We would later learn that the then-24-year-old had suffered cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated with CPR on the field. A hush fell over the stadium as millions watched on TV hoping for the best. Thankfully, Hamlin made a speedy recovery as the sports world followed along with fingers crossed. He was even cleared to play again and played in several games in the fall.

In a repeat of the Hamlin collapse, LeBron James' son, Bronny, suffered cardiac arrest during a basketball practice at USC in July. The elite recruit also needed to be rushed to a nearby hospital and has made a full recovery. Like Hamlin, he's been cleared to play and has appeared in some games already during his freshman season.

2. Same old Jets

You couldn't write a story more emblematic of the New York Jets than their newly signed franchise quarterback getting hurt four plays into the season -- and yet our jaws still were agape when Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles on the first drive against the Buffalo Bills. Even non-Jets fans felt a little bad for them -- or would have if Rodgers wasn't so unlikable. As far as build-up to a big moment, followed by a complete and utter thud, you couldn't find a better (worse?) example.

And then Rodgers spent all season teasing Jets fans with a possible return, before eventually calling it quits after the team slipped out of playoff contention. Let's do it all again next fall -- if he doesn't threaten to retire again.

1. Taylor and Travis

There's nothing like watching a young couple in love. Everywhere. At all times. Inescapably. Like, right now, in this story you are reading. Maybe because there's been so much darkness in the world lately -- two ongoing wars, endless politically charged legal wrangling, mass shootings, etc. -- nothing captured the world's attention like Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift's romance. It was also the perfect crossover because it attracted two very different fanbases.

Sure, the endless cutaways to Swift in the crowd were a little annoying for true football fans, but it's harmless in the long run. She likes football now! And so do you! I mean, he is having one of the worst seasons of his career, but he's distracted. It's not all about your fantasy team.

Here's to another year of Swiftie speculation in 2024. (I give the relationship another six months. Tops.)