Just when you thought you had seen it all in the world of sports, 2023 happened. In the last 12 months, we’ve witnessed the signing of a mammoth record contract in Major League Baseball, an unbreakable record fall in the NBA, people raging at — and because of — soccer in the United States, countless dramas play out across the college sports landscape, concerns about the future of an American sports league … and professional football become the second-biggest headline during an NFL game. Here, for your consideration, are CBS Sports’ top 23 headline-making moments of 2023.
1. The Kelces go mainstream
Star tight end Travis Kelce joked about courting Taylor Swift, but once the pop icon actually set foot on Kansas City’s stomping grounds — not for a concert — but to watch Kelce and the Chiefs play football, social media went abuzz with their rumored, and later confirmed, relationship. The Grammy winner is now a regular at Chiefs’ contests, cheering on her big-name beau, all of which helped fuel everything from Kelce’s jersey sales to the Swifties newfound love of all things KC Chiefs to the listenership of the New Heights podcast co-hosted by Kelce and older brother Jason, center for the Philadelphia Eagles … And, oh yeah, the Chiefs won the Super Bowl (by defeating the aforementioned Eagles in comeback fashion) while quarterback Patrick Mahomes picked up the second championship MVP award of his young career.
2. The Year of Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani began 2023 by striking out then-Angels teammate Mike Trout to win the World Baseball Classic for Team Japan in March and ended it by inking a $700-million deal with the Dodgers in December. In between, the two-way superstar put on a show, pitching 132 innings and socking 44 home runs before being shut down to undergo elbow surgery. All of that added up to another unanimous MVP award in the American League, his second in three years. Under normal circumstances, this would count as a career year, especially since the surgery will keep him off the mound in 2024, but nothing about Ohtani has been normal so far.
3. You can’t see me.
Caitlin Clark and No. 2 Iowa were all the buzz after she dropped 41 points in a stunning upset of top-seeded South Carolina in their women’s Final Four semifinal … and you might say that Angel Reese and fellow semifinal victor No. 3 LSU took that personally. Two days later, the Tigers crushed the Hawkeyes, 102-85,…
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