Don't Open Until 2112
One hundred years from now, the games we play and watch will be radically different. Football players should finally have those long-promised jet packs. Basketball players will dunk on 15-foot goals. The halftime act at Super Bowl CXLVI will be the Rolling Stones. (O.K., not everything will change.) To show the futuristic fan what he or she is missing, SI created a time capsule of things that left the sports world in 2012, indexing each item by likability and cultural importance:
IRRITATING
ULTRA IMPORTANT
LOVABLE
DISPOSABLE
All-male Augusta National
Tebowing
Wenlock and Mandeville
Lance Armstrong, Tour champ
Roger Goodell, Mr. Invincible
Ochocinco as a name
Replacement refs
The New Jersey Nets
VORP
Matt Schaub's left ear lobe
Linsanity
Keith Hernandez's mustache
Gangnam Style sports
Kansas-Mizzou Border War
Paternoville
McKayla's disapproval
THEY SAID IT
"Whatever day he returns will be Christmas, so I guess there's that."
MIKE D'ANTONI Coach of the struggling Lakers, on the prospect of injured point guard Steve Nash's returning for L.A.'s Dec. 25 game against the Knicks
PHOTO
JOEL SAGET/AFP/GETTY IMAGES (ARMSTRONG)
PHOTO
STEVE RUSSELL/THE TORONTO STAR/ZUMAPRESS.COM (HAT)
PHOTO
DAVID E. KLUTHO (COLLEGE MASCOTS)
PHOTO
KEVIN TERRELL/AP (TEBOW)
PHOTO
BOB ROSATO (JERSEY)
PHOTO
ADAM HUNGER/REUTERS (HERNANDEZ)
PHOTO
SUZANNE PLUNKETT/REUTERS (OLYMPIC MASCOTS)
PHOTO
TOM HAUCK/AP (SCHAUB)
PHOTO
BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS (MARONEY)
TWO PHOTOS