thing thats the opposite of sports, thats my moment of the year.

Each week, The Reporters put their thumbs out to the good and the bad in the world of sports. Trai Turner Panthers Jersey . This week they discuss their best of the year. Bruce Arthur, National Post: My thumb is up to the end of the NHL lockout. After months of labour war, wed spent a week freezing on some of the finest sidewalks New York had to offer, staking out meetings that produced nothing much. And then on Jan. 5 the NHL walked to the players hotel for what was described as an informal meeting, starting at one in the afternoon. It didnt stop. Midnight arrived, and the meeting kept going. At 4am I closed my eyes for 15 seconds and Aaron Ward took a picture. And finally, at five in the morning the news broke: Labour peace was at hand, and a voice exiting the room bellowed out, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. For ending something thats the opposite of sports, thats my moment of the year. Steve Simmons, SUN Media: My thumb is up to the least natural sporting emotion of 2013 - caring about the Davis Cup. Most of us couldnt tell you when the Davis Cup begins, when it ends, how the schedule works or who plays who, but Milos Raonic and Canadian tennis changed all that this past year. Suddenly we were pulled in by possibility, by Raonics huge first serve, by the fortitude of Vasek Pospisil, by the stoic veteran Daniel Nestor, all of them coming together in red and white as a team. Our team. They didnt win the Davis Cup but did what no Canadians had ever done before. They made the semi-finals. In a way it was the perfect Canadian ending: We played hard, we played great, we inspired, we just didnt win. Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated: My thumb is up to the Iron Bowl, proof that one second can last for eternity. The improbable finish started with that single tick Alabama coach Nick Saban lobbied to have put back on the scoreboard. Rather than take his chances in overtime, Saban sent out a back-up kicker to attempt a quixotic 57-yard game-winning field goal. Auburns Chris Davis took the failed kick deep in the end zone and juked and then sprinted more than 100 yards - straight into the hard drive of memory. In-state rival Auburn deprived Alabama of a third straight national championship with Davis return while reminding us that sport is the grand unscripted drama of our lives. Dave Hodge, TSN: Well if that defied belief, my thumb is up to the current NFL season, which has done that… right from the start when Peyton Manning tossed seven touchdown passes, only to have Nick Foles of the Eagles do the same thing later on. Matt Prater broke a record with a 64-yard field goal at the end of the first half, but Justin Tuckers 61-yarder might have been more amazing, because it came at the end of the game. One week, the NFL set a record with 90 touchdowns. The next week, it set a record for one-day scoring with 763 points. Phillys LeSean McCoy rushed for 217 yards in the snow, and Kansas Citys Jamaal Charles, another running back, caught four passes for touchdowns. NFL stadiums have scoreboards, and the busier they are, the better the games tend to be - never truer than in 2013. Trai Turner Black Jersey . Fair or not, its championship or bust for the star-studded Heat, who is squaring off with the much-improved Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in South Florida. Bene Benwikere Womens Jersey . -- Brandon Browner is not a typical NFL cornerback.WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Urban Meyer thought Ohio State needed a pregame wake-up call Saturday. The Buckeyes answered with a quick flurry. Interception return, touchdown. Two plays, touchdown. Six plays, touchdown. Two plays, touchdown. And that was just in the first quarter. Doran Grant picked off the first pass of the game, scoring on a 33-yard return, and Braxton Miller threw for 233 yards and four touchdowns as No. 4 Ohio State extended the nations longest winning streak to 21 with a record-breaking rout 56-0 of Purdue. "I saw, not necessarily a sleepy look, but I just didnt like what I saw in our pregame," said Meyer, the Buckeyes coach. "So we brought them in here and kind of rattled them up a little bit and made sure they woke up." Did they ever. The Buckeyes produced the highest scoring total and most lopsided victory margin in the 56-game series, surpassing marks they set in a 49-0 victory in 2010. They handed Purdue (1-7, 0-4) its first back-to-back shutouts in six decades, and the 56-point loss matched the worst in Boilermakers history. Purdue lost 56-0 to Iowa on Oct. 28, 1922 and 56-0 to Chicago on Nov. 9, 1907. It was hardly a surprise. Ohio State (9-0, 5-0) hasnt lost in 22 months. Meyer tied a personal best by winning his 22nd consecutive game, which includes his final victory at Florida. Miller went 19 of 23 before giving way to Kenny Guiton for good in the second half. Guiton was 8 of 11, throwing one TD pass and running for two more. He finished with 98 yards rushing on nine carries, second only to Carlos Hyde who ran for 111 yards on eight carries. Tight end Jeff Heuerman caught five passes for a career-high 116 yards and was one of five different Ohio State receivers to score. Plus, the Buckeyes defence forced two turnovers, added six more sacks to their Big Ten-leading number and limited the Boilermakers to 116 total yards as a large contingent of scarlet-and-grey clad fans turned the road game into a pseudo home contest in the second half when most of the Boilermakers fans left. The combination was enough to keep Ohio State on track for a second straight perfect season and a potential berth in the BCS title game. But the Buckeyes, admittedly, needed some early help. "It was an early morniing, we had to get up early, we had to get prepared, we had to eat well," Miller said. panthersstore.us.com/Black-33-Tre-Boston-Womens-Jersey/. "We had to get the guys going and the coaches talked to us and got us hyped." Purdue certainly didnt need that. The game that was billed as a blackout turned into a washout. How bad was it? Etling, the freshman, was 13 of 29 for 89 yards. Purdues mistake-prone secondary was gouged so often by the Ohio State quarterbacks that the Boilers gave up a record-breaking scoring total in Ross-Ade Stadium for the second time this season. The Boilermakers head into next weeks game against Iowa with eight consecutive scoreless quarters and with the dubious achievement of failing to reach the red zone for the third consecutive game. Purdue hasnt taken a snap inside the opponents 20-yard line since late in a Sept. 28 loss to Northern Illinois, and still hasnt beaten a Football Bowl Subdivision since Darrell Hazell took over the program after last season. "We didnt tackle very well, we had guys out of place quite a few times (on defence) and we need to get off the blocks," Hazell said. "We cant get a quarterback beat up the way we did. We had problems in pass protection." Miller & Co. made them pay for those miscues, seemingly every time. On the games second snap, Grant stepped in front of B.J. Knauf, picked off Etlings pass and sprinted 33 yards to make it 7-0. Miller then threw a 40-yard TD pass to a wide open Jeff Heuerman on the Buckeyes second offensive play to give Ohio State a 14-0 lead. Before the first quarter ended, Miller threw an 8-yard TD pass to Nick Vannett and a 2-yard shovel pass for a TD to Corey Brown to make it 28-0. Not enough? Guiton threw a 1-yard TD pass to Chris Fields midway through the second quarter, and Miller hooked up with Ezekiel Elliott on a 10-yard scoring pass later in the first half to make it 42-0 at the half. Guiton ran for two scores in the second half to close out the milestone victory. "Were just playing Ohio State ball," Hyde said after the Buckeyes rolled up 640 yards in offence. "I expect this out of the offensive group, you know. Just come out and be explosive all day and put points up and put up yards. Thats what I expect from us." ' ' '