(ThyBlackMan.com) 2025 was a significant year as it marked a year of major reflections from historic events. Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered global public health and affected millions of lives. Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina arrived as one of the most devastating hurricanes in U.S. history and significantly altered the Gulf Coast region forever, including Louisiana and New Orleans. In sports, there were historic events and changes in 2025 that made it a year to remember for several reasons. Here are the five most impactful sports stories of 2025 leading to the top most impactful from five to one:
5. U.S.-Canada tension: There is and has been a lot of discussion in 2025 about the impact of the Trump administration raising tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners and how that would affect consumer goods and those prices for American citizens. That topic also veered into sports as Canadian sports fans voiced their displeasure with the U.S. during sporting events of NHL games and NBA games in Toronto by booing the American national anthem due to Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canadian goods in early 2025.
4. Super Bowl Statement: The most surprising impromptu halftime action since the Justin Timberlake-Janet Jackson exposure several years ago had much more of a political message as performer Zül-Qarnaïn Nantambu surprisingly displayed a combination Sudanese-Palestinian flag with “Sudan” and “Gaza” written on it during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show. Regarding his actions, Nantambu said, “I hope God shifts Trump’s heart to be empathetic and compassionate to those who are suffering in Palestine and do what is right by the Palestinians. And if he can, help the Sudanese — which I’m sure he can.” During his protest, he stood on a car used as a prop for Lamar’s performance and held up the flag before being removed.
3. College Football’s Head Coaching Chaos for Black coaches: Despite most of the top college football players being African/Black, the numbers of African/Black head coaches in high profile positions is relatively low. HBCUs like Norfolk State and Delaware State hoped to replicate the Deion Sanders impact that the former Jackson State football head coach had for that program by hiring former NFL Pro Bowl players Michael Vick and Desean Jackson to their first major football head coaching opportunities. At the Power Five level, two of the most well-known Black football head coaches faced surprising exits from their respective schools as James Franklin and Sherrone Moore did not finish the year 2025 in the same position that they started 2025.
2. Sports betting alters the sports landscape on grand scale: Legal sports betting has increased the revenues and interest for professional and major college sports exponentially. Legal sports betting as also caused a variety of controversies in sports including in the NBA where Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and current NBA player Terry Rozier were the big names of a 2025 FBI probe as they were involved in allegedly illegal activities. Time will tell of the future of sports betting and its overall effect on sports.
Finish story here; The Five Most Impactful Sports Stories of 2025.
