How two cities have come to dominate pandemic sports
Six out of eight. Following this Sunday’s Super Bowl, there have now been two pandemic championships for each of the four major North American sports: football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. Eight championships, and six of them have been won by teams hailing from Los Angeles, California and Tampa, Florida. With the Rams’ victory in Super Bowl LVI, securing L.A. their third title, they are now tied with Tampa Bay with three pandemic championships a piece.
In March of 2020, the world was shut down by a global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus. The MLB had spring training canceled and the start of their season postponed, and the NHL and NBA put their seasons on indefinite suspension. The first major event surrounding sports would be the NFL draft in May, but even that was held remotely, with Commissioner Roger Goodell reading off the draft picks from his basement.
By the end of July, we would finally see the return of sports, as the MLB would begin their shortened 60-game season, and the NHL and NBA would return to finish their seasons and playoffs in quarantine bubbles to prevent the virus from getting in and canceling games. With all of the sports returned, they would face major changes. In baseball, teams would play an altered schedule, only playing teams within their region (i.e. teams from the AL West would only play teams from their division and the NL West), there would be an expanded playoffs to make up for the shortened season, and there would be no fans in attendance at stadiums. The NHL and NBA would both be stuck in one bubble location, the NBA in Orlando and the NHL in Toronto and Edmonton, with strict protocols designed to keep the virus out and the teams safe.
The first COVID champion to be crowned would be the Tampa Bay Lighting on September 28th, when they defeated the Dallas Stars in six games to win the Stanley Cup. Next up came the NBA finals, where the Los Angeles Lakers took down the Miami Heat in six games. The final of the original three would be the Los Angeles Dodgers, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays in six games to take home their first World Series title since 1988.
The NFL started their 2020 season on time in September, having planned a full schedule, with fan attendance being decided by local regulations. They would be able to get through the full season, with each team playing a full 16-game schedule. There were however many alterations to the schedule, as positive COVID tests would force the league to postpone and move around many games, making 2020 the first year to feature an NFL game played on every day of the week. The league announced in October that the Super Bowl, scheduled to be held in Tampa Bay, would be capped at capacity around 33%. In the end, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, becoming the first team to ever play in and win a Super Bowl in their home stadium.
Following the Bucs’ Super Bowl win, each of the major North American sports leagues had had their championships taken by teams from L.A. and Tampa Bay, with the Dodgers and Lakers securing World Series and NBA Finals championships for Los Angeles, and the Bucs and Lightning taking Super Bowl and Stanley Cup Final championships for Tampa Bay. They were tied, each with two pandemic championships, with the Rays reaching the World Series against the Dodgers to nearly get Tampa a third.
The NBA and NHL started their next seasons in late December and early January, each delayed due to the late finishes to their previous seasons. They were both playing slightly curtailed seasons in order to be able to finish them at their regular times in June, with the NBA playing 72 games and the NHL playing 56 instead of both leagues’ usual 82. The Lightning would repeat as Stanley Cup champions, defeating the Montreal Canadiens to keep the streak going in early June. But by the end of the month, the streak would be broken, with the Milwaukee Bucks facing off against the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals, a pandemic champion not hailing from one of the two cities would finally be crowned.
When the Atlanta Braves defeated the Houston Astros in the World Series in the fall of 2021, they joined the Milwaukee Bucks in preventing yet another L.A. or Tampa Bay champion. The two cities now sat at five out of the seven championships up to that point, with their football teams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, L.A. Rams, and L.A. Chargers sitting in good positions to be able to compete for the Super Bowl. By the end of the season, all three teams would finish with winning records, with the Bucs and Rams making the playoffs, and the Chargers narrowly missing out. It would all come down to a Divisional Round matchup between the Rams and the Bucs, where the Rams would escape with a narrow victory on a last-second field goal, after nearly surrendering the 27-3 lead they had held in the 3rd quarter. Then on Sunday, the Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI to capture L.A.’s third pandemic championship, tying them back up with Tampa Bay.
Though both cities built champions across multiple sports, they each had their own way in which the teams were constructed. In Tampa, their teams were mostly constructed through good drafting, and building up a contender over time. The Lightning built their repeat champion teams by drafting key players like Andrei Vasilevsky, Steven Stamkos, and Victor Hedman, while adding a few other key contributors through trades and free agency. And although the main reason for the Bucs’ turnaround was the signing of Tom Brady, the pieces had already been put in place for them to become a contender, as they had drafted many of the most important players for their elite defense like Lavonte David, Devin White, and Vita Vea, along with their star offensive players like Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Tristan Wirfs. They had the team all along; they just needed the push from someone like Brady to help take them over the top and make them champions.
Los Angeles had taken the near opposite approach to team building. L.A. took full advantage of the fame and celebrity that come with Hollywood and Los Angeles sports, knowing that it was somewhere that stars wanted to be. Although all three teams had drafted well, getting players like Aaron Donald, Cody Bellinger, and Clayton Kershaw, it was ultimately their trades and signings that would make them champions. For the Dodgers, they had already built a strong contending team, making back to back World Series in 2017 and 2018, losing to the Astros* and the Red Sox, with teams built around drafted players like Bellinger, Kershaw, and Cory Seager as well as the acquisitions of Justin Turner, Max Muncy, and Manny Machado. But it wasn’t until they made the trade for Red Sox’ superstar Mookie Betts before the 2020 season that they were finally able to get over the hump, capturing the teams first World Series since Kirk Gibson’s heroics in 1988.
The Lakers and Rams would follow the same blueprint for constructing their championship teams, both using the flash of Hollywood to attract stars, and trading draft picks to acquire others. In 2018, the Lakers signed megastar LeBron James to join a team filled with young players that had been wallowing in the lottery since Kobe Bryant’s fall from superstardom, even picking 2nd overall for three straight years from 2015-17. James was able to use his influence to convince Anthony Davis to demand a trade out of New Orleans, using three of their young players and four first round picks to get him. This strategy would pay off for them. In the duo’s first season together, they would take home the Larry O’Brien Trophy in the NBA bubble.
The Rams would follow a similar strategy. Following their loss in Super Bowl LIII, they doubled down on their strategy of trading future picks to acquire current stars. They traded two firsts each for Jalen Ramsey and Matthew Stafford, extending their streak of no first round picks from 2017 to 2024, as well as trading a second and third to acquire former Super Bowl MVP Von Miller from the Broncos midway through this season. When they signed former Giants and Browns star Odell Beckham Jr. to join 2017 draft steal Cooper Kupp at the receiver position, it put their offense over the top. Both players showed up big-time in the playoffs, each catching a touchdown in the Super Bowl, with Kupp taking home the game’s MVP honors.
This season, although facing struggles, the Lakers still have LeBron and Anthony Davis, which automatically makes them a threat in the Western Conference. In the NHL, the Lighting and L.A. Kings both sit near the top of their divisions, with Tampa currently sitting at the second best odds to win the Stanley Cup. If the MLB season ever returns from lockout, the Dodgers and Rays both look to be strong contenders for the World Series, and the Angels, with MVPs Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, always have a chance to be dangerous. Although the NFL season just ended, the Rams will be a strong favorite to repeat next season, and the Chargers won’t be too far off, led by the 2020 Rookie of the Year and 2021 Pro-Bowl QB Justin Herbert. The Bucs will look to have the hardest path back towards competing following the retirement of Tom Brady, but with a roster still stacked with talent, they could bounce right back if they can find the right QB to fill his void in the offseason, leaving both cities with strong chances to add to their championship totals in the near future.
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