Mike Celizic

Each year at this time, we try to sum up the preceding 12 months with a sweeping characterization. Usually, it’s not that hard a job. In 2004, for example, the Red Sox, Patriots and Pistons made it easy to call it the Year of the Team. In 2005, the incredible performances of the likes of Lance Armstrong, Roger Federer, Shawn Alexander, Phil Mickelson and Albert Pujols made it the Year of the Individual.

So now we look back at 2006, searching for a similar sort of theme. And what we find is ... um ... let’s see ... uh, well, not all that much.

OK, the BCS Bowl was a terrific game — one of the best you’ll ever see — with Vince Young and Texas dethroning USC. And any year in which Tiger Woods and Roger Federer are on their games is going to have individual brilliance. But on the whole, after that great start by college football, 2006, went downhill awfully fast. The Super Bowl was one of the worst, baseball failed to produce a 20-game winner, the NHL returned and nobody noticed, the Tour de Farce was an utter France — or is that the other way around? — and the NFL has finally reached the point at which a .500 record is the stuff off which playoff teams are made.

Much as we hate to put it this way, we don’t really see an alternative to calling 2006 the Year of Mediocrity.

We don’t mean this as a put-down of teams and individuals that won championships. No one can be blamed for the level of competition faced, and no matter how badly a championship game was played, it’s like that excuse-me, bloop single off the handle of the bat on a checked swing. The single looks like a line drive on the scorecard, and the diamonds in the Steelers’ Super Bowl XLI championship rings sparkle just as brightly as those won by the all-time great Iron Curtain teams.

Nor is it meant to dismiss Young’s incredible performance against Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and USC or more great performances by Tiger Woods and Federer. Given what we got from most everyone else, we’re grateful for their bright shining moments in a year played under a gray overcast.

SPORTS   Discuss: Most memorable of year? JT's Rant: Top soundbites of 2006 Celizic: It was the Year of Mediocrity Opinion: A year of triumphs, adversity How's your memory? Take our quiz Tiger's tragedy, triumphs voted top story AP's top athletes: Ochoa | Tiger tops L.T. JT the Brick: AP blew it by ignoring Johnson Vote!: Top story? | Male? | Female? Several surprises | Loss of legends Olympics: Bode, Cohen, U.S. hockey slipped Soccer: It was all about the head-butt Tennis: Federer dominated, Agassi said bye NBC's Parsons hands out his NASCAR awards Golf Expert: The best and worst of 2006 Horses: Rich tapestry of tragedy, victory Ventre: What crystal ball reveals for '07

And it started not long after Texas and Young gave us such a promising beginning to the year. Even before the Super Bowl, the Indianapolis Colts, by far the best team during the regular season, got unceremoniously bounced from the playoffs — at home, no less — by the wild-card Steelers. In the process, the Colts solidified their hold on the distinction of being the best team never to make the Super Bowl. (The Bills remain the best team never to win it, but at least they got there four straight years.)

The Seahawks had a terrific year and sailed through to the Super Bowl, where they and the Steelers played one of the drearier games ever, which somehow seemed appropriate, considering the venue was that ever-popular winter vacation destination, Detroit. It wasn’t just that neither team played particularly well, but that even the officials were thoroughly mediocre. Right there, you had a feeling it was going to be that kind of year.

Slide show   Bode's Games See pictures of Bode Miller's 2006 Olympic performances.

The Olympics followed a week later in Italy’s least exciting big city — Turin. And, while the United States had a pretty good year, thanks mostly to the snowboarders, freestyle skiers and speedskaters, Team USA fell short of its medal totals from four years earlier and didn’t come near to winning the games. Compared to U.S. teams of a generation ago, this one did great, but compared to its own expectations and the 2002 team, it was just so-so.

The touted U.S. ski team was the soul of mediocre, thanks in large part to the efforts — or lack of same — by its biggest star, Bode Miller, who set records for partying but didn’t win a single gold medal.

Elsewhere, Michelle Kwan tried to chase the gold medal that has eluded her in figure skating, but had to drop out because of injury. Sasha Cohen fell twice and missed the gold in the women’s singles, then Johnny Weir completely flamed out on the men’s side. In speedskating, Chad Hedrick came in talking about equaling Eric Heiden’s five golds, but fell more than a bit short, winning one gold, one silver and one bronze. His teammate Shani Davis, was the one who made history, becoming the first person of African heritage to win a speedskating gold medal. Hedrick soured the entire meet by criticizing Davis for not skating in a relay and helping Hedrick’s personal quest.

Then there was the hockey tournament, in which the American men failed to make the medal round and the women — who had dominated the sport just a few years earlier — settling for bronze.

Slide show   Week in Sports Pictures Flying on the hardwood, racing on the rink, getting physical on the gridiron, and much more. more photos

From the Olympics, we went to the World Baseball Classic, at which Team America didn’t even make the final round. Later in the year, the U.S. Basketball Team continued its run of mediocrity, failing again to reclaim the world dominance it gave up in 2002 and hasn’t come close to recapturing.

The NCAA tournament went to Florida, but the title game was a total yawner, a 73-57 romp over UCLA. The real excitement of the tournament was the run to the Final Four of mid-major George Mason, as good a Cinderella story as the tournament has had. If George Mason had somehow pulled off the miracle and won it all, we’d have to think of another way to characterize the year, but they didn’t and we don’t.

Kudos are due to Dwyane Wade, who pretty much single-handedly won the NBA Finals and established himself as one of the game’s new generation of superstars. But Miami’s win was at the expense of Detroit, which had put together the best regular-season record, only to fall to the Heat.

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