MICHAEL BYERS | THE SPORTS LOWLIGHTS OF 2025 FOR SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

March 09, 2026 Michael Byers

Get ready to see “The Sports Lowlights of 2025: Looking Back on the Dubious Achievements of the Year” with #lcmartist Michael Byers and Sports Illustrated. “Fans saw plenty of oddities last year, including a rampaging grizzly and a baseball-loving pontiff. We all know the highlights of 2025: the champions, MVPs and feel-good stories. But then there are the more dubious achievements—the ones that live on in their own special way.”

CORA THE EXPLORER Asked about his team’s harrowing flight to Minneapolis in July, with turbulence so severe that multiple passengers vomited, Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, “I don’t know, I slept through it.”

NOW THEY KNOW HOW MANY HOLES IT TAKES TO FILL THE ALBERT HALL The Royal Albert Hall in London reinforced its toilets before hosting 40 sumo wrestlers for a tournament in October, with a venue official telling The Guardian: “It’s the ones that are screwed into the wall which are the most challenging.”

CHICAGO-STYLE ITALIAN BEEF: When a visitor to the Vatican shouted “Go Cubs!” at the pontiff in October, Pope Leo XIV shouted back from the Popemobile: “Han perdido! They lost!”

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MICHAEL BYERS | THE SPORTS LOWLIGHTS OF 2025 FOR SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

March 09, 2026 Michael Byers

Discipline

Medium