Sports on YouTube

The internet has revolutionized the life of the average sports fan over the last decade, from the growth of fantasy sports to real-time streaming video of every March Madness game.  At the same time, YouTube has become the go-to online source for procrastinators everywhere, providing the world with a nearly endless supply of pointless, yet undeniably entertaining, user-generated video clips.  The worlds of professional sports and YouTube rarely collide, however; the major media outlets control the rights to the vast majority of legitimate highlights and clips and immediately report Terms of Use violations to YouTube, causing many of the offending videos to be removed almost immediately.  The exceptions, however, are user-generated mash-ups or reenactments of famous moments in sports, which can be very impressive and even more entertaining.

Let's take Seattle Seahawks RB Marshawn Lynch's now-famous game-clinching touchdown run against the New Orleans Saints from this past Saturday.  Just in case you were being held hostage in someone's basement over the weekend, here's a video clip, courtesy of YouTube.  Rather than the authentic version of the video you'd find on ESPN.com, YouTube often prominently features videos made by random people (read: weirdos) who, for some reason, videotape their television sets and post those videos online.  Observe:

Interested in something that gets you a little closer to the real action?  YouTube also has this home video clip shot by a fan in the upper deck, which in some ways is pretty awesome (I especially like the audio at the 1:08 mark and again towards the end).

Now, YouTube offers us a number of other, more original versions of this classic NFL moment, too.  When watching the Seahawks game, did you find yourself wondering what Lynch's run would look like on the 1989 Nintendo Entertainment System version of Tecmo Bowl?  YouTube's got you covered:

Or, sticking with the Nintendo theme, perhaps you want to watch the Lynch video, but replace the audio with sound effects from the original Mario Bros. Well a quick YouTube search for "Marshawn Lynch touchdown Mario Bros." yields this little beauty, my personal favorite:

While I don't have the rest of the night to waste, I'm sure there are dozens more.  Feel free to post more of your favorite YouTube links in the comments section.  For my legitimate online sports news and highlights, I'll stick to ESPN.com or SI.com.  If I have a few minutes (or hours . . .) to kill and I'm looking for a sports-related laugh, though, YouTube is definitely the way to go.