Travis Kelce, Jake Paul, Caitlin Clark: TIM HOWARD’s awards for 2024… and his predictions for 2025
The curtain closes on another year of sports and the time must come to look back on all we have seen – and all that awaits us in the next twelve months.
DailyMail.com columnist TIM HOWARD has picked some of his highlights and lowlights from 2024.
The former Manchester United, Everton and USA goalkeeper has also looked into his crystal ball to make some predictions for 2025…
MOMENT OF THE YEAR
Freddie Freeman wins World Series MVP
Just look at the Dodgers and the Yankees: two big-spending teams, so many big names, including Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.
Freeman would have been the last name on the betting sheet that would win MVP. That he hit a walk-off in Game 1 and then homered in four straight games? Incredible.
That moment to win Game 1 was stunning enough, but he held on. All at the end of a year when his son was temporarily paralyzed by a rare neurological condition before Freeman suffered an ankle injury prior to the World Series. Great.
DailyMail.com columnist TIM HOWARD has picked some of his highlights and lowlights from 2024
Freddie Freeman inspired the Los Angeles Dodgers to victory over the New York Yankees
ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Caitlin Clark
What she has done for women’s sports and for the WNBA is remarkable. She changed the trajectory of the competition. Not with my own hands, of course. That is patronizing for the women who came before her and built up that competition.
Clark stands on the shoulders of giants. But sometimes in sports, a seismic shift takes place from a single moment.
Look at how Michael Jordan transformed the NBA: the league was reeling, there was no one in the stands, Nike was willing to give up basketball. MJ took the NBA into a different realm and Clark is doing the same for women’s basketball.
Women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark has become one of the biggest names in the sport
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
Jets from New York
I know what you’re thinking: what about my old team Manchester United? They are certainly among the nominations. But it has to be the Jets.
So many things have gone wrong. It’s like Murphy’s Law at MetLife. First they sign Aaron Rodgers, then he tears his Achilles tendon in his first game and suddenly that season is a flop.
You really only have two years with an aging quarterback. So this season it was. And it has been an unmitigated disaster. No one is on the same page. The head coach Robert Saleh was fired. The GM Joe Douglas was fired. They stink. It’s the same old Jets. And that’s coming from a Giants fan who knows: we stink too.
Even with Aaron Rodgers under center, the New York Jets have had a terrible season
MOMENT I WISH I HAD SEEN IN PERSON
Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul
A strange choice perhaps. But you have to be impressed by the spectacle. Jake Paul is an easy guy to hate. He’s a YouTuber, he’s a novice in boxing. But the sheer numbers, eyeballs and interest he generates? It’s staggering.
There’s another, selfish reason why I would have liked to be in Texas: I grew up watching Mike Tyson in all his glory and all his downfall and all his resurrection.
To see him get in the ring again – even as an older man – would have been a surreal moment. Instead, I turned on Netflix – and watched it between interruptions!
Mike Tyson, 58, returned to the ring to take on YouTuber boxer Jake Paul in Texas
BIGGEST SHOCK
Manchester city
If you’re not completely shocked by this recent collapse, then you’re lying. There are people who claim they saw it coming. No chance.
It’s one thing to have an off season or be a bit off the boil. But for this City team, that could mean bullying Arsenal or Liverpool at the finish.
That would mean a bad season. But this? It’s catastrophic.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have suffered a dramatic collapse in recent months
UNHEALTHY HERO
Travis Kelce
I’m stunned to hear about the Chiefs star’s decline. It’s amazing. Maybe his grades aren’t what they once were – that’s normal as you get older.
But for all the big games and all the big moments – on a Chiefs team going for a historic three-peat – Kelce is there. He is innovative in this position. He always has tricks up his sleeve.
And yet people want to tear him apart. Just because he’s dating Taylor Swift. It’s laughable. Look at the NFL. Look how important he is to that Chiefs team. Look at his oeuvre. Among tight ends, he finds himself on Mount Rushmore alongside Rob Gronkowski and Tony Gonzalez.
Travis Kelce’s relationship with Taylor Swift has brought attention to his performances
TWO SPORTING PREDICTIONS FOR 2025:
Cole Palmer could be the best player in the Premier League next Christmas. It doesn’t matter if Mohamed Salah stays at Liverpool or if Erling Haaland rediscovers his best form.
Chelsea will start next season with real title ambitions and Palmer has grown as a player over the past eighteen months. That much is clear from his consistency.
In some ways it’s easy to have a breakout year; no one expects anything. Palmer has returned with a hangover from the European Championships and has made a flying start.
Chelsea player Cole Palmer has become one of the most influential players in the Premier League
He is just as important as last season and his performances have remained the same. That’s the hard part.
Manchester United, will now undergo a complete overhaul of their squad.
At this point, I’m almost certain that Ruben Amorim – if given the choice – would replace at least eight of his top 11 starting players.
As he strives to take United back to the top – or at least back to the Champions League – there may be only a few survivors.
Bruno Fernandes, even if he lets the manager down with all these red cards.
The other two? Kobbie Mainoo and Amad Diallo. I don’t think anyone else gets a pass.