The best ‘SNL' sports sketches over its 50-year history

Washington Post

14-02-2025

With 'Saturday Night Live' celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, we thought it would be an opportune time to go back and look at some of the best SNL sketches that drew from the world of sports.
Season 3, Episode 6 (1977)
SNL plumbed the depths of John Belushi's real-life persona for laughs on numerous occasions in its early years ('The Thing That Wouldn't Leave,' a second-season cold open that made light of his drug use and notorious unreliability), but the most remembered probably is the commercial parody that had stumpy-bodied Belushi performing Olympian feats, all thanks to little chocolate donuts (and perhaps the lit cigarette in his hand).
Belushi actually had an athletic background. In high school, he was co-captain of his high school football team at Wheaton Central High School in Illinois.
Season 3, Episode 6 (1977)
SNL plumbed the depths of John Belushi's real-life persona for laughs on numerous occasions in its early years ('The Thing That Wouldn't Leave,' a second-season cold open that made light of his drug use and notorious unreliability), but the most remembered probably is the commercial parody that had stumpy-bodied Belushi performing Olympian feats, all thanks to little chocolate donuts (and perhaps the lit cigarette in his hand).
Belushi actually had an athletic background. In high school, he was co-captain of his high school football team at Wheaton Central High School in Illinois.
Season 10, Episode 1 (1984)
SNL brought in a cast of ringers for its 10th season and employed two of them — Christopher Guest and Martin Short — to great effect almost immediately with a first-episode mockumentary about two men who hope to become America's first great male synchronized swimming team. The fact that men's synchronized swimming is not a thing and that one of them cannot swim is only of minor importance.
Season 10, Episode 1 (1984)
SNL brought in a cast of ringers for its 10th season and employed two of them — Christopher Guest and Martin Short — to great effect almost immediately with a first-episode mockumentary about two men who hope to become America's first great male synchronized swimming team. The fact that men's synchronized swimming is not a thing and that one of them cannot swim is only of minor importance.
Numerous episodes, premiered 1991
This loving salute to the North Inland dialect and Mike Ditka eventually would get beaten into the ground from overuse, but it's hard to underestimate just how much of a cultural phenomenon these sketches were in the early 1990s, toward the tail end of the Chicago Bears' most recent string of success and at the start of Michael Jordan's championship run with the Chicago Bulls.
Numerous episodes, premiered 1991
This loving salute to the North Inland dialect and Mike Ditka eventually would get beaten into the ground from overuse, but it's hard to underestimate just how much of a cultural phenomenon these sketches were in the early 1990s, toward the tail end of the Chicago Bears' most recent string of success and at the start of Michael Jordan's championship run with the Chicago Bulls.
Season 19, Episode 15 (1994)
You can't have a Nancy Kerrigan-hosted show and not have a figure skating sketch. But casting the surprisingly graceful Chris Farley as her winded partner was a pretty great idea.
This sketch aired on the heels of the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, which took place only two years after the previous Winter Games in Albertville, France (the IOC attempted to raise the Winter Olympics' visibility by moving it away from the years when Summer Olympics took place). And just as in 1994, SNL also had a figure skating sketch in 1992 when Jason Priestley hosted. It also has its charms:
Season 19, Episode 15 (1994)
You can't have a Nancy Kerrigan-hosted show and not have a figure skating sketch. But casting the surprisingly graceful Chris Farley as her winded partner was a pretty great idea.
This sketch aired on the heels of the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, which took place only two years after the previous Winter Games in Albertville, France (the IOC attempted to raise the Winter Olympics' visibility by moving it away from the years when Summer Olympics took place). And just as in 1994, SNL also had a figure skating sketch in 1992 when Jason Priestley hosted. It also has its charms:
Season 24, Episode 15 (1999)
Tim Meadows portrays ESPN's Stuart Scott as someone with 'BOO-YAH' on the brain, but Ray Romano's increasingly daffy and convoluted non-sequitors are the highlights in this spoof of a 'SportsCenter' franchise that had become overrun by catchphrases. 'Sweet sassy molassy,' indeed.
Season 24, Episode 15 (1999)
Tim Meadows portrays ESPN's Stuart Scott as someone with 'BOO-YAH' on the brain, but Ray Romano's increasingly daffy and convoluted non-sequitors are the highlights in this spoof of a 'SportsCenter' franchise that had become overrun by catchphrases. 'Sweet sassy molassy,' indeed.
Season 32, Episode 16 (2007)
Peyton Manning was only weeks removed from his MVP performance in Super Bowl XLI when he hosted 'SNL,' and this sketch — about how Manning expects greatness from his teammates, even if they happened to be young kids — helped establish the goofball bona fides that have served him so well in his post-football career.
Season 32, Episode 16 (2007)
Peyton Manning was only weeks removed from his MVP performance in Super Bowl XLI when he hosted 'SNL,' and this sketch — about how Manning expects greatness from his teammates, even if they happened to be young kids — helped establish the goofball bona fides that have served him so well in his post-football career.
Season 38, Episode 17 (2013)
Riffing on the news that former Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice had been caught on video abusing his players, we get Melissa McCarthy as Sheila Kelly, the world's worst women's basketball coach.
Season 38, Episode 17 (2013)
Riffing on the news that former Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice had been caught on video abusing his players, we get Melissa McCarthy as Sheila Kelly, the world's worst women's basketball coach.
Season 38, Episode 18 (2013)
The theme song to NBC's 1990s NBA coverage gets the origin story we never knew we needed, with Jason Sudeikis and Tim Robinson playing composer John Tesh and his brother, Dave, whose poetry inspired lyrics that for some reason didn't stick.
Season 38, Episode 18 (2013)
The theme song to NBC's 1990s NBA coverage gets the origin story we never knew we needed, with Jason Sudeikis and Tim Robinson playing composer John Tesh and his brother, Dave, whose poetry inspired lyrics that for some reason didn't stick.
Season 43, Episode 6 (2017)
'Let's do that hockey.' Chance the Rapper is an increasingly cold New York Knicks reporter, pressed into double duty covering a sport he clearly knows nothing about.
Season 43, Episode 6 (2017)
'Let's do that hockey.' Chance the Rapper is an increasingly cold New York Knicks reporter, pressed into double duty covering a sport he clearly knows nothing about.
Various episodes
Ball thankfully has been forgotten, but Thompson's portrayal of the boastful family scion still lingers. Thompson has an arsenal of sports impersonations — David Ortiz, Charles Barkley, etc. — but Ball is his best work.
Various episodes
Ball thankfully has been forgotten, but Thompson's portrayal of the boastful family scion still lingers. Thompson has an arsenal of sports impersonations — David Ortiz, Charles Barkley, etc. — but Ball is his best work.