Ramon Hernandez turned into a footnote in broadcasting history on April 7, 2002, when the Oakland A's catcher became the first player to wear a microphone during a regular-season game on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. Hernandez wore the one-square-inch, one-ounce "Player Mic" on his uniform and the network edited taped audio segments from the feed for a "Sunday Night Sounds" feature. It's since become a staple for coverage of a range of different sports on different networks. (https://www.si.com/more-sports/2009/12/22/innovations )

Serena Williams' controversial loss to Jennifer Capriati in the 2004 U.S. Open quarterfinals prompted the adoption of Hawk-Eye, an electronic line-calling technology first used in cricket. The system reconstructs the ball's trajectory and most likely path within three millimeters using multiple high-speed video cameras around the court. Hawk-Eye's impact has gone beyond officiating: It's also enhanced telecasts, since the system can measure the speed of the ball at any stage of a rally, service placement and bounce points. Most fans and players have embraced the system, though Roger Federer remains a vocal skeptic.  (https://www.si.com/more-sports/2009/12/22/innovations )

The long-awaited report slammed home what many had long been suspected: illegal drugs were part of the lineup of every team in Major League Baseball beginning in the mid 1990s.

"Those who have illegally used these substances range from players whose major league careers were brief to potential members of the Baseball Hall of Fame," former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell wrote in his much-anticipated report on performance-enhancing drugs.

"They include both pitchers and position players, and their backgrounds are as diverse as those of all major league players."

Seven MVPs, two Cy Young Award winners and 31 All-Stars - one for every position. In all, the 409-page report identified 85 names to differing degrees, putting question marks if not asterisks in the record book and threatening the integrity of the game itself. 

Mitchell said the problems didn't develop overnight and there was plenty of blame to go around.

"Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades - commissioners, club officials, the players' association and players - shares to some extent the responsibility for the Steroids Era," Mitchell said. "There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on."

Mitchell recommended that the drug-testing program be made independent, that a list of the substances players test positive for be issued periodically and that the timing of testing be more unpredictable.

"The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the integrity of the game," the report said. "Widespread use by players of such substances unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who refuse to use them and raises questions about the validity of baseball records." (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steroids-a-mainstay-in-baseballs-lineup/ )

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released more than 1,000 pages of evidence in doping allegations against Armstrong and his teammates. He was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in the scandal. On Thursday, the International Olympic Committee demanded that he give back the bronze medal he won in 2000.

The charges against Armstrong are all too common in the cycling world. Cyclist Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after failing a drug test. Eighty percent of the Tour de France medalists between 1996 and 2010 have been "similarly tainted by doping," according to the USADA report on Armstrong.

A look at the drugs Armstrong used:

• EPO, or erythropoietin, is a hormone naturally produced by human kidneys to stimulate red blood cell production, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency. Cyclists and other athletes use EPO to raise their red blood cell counts, which increases the amount of oxygen that can be delivered to muscles, improving recovery and endurance. 

• Corticosteroids are man-made drugs that resemble the natural hormone cortisol, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Cortisol is most commonly known as a stress hormone. Corticosteroids work to decrease inflammation that can cause swelling and pain, according to the Cleveland Clinic.  

• Testosterone is a naturally occurring hormone that helps regulate bone density, fat distribution, muscle strength, red blood cell production and sex drive, according to the Mayo Clinic.  Athletes generally abuse testosterone to "bulk up," according to the USADA. 

"Our mission is to protect clean athletes by preserving the integrity of competition not only for today's athletes but also the athletes of tomorrow. We have heard from many athletes who have faced an unfair dilemma -- dope, or don't compete at the highest levels of the sport. Many of them abandoned their dreams and left sport because they refused to endanger their health and participate in doping. That is a tragic choice no athlete should have to make." USADA CEO Travis Tygart said in a statement.  (https://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/health/armstrong-ped-explainer/index.html )

The first fantasy football league was started in 1963, but it took decades for it to reach the mainstream. More to point, it took the advance of the Internet over the old fax machine method of score-tracking, and the ability to get scores live rather than in the newspaper box score the next morning.

Bleacher Report actually has an interesting connection to this leap in NFL popularity, as CEO Brian Grey became general manager at Yahoo! Sports in 2001. One of his first goals was to raise the profile of their fantasy sports scene. Grey's big idea was to make fantasy football something free to play rather than the paid leagues Yahoo!'s competitors were offering.

It took off like gangbusters.

To this day—even after ESPN, CBS and others were forced into free leagues—Yahoo! remains one of the top fantasy football destinations on the Web.

With the advent of fantasy sports, fans now have a vested interest in teams and players that aren't geographically near them. Two decades ago, a fan in Syracuse, N.Y., didn't need to know that the St. Louis Rams running back ran for two touchdowns. Now, that same fan needs to know up-to-the-second injury information on that running back and demands retribution if the coach limits his carries.

That coincided with a massive expansion and rules change by the NFL to make the game more appealing to average fans across the country. Fantasy football, more than any other development, locked those fans in and gave them a reason to care about every single team across the league.  (https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1691465-how-the-nfl-became-americas-sport )

Although many people predicted that after 1984 broadcast rights would decline sharply toward the marginal costs of airing college football games, about a quarter million dollars at the time (Siegfried and Burba 2004), they failed to appreciate the rapid growth of television networks that demanded football game content, and the degree to which college football demand is regional, which preserved market power for regional conferences. 

Prior to 1984, ABC and CBS—which held the rights to televise Saturday intercollegiate football—had been airing simultaneous regional contests rather than a single game broadcast nationally. The greater appeal of Southeastern Conference (SEC) games in the American South and of Big Ten match-ups in the ‘‘rust belt’’ must have been enough to boost advertising receipts by more than the extra cost of airing multiple games. Interest in college sports, especially football, is regional in part because many alumni of colleges and universities reside relatively close to their alma maters,4 and they and the current students constitute a substantial base demand for television broadcasts, as well as for live attendance. 

After 1984, the largest conferences (called ‘‘power conferences’’)5 began to expand in order to solidify their regional dominance. Starting with the Big Ten’s addition of the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in 1990, all five dominant conferences added teams during the 1990s and 2000s. The 1984 Court decision dissolved the NCAA’s single football television contract. 

After a brief period of confusion during which home and visiting teams for some games each sold ‘‘exclusive’’ rights to the same game to different broadcasters, a duopoly emerged. The College Football Association (CFA), formerly an internal NCAA lobbying group, negotiated television rights for teams in the SEC, the ACC, and the Big Eight (which has since evolved into the Big-12), plus Notre Dame and Penn State, which were two successful independents at the time. The Big Ten and Pac-10 joined to offer networks an alternative television package. This duopoly was not challenged by antitrust authorities, but eventually proved to be unstable.  (https://home.uchicago.edu/arsx/NCAA%20Cartel-Why%20it%20exists,%20how%20it%20works%20and%20what%20it%20does.pdf )

James was born on December 30, 1984, in Akron, Ohio. At an early age, James showed a natural talent for basketball. He was recruited by St. Vincent-St. Mary High School to join their basketball team in 1999.   As a high school sophomore, James was chosen for the USA Today All-USA First Team. He was the first sophomore ever selected for this award. 

The following school year, James was named PARADE magazine's High School Boys Basketball Player of the Year and Gatorade Player of the Year. Following the end of his junior year, James was such a strong player that he contemplated going pro.  Deciding to finish his education, James had a tremendous senior year on the court. James would soon emerge as one of the National Basketball Association's leading players.

With his impressive record, it was no surprise that James was the first player picked in the 2003 NBA Draft straight out of high school. The Cleveland Cavaliers signed the powerful young forward, and he proved to be a valuable addition to the then-struggling franchise. 

During the 2003-04 season, James made history when he became the first member of the Cavalier franchise to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. He also became the youngest player — at only 20 years old — to receive this honor.   He made NBA history again in 2005 when he became the youngest player to score more than 50 points in one game.  James was selected for the NBA All-Star Game for the first time in 2005 and would go on to earn a spot in the annual showcase in each of the next 15 seasons. 

In 2003, James signed several endorsement deals, including a deal with Nike for $90 million that could net him over $1 billion over his lifetime. (https://www.biography.com/athlete/lebron-james )

Amir Johnson, who is now in his 14th NBA season, became the last “prep-to-pro” player selected in an NBA draft. He had spent no time attending college nor did he play professionally in the minors or abroad. Instead, Johnson went directly from high school to the NBA. He was the 40th player between 1975 and 2005, an era when the NBA welcomed players straight out of high school, to do so. And he was the last. 

The following year, the NBA would implement a controversial age eligibility rule. The rule had been negotiated by the NBA and NBPA and detailed in Article X of their 2005 collective bargaining agreement. Article X dictated that in order for an American player to be draft eligible, he must be at least 19 years old and at least one NBA season must have elapsed since when he graduated from high school or, if he didn’t graduate, when he would have graduated.

The era of “one-and-done” thus began in 2006. Most players who would otherwise have joined the NBA out of high school instead attended college for a year—or, more accurately, took fall semester courses and then dropped out of school when their team’s season ended sometime between February and April. In a few instances, players such as Brandon Jennings, Jeremy Tyler and Emmanuel Mudiay skipped college and played professionally abroad until becoming eligible for the NBA draft. (https://www.si.com/nba/2019/03/03/legal-analysis-change-age-eligibility-rule-one-and-done)