30 Rock’s Best Sports Moments: An Incomplete Video History
NBC will air the series finale of 30 Rock tonight, ending the shows 7-season run as one of the best comedies on television. I will miss 30 Rock. I will miss the way it looked, the way it smelled, the way it made me laugh every Thursday night while NBC shuffled around soon-to-be-failed sitcom around it. I love 30 Rock so much I want to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant. No homo.
Keep in mind this isn’t all the sports moments on 30 Rock. Video doesn’t exist online for bits like Gay SportsCenter or throwaway lines like Tracy Jordan owning the world’s only giraffe basketball team, the New York Necks. Or Dennis Duffy wearing something from Amar’e Stoudemire’s evening wear collection. Or when Dennis Duffy teamed up with the Stanley Cup to fight illiteracy. Or lots of stuff because 30 Rock was great.
Liz Lemon Joins a WNBA Dance Team
One thing that made Liz happy was dancing. Where do you even come up with the idea of a New York Liberty dance team? Real life, obviously.
The Phillie Phanatic is an undersea king
30 Rock gave the Phanatic a voice and that voice revealed that he is an undersea king. Wrestler Mankind also appeared on this episode.
Philly Rules!
Related: Liz Lemon is from Philadelphia so she appreciates the Phillie Phanatic on a different level than most people. Plus, your town sucks.
Back in the Fall people still knew who Ryan Lochte was. 30 Rock brought him on to play a dumbed down version of himself as a sex idiot. Or was it a smartened up version? This season Liz Lemon even used Lochte’s catchphrase, “Jeah.”
Canadian High School Football Movie
Two weeks ago we got a Marc Trestman reference. So we have already covered this brilliantly crafted joke about Canadian football.
Tennis Night in America
The Football Night in America song is pointless and 30 Rock loved needling NBC. Hence, Tennis Night in America. Something so stupid that it would only exist because a network purchased a weekly tennis match. Then there would definitely be a song. And this would probably be it to save money.
Sports Shouting
While I couldn’t find the Gay SportsCenter clip, Sports Shouting is on YouTube and it is a perfect parody of ESPN’s many awful shows where talking heads shout at each other. The only problem is that you can’t make anyone seem as awful as Skip Bayless in less than 30 seconds.
Michael Schur has worked on three fairly important pieces of art in his time: Fire Joe Morgan, The Office and Parks & Recreation. 30 Rock borrowed his incredible name.

- Riddick Bowe Promoted His Unsuccessful Muay Thai Debut By Allowing Monkeys to Climb All Over Him in Thailand
- New Zealand High School Rugby Player With the Most Vicious Hit of the Decade [Painful Video and Gif]
- Mario Balotelli Scores Goal, Kicks Own Shoes, Shouts Out Drake; All in a Day’s Work
- The 2013 MLB All-Star Game Batting Practice Jerseys Can be Yours for the Low, Low Price of $99.99
- Manu Ginobili’s Bald Spot Disappears After One Magical Swipe From Tim Duncan [GIF]

- Shining Base Path on MLB At-Bat Music: Ballplayers Love Drake, Pitbull, Metallica and 90s Hip Hop Jams
- scripty on New Zealand High School Rugby Player With the Most Vicious Hit of the Decade [Painful Video and Gif]
- scripty on Riddick Bowe Promoted His Unsuccessful Muay Thai Debut By Allowing Monkeys to Climb All Over Him in Thailand
- TonyToniTone Has Done It Again on MLB At-Bat Music: Ballplayers Love Drake, Pitbull, Metallica and 90s Hip Hop Jams
- TheRealAC on New Zealand High School Rugby Player With the Most Vicious Hit of the Decade [Painful Video and Gif]
27 Responses to “30 Rock’s Best Sports Moments: An Incomplete Video History”
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January 31st, 2013 at 6:52 PM
Never seen it.
January 31st, 2013 at 7:11 PM
My thursday night work shift, the worst without an NFL game.
January 31st, 2013 at 7:21 PM
Faith’s legs.
January 31st, 2013 at 7:26 PM
Especially when even if there was, you couldn’t watch it.
/Looking at you, self.
January 31st, 2013 at 7:32 PM
Yep. It’s true.
January 31st, 2013 at 7:33 PM
Nor have I.
January 31st, 2013 at 7:39 PM
Cheesesteaks from Philly are overrated. As long as it’s not from NW PA, anyone can make a cheesesteak. Without cheeze wiz.
January 31st, 2013 at 7:39 PM
My favorite would be the line “Why are you crying? Did the Liberty loose again last night?”
Show needs to kill off Jenna and Kenneth to end the series.
January 31st, 2013 at 7:40 PM
no sane human has ever liked Philly. That’s why the Phillies had to overpay Ryan Howard so much.
January 31st, 2013 at 7:59 PM
Man that rape scene in The Americans is something else.
January 31st, 2013 at 8:17 PM
no sane human has ever liked Philly. That’s why the Phillies had to overpay Ryan Howard so much.
Still with the Ryan Howard contract? You’re so pathetic dude.
January 31st, 2013 at 9:47 PM
cant say i’ve ever watched a full episode
/waives bye
//farts
///goes back to watching The Middle, Modern Family, The Office, etc etc.
////Baldwin is the worst
January 31st, 2013 at 9:54 PM
I saw it a few times on reruns on Comedy Central. Clever. Sometime too silly. Didn’t get it all. Lots of inside jokes I didn’t get.
Much like the finale I did watch tonight. Sorry for your loss, 30 Rock fans. However, seven seasons is the most any show needs to run. I type this as I fake my way watching the ninth season near ending of The Office. I haven’t watched this show in five years and have little idea what is going on. Not funny. Not clever. Happy for these cats that were unknown get fat residuals for the rest of their lives.
January 31st, 2013 at 10:09 PM
This is what has become of TBL After Dark? Sad.
30 Rock was great. Classic Netflix show – where you could knock out a season in a week (similar to how I watched Arrested Development).
January 31st, 2013 at 10:33 PM
A Grammy nomination – let alone six of them – does not constitute critical acclaim?
Duckworth’d since 2009.
January 31st, 2013 at 10:34 PM
This is what has become of TBL After Dark? Sad.
Duckworth’d since 2009.
/me fucking up copying and pasting since forever’d.
January 31st, 2013 at 10:37 PM
The potential for revival lurks below the surface. What you get from it is directly impacted by what you give.
Also, my Grizz got whomped 106-89 at OKC. Ouch.
January 31st, 2013 at 10:38 PM
/Adds name to the list
January 31st, 2013 at 10:47 PM
Just got done watching both seasons of Homeland in about 2 weeks. It’s fairly obvious the writers only prepared for 1 season.
January 31st, 2013 at 10:48 PM
Reminds me of Boondock Saints. Almost like they didn’t realize how much of a following the 1st would have, so they tried to duplicate. And failed.
January 31st, 2013 at 10:54 PM
It’s fairly obvious the writers only prepared for 1 season.
I haven’t seen Homeland, but I think this is a fairly common complaint about most risky off network shows. Some figure it out (Justified, Breaking Bad) some don’t.
January 31st, 2013 at 10:55 PM
It’s fairly obvious the writers only prepared for 1 season.
J.J. Abrams and the writers of Lost, line 1.
January 31st, 2013 at 11:01 PM
J.J. Abrams and the writers of Lost, line 1.
Yep. And they did a solid job in Season 2 and then….
January 31st, 2013 at 11:39 PM
with 30 Rock gone, The Office a shell of its former self, and Community on thin ice, all that is left is Parks and Rec for quality NBC comedies. sad
February 1st, 2013 at 12:56 AM
what about the time Jack Donaghy referres to Tim Donaghy as his cousin to private investigator Steve Buscemi?
February 1st, 2013 at 2:15 AM
What ever became of the nightly TBLAD support group for boring men with boring jobs and the wise old men advising them? You fucking cunts.
February 1st, 2013 at 3:58 AM
Jennifer Garner looks like an emaciated skull with 80′s stripper make up on.