Sports: The Art of the Highlight Reel

YouTube and the widespread adoption of video editing technology have changed many things, and among them is the fact that nowadays an independent fan can make a sports montage that rivals even the best of what you see on broadcast TV.

Here are some of my favorite examples of this new democratization of the highlight reel:

FedererMagic:



Roger Federer is one of the greatest tennis players ever, and there are many YouTube members who assiduously chronicle the many highlights of Federer's career. Chief among them is FedererMagic, who has nearly 1500 subscribers and has posted over 200 videos, some short, some long. Above is my favorite, which features awed commentators and slow-mo captures of Federer's array of deadly groundstrokes.

Chrisleakfan4life:

The Florida Gators have been on an impressive run in the world of college sports (the football team will play in the national championship game in January), and no one captures the thrills of Florida football quite like Chrisleakfan4life. Taking his name from Chris Leak, the underappreciated quartback who led the Gators to a national title in 2006, Chrisleakfan4life has created some great music videos. Here we see his "Tebow for Heisman 2008" tribute, which interweaves game footage with a famous press conference where Tim Tebow promised to play harder than anyone in the country:



Honorable Mention - Cinedan1000:





Cinedan1000 doesn't post very many videos (actually, aside from the championship games, there aren't very many sports videos at all), but the ones that are posted are pretty awesome.