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Every sports reference in Avengers: Age of Ultron

It’s Marvel Cinematic Universe Week at SB Nation and across our team brands! We’re using the superior superhero franchise to guide our coverage for this week, as we pass the two-month mark without sports.

Here at Fear the Fin, I’m going to take on a very stupid mission: to watch every film in the MCU and document every reference made to sports throughout. I’m playing a little fast and loose with my definition of “sports reference,” but I’m going to try to avoid making the same jokes more than once in this series. You’ll see what I mean.

That’s 23 films, totaling 50 hours, by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, May 10.

(I’m aware the week starts on Sunday, but the next theme week doesn’t start until Monday and I got a late start on this, okay? I’m cutting myself some slack to make this ridiculous thing a complete project.)

I’ll be watching in a chronological order (some films take place around the same time, so it doesn’t matter too much) that is dubbed the “spoiler” version, as post-credit scenes will contain spoilers for movies further along in the timeline, as opposed to release order.

I’ve set up a storystream to help you keep track of each post as they go up — which won’t be on any kind of set schedule, since I’m gonna be putting some weird hours into this thing in order to pull it off. No worries, though — that’s the whole point of having a centralized location. I’d suggest reading them in order, but hey, I’m not your mom.

Reminder that time stamps are approximate, not exact, and may vary based on streaming services.

Back to Earth we go, to check in on Earth’s Mightiest.


Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Director: Joss Whedon, Written by Joss Whedon

00:23:04: Some older gentlemen are seen playing pool at a Tony Stark party.

00:23:17: Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers are seen playing pool at Tony Stark’s party. Oh, I think they’re playing against the old guys.

00:41:27: Joss Whedon’s Sports Guy Tony Stark is back, using the phrase “game-changer,” but to his credit, he was quoting someone else (not necessarily verbatim).

01:02:12: One of Clint’s kids has a bicycle:

01:03:07: There’s a helmet in Hawkeye’s closet:

01:05:29: The Bartons also own a Razor scooter and a couple of adult sized bikes:

01:08:52: The infamous Captain America chopping wood scene. I just checked and yes, competitive woodchopping is a thing. I cannot wait to YouTube this later.

01:11:50: Bikes and a cyclist are shown on the campus of the University of London, where Thor is meeting Dr. Selvig.

01:12:26: Tony is playing darts against Clint in the Barton house throughout this scene. Clint nearly hits Tony in the face with a dart.

01:26:14: Apparently bicycles are a big background prop in this movie, so I think we can stop mentioning them.

01:53:06: Okay seriously, there are bicycles everywhere in Sokovia. Every background shot had a bicycle. Pile of trash? There’s a busted bicycle in there. Street? Bikes leaning on every building. How many bikes were used in this film?

01:58:47: Natasha finds the Hulk at a children’s playground, where he’s beating up on some of the equipment. A jungle gym and swing set are seen over Bruce and Nat’s shoulders.

02:10:38: BASEBALL BOY STEVE STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE! Natasha asks “How do we look?” and Steve responds, “Well, we’re not the ‘27 Yankees.”

The 1927 New York Yankees went 110-44 on their way to earning a reputation as the greatest team in MLB history.

I mean, yeah, Steve. Your brand new superheroes-in-training program is probably not starting off in the Hall of Fame.

But like Nat says next, “We’ve got some hitters.”

“They’re good,” Steve agrees. “They’re not a team.”

Previous: Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 | Up Next: Ant-Man

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