2008: Billy Slater loses the Rugby League world cup for Australia. He catches the ball after a kick and an NZ player pushes him towards the out-of-bounds. to keep the ball in play he blindly chucks it backward over his head - straight into the arms of kiwi Benji Marshall.
It’s often reported that way - but that’s not the way it happened.
In the final round of the 1968 Masters, he’d made a birdie on the 17th hole, but his playing partner (who was keeping score) wrote down a par 4. At the end of the round DeVicenzo signed the card without checking it thoroughly.
The rule says that if you sign for a better score than you achieved, you are disqualified; if you sign for a worse score, that’s the score you get. So no DQ - but he was credited with a score one stroke worse than what he’d actually shot. This caused him to finish second, rather than tying for first and thus being in a playoff.
Houston Oilers. Denver Broncos. Stagger Lee.
I can’t go on. Google it for yourself.
It’s wasn’t accidental, but I’m sure Johnny Bench wish he had swung at a fake intentional walk in the 1972 World Series.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned The Miracle at the Meadowlands.
See post #33 
Wish I could find the video but it was of an NFL receiver going deep and having the ball lobbed perfectly to him when he suddenly sees a safety bearing down on him. He suddenly stops the route letting the ball drop to the ground.
Wasn’t willing to do what most receivers will do. Catch the pass and take the hit. Embarrassing.
For the list:
Charles Barkley goes in for a monster dunk and clangs it off the rim. Next time down the court he goes in for a two-handed dunk. The ball flies out of the basket as though he had clanged it again. Later, the slo-mo replay showed that the ball had hit Barkley on the top of the head and rebounded back out. It happened so fast that the refs missed it. It should have been a score but wasn’t counted.
I think it was Ruben Sierra, while on the Giants, who committed the most bizarre and awful series of baserunning mistakes every witnessed in Major League Baseball – involving retreating, going forwards, missing 2nd base… I’m looking for a video but can’t seem to find it.
ETA: I couldn’t find it because it was Ruben Rivera. And it’s already been mentioned here. So…never mind.
At least, Ben Revere of the Twins made it to third base…
You are probably referring to Todd “Alligator Arms” Pinkston, formerly of the Philadelphia Eagles.
There are all kinds of moments when a player just makes foolish mistakes, for epic fail you need hubris
In the 1954 cotton bowl. Rice running back Dickie Maegle was streaking down the sideline in an apparent touchdown run. Tommy Lewis sprung up from the Alabama bench and made the tackle. He wasn’t in the game at the time. He wasn’t even wearing his helmet.
I guess he just got caught up in the moment.
I didn’t see it but my dad and I were listening on the radio
No mention of the “bobbled snap” by Tommy Hutton?
1997 Monday Night Football, Cowboys vs. Eagles. End of the fourth quarter, the game was pretty much decided - Eagles just needed to hit the (short) field goal. Instead, Hutton spaced out and bobbled the ball, made a kind of “deer in the headlights” attempt to run it in, and Deion Sanders gleefully takes him down and the game is over.
The Cowboy’s coach at the time, Barry Switzer, was completely flabbergasted. I think he had already started into his post-loss sulk & tantrum mode, when the bobble play happened, and suddenly he had a win instead of a loss. He was laughing, rolling around in the end zone with the players. The Eagles team was stonefaced and silent, and I would imagine that Tommy Hutton was not a popular guy for a good long while.
Comedy gold.
I dunno, I think that belongs in the other thread.
That’s it. Thanks!
How about South Africa misunderstanding the number of runs needed to get through in the 2003. world cup?