# Most quickly misremembered sports details. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 23, 2018, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641 "2018-06-23T22:19:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/41 "2018-06-26T22:27:52Z")
> [@Tread](#): > > Early 80s … NBA game… Celtics vs Hawks, everyone seems to remember Danny Ainge biting Tree Rollins’ finger during a fight. > > but Tree bit Ainge. Danny just seems like a biter to me. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2018, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/42 "2018-06-26T22:38:19Z")
Adding to the list, people insist Lou Gehrig got his start on his consecutive game streak when he replaced Wally Pipp who sat out a game with a headache. > **[Wally Pipp's Career-Ending 'Headache'](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wally-pipp-headache/)** > > Rumor: Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak begin when Wally Pipp sat out a game with a headache. In reality the Yankees played Lou (among other younger players) because they wanted to give newer players a chance to play. It’s as simple as that. Wally was in a bit of a slump at the time as well. Not as dramatic or ironic as the story people remember. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2018, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/43 "2018-06-26T23:27:39Z")
> [@Tread](#): > > Tree bit Ainge. The next day’s headline: “Tree Bites Man”. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2018, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/44 "2018-06-27T03:35:11Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > Rene Higuita - colourful goalkeeper for the Columbian national team in the 90s, is remembered for pulling off an outrageous scorpion kick to save a wayward cross against England in a friendly match. What is less remembered, is that the linesman had raised his flag for offside so the ball was dead, rendering the save meaningless [as far as that game goes, Higuita has dined out on it for 25 years]. > > What is up for debate is whether Higuita clocked the flag, so pulled out his party piece knowing there was nothing at stake. Or whether he hadn’t noticed and was awesome enough just to do it anyhow. > [Scorpion kick, but linesman not visible](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCxe4r6SjH0) There are a lot of spectacular sports plays that happen because they had to be spectacular. This guy could have just caught the ball, but decided to do a weird kick instead. The technical term for that is called “being a dick”. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/45 "2018-06-27T23:45:17Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > There are a lot of spectacular sports plays that happen because they had to be spectacular. This guy could have just caught the ball, but decided to do a weird kick instead. The technical term for that is called “being a dick”. Think of the children, robot arm. Next day, up and down the country, 10,000 kids tried a scorpion kick at playtime. So it’s hardly Dickov’s equaliser against Gillingham, Zidane’s volley against Leverkusen, or Gerrard’s slip against Chelsea - moments where millions of people held their breath. But in its own way is more influential than any of those spectacular events. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/46 "2018-06-28T00:32:40Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > So it’s hardly Dickov’s equaliser against Gillingham, Zidane’s volley against Leverkusen, or Gerrard’s slip against Chelsea - moments where millions of people held their breath. But in its own way is more influential than any of those spectacular events. Why that identical situation occurred in the New Hebrides Open. Kaduffleblaze versus Fuddle in 19-aught-18. And what about Fradis versus Ginfritter, huh? Bizbo versus Stoigen in the Casablanca Amateur! ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/47 "2018-06-28T01:35:52Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Why that identical situation occurred in the New Hebrides Open. Kaduffleblaze versus Fuddle in 19-aught-18. And what about Fradis versus Ginfritter, huh? Bizbo versus Stoigen in the Casablanca Amateur! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/48 "2018-06-28T02:47:32Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > 🙂 I consider it a matter of honor to only steal from the very best. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/49 "2018-06-28T03:15:39Z")
Excuse my ignorance — Monty Python? Or, ?? (Not Key and Peele, though they’ve done a sort of Stateside equivalent.) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/50 "2018-06-28T03:48:57Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Excuse my ignorance — Monty Python? Or, ?? (Not Key and Peele, though they’ve done a sort of Stateside equivalent.) Bugs Bunny! 🙂 [http://www.divxmoviesenglishsubtitles.com/B/Bugs\_Bunny\_-\_My\_Bunny\_Lies\_Over\_the\_Sea\_(1948).html](http://www.divxmoviesenglishsubtitles.com/B/Bugs_Bunny_-_My_Bunny_Lies_Over_the_Sea_(1948).html) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/51 "2018-06-28T04:13:57Z")
Tangentially related: My wife found a Rose Bowl T-Shirt from 2017 in a thrift store, so she bought it for me. It has the helmets of PSU and USC in between the 20 and the 17, so it looks like the score of the game. She shows it to me and I think, “Wait a minute. We didn’t lose that game. WTF?” Had to go look it up to get the correct score. We clobbered 'em, setting all kinds of records in the process. 😉 Not sure if I wear that shirt or not. :rolleyes: Maybe get some iron-on numbers or something… ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/52 "2018-06-28T05:20:12Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Bugs Bunny! 🙂 > > [http://www.divxmoviesenglishsubtitles.com/B/Bugs\_Bunny\_-\_My\_Bunny\_Lies\_Over\_the\_Sea\_(1948).html](http://www.divxmoviesenglishsubtitles.com/B/Bugs_Bunny_-_My_Bunny_Lies_Over_the_Sea_(1948).html) [Here](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2n7uzx). Fast forward to 6:00 if you must, but really, watch the whole thing. The very best. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/53 "2018-06-29T04:12:49Z")
Just remembered Leon Lett, who’d be remembered as the biggest albatross in the history of the Dallas Cowboys. For two things, specifically: 1. The time he interfered with a ball late in the 4th quarter when leaving it alone would’ve given the Cowboys possession and iced the game. The play in question was a field goal which was partially blocked and rolled all the way to the 1, an extremely bizarre situation that perhaps 20 other special teams players would have absolutely no idea what to do (how do you know the kicking team can’t recover?). But okay, it cost the Cowboys the game. Specifically, an early-season nonconference game. But given the shortness of the schedule, even those can have an impact. Emphasis on “can”. This one didn’t, as the Cowboys went on to lock up home field advantage throughout the playoffs and win the Super Bowl. 2. The time he got a turnover (interception or fumble, I don’t remember) late in the 4th quarter of Super Bowl 38 and was about to run it back for a touchdown…but he didn’t protect the ball, and a Bills player _swatted it out and recovered it!_ What an epic meltdown! What a horrible lapse of concentration! Clearly this justifies villifying him as the supreme choker of all…oh, wait, the Cowboys were **UP 35 FRICKING POINTS** at the time, a lead which proved more than safe. Damn, if I were a coach, I’d _love_ to have that kind of albatross on my team! ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/54 "2018-06-29T06:06:10Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > Just remembered Leon Lett, who’d be remembered as the biggest albatross in the history of the Dallas Cowboys. For two things, specifically: > > 1. The time he interfered with a ball late in the 4th quarter when leaving it alone would’ve given the Cowboys possession and iced the game. The play in question was a field goal which was partially blocked and rolled all the way to the 1, an extremely bizarre situation that perhaps 20 other special teams players would have absolutely no idea what to do (how do you know the kicking team can’t recover?). But okay, it cost the Cowboys the game. Specifically, an early-season nonconference game. But given the shortness of the schedule, even those can have an impact. Emphasis on “can”. This one didn’t, as the Cowboys went on to lock up home field advantage throughout the playoffs and win the Super Bowl. > > 2. The time he got a turnover (interception or fumble, I don’t remember) late in the 4th quarter of Super Bowl 38 and was about to run it back for a touchdown…but he didn’t protect the ball, and a Bills player _swatted it out and recovered it!_ What an epic meltdown! What a horrible lapse of concentration! Clearly this justifies villifying him as the supreme choker of all…oh, wait, the Cowboys were **UP 35 FRICKING POINTS** at the time, a lead which proved more than safe. > > Damn, if I were a coach, I’d _love_ to have that kind of albatross on my team! Yeah, they didn’t wind up costing them in the end, but they were still bonehead plays. And I think they happened in the other order. I heard that after the field goal play, a young girl wrote to Lett and said he shouldn’t feel bad, mistakes happen, and that there was some poor guy who got the ball knocked out of his hands when he was about to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/55 "2018-06-29T14:54:47Z")
> [@Tread](#): > > But Boz didn’t make the tackle. It isn’t a tackle once the play is over, and the 2 yds he got was after direct contact with Boz, both men kept moving, Bo forward, and Boz backwards. > > But yeah, he did not drive him through the end zone, as many seem to think. Many think that because Bo Jackson himself claimed that’s what happened. In _Bo Knows Bo_ he basically calls Bosworth an overrated sissy, and says he ran him over. I suspect Jackson believed a lot of his own hype. There’s something misremembered right there, though someone alluded to it earlier regarding baseball. Jackson wasn’t the best player at ANYTHING, not in the NFL or MLB. In 1989, his best NFL season by yards, he average 86.4 yards a game for 11 games. That comes out to 1,382 yards in 16 games. Impressive, sure, but that would’ve been only 3rd in the league that year. And keep in mind, this was his _best_ year, by a significant margin. It’s also fair to wonder how playing a full season would’ve affected his stats, as he averaged fewer than 10 games a year, without taking the punishment full-time players did. But he was the one with the best-selling book, the Nike commercials, the hype. It was treated as some kind of awe-inspiring feat that he could play two pro sports, but the fact is he wasn’t as good as he might of been at either one had he specialized. There are probably quite a few guys out there who could play both pro football and pro baseball, if they were okay with never completely excelling at either one. In retrospect, it seems more like a stunt than anything. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/56 "2018-06-29T15:06:55Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Yeah, they didn’t wind up costing them in the end, but they were still bonehead plays. > > And I think they happened in the other order. I heard that after the field goal play, a young girl wrote to Lett and said he shouldn’t feel bad, mistakes happen, and that there was some poor guy who got the ball knocked out of his hands when he was about to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl. Yes, the Super Bowl fumble was in January 1993; the field goal mistake was ten months later. Lett really was just a few milliseconds away from scoring that touchdown in Super Bowl XXVII, which would have given Dallas the record for most points scored by any team in a Super Bowl. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/57 "2018-06-29T15:58:38Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#): > > Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” home run did not secure the World Series for the New York Giants——rather it secured the NL Pennant for the Giants in a special best of 3 game series for it v the Brooklyn Dodgers when both teams finished with identical records. ??? Why would anyone think that? No one was screaming “The Giants win the World Series! The Giants win the World Series!” ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/58 "2018-06-29T16:41:00Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > ?Why would anyone think that? No one was screaming “The Giants win the World Series! The Giants win the World Series!” Many fans today have no idea what “the pennant” is. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/59 "2018-06-29T17:24:45Z")
Bo Jackson’s claim to fame was that he was “pretty good” at two professional sports. Which gave him a huge fan base since he drew fans of two sports. He was good enough to be an MLB All-Star in 1989 (and the All-Star MVP that year) and he was an NFL Pro Bowl player in 1990. He’s the only athlete to make it to both the All-Star game and the Pro Bowl. In the NFL his career YPC was 5.4 which is pretty impressive. He’s in the College Football Hall of Fame. So he didn’t suck. But, in the NFL he only played 4 seasons and never played more than 11 games in a season. His production was good when he played but his total numbers weren’t great. He’s unlikely to make it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He just didn’t play enough. And the same hip injury that cut his football career short also ended his baseball career (though not right away, he still played a few more seasons, just not as a Royal). He won’t be in Cooperstown either. He was pretty good at both sports and is undoubtedly the greatest dual threat player in baseball and football to play those games professionally. But he wasn’t individually the greatest at either sport individually. ---
**Author:** ![Rudiger\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rudiger\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rudiger_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641/60 "2018-06-29T18:04:34Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > Just remembered Leon Lett, who’d be remembered as the biggest albatross in the history of the Dallas Cowboys. For two things, specifically: > > 1. The time he interfered with a ball late in the 4th quarter when leaving it alone would’ve given the Cowboys possession and iced the game. The play in question was a field goal which was partially blocked and rolled all the way to the 1, an extremely bizarre situation that perhaps 20 other special teams players would have absolutely no idea what to do (how do you know the kicking team can’t recover?). But okay, it cost the Cowboys the game. Specifically, an early-season nonconference game. But given the shortness of the schedule, even those can have an impact. Emphasis on “can”. This one didn’t, as the Cowboys went on to lock up home field advantage throughout the playoffs and win the Super Bowl. > > 2. The time he got a turnover (interception or fumble, I don’t remember) late in the 4th quarter of Super Bowl 38 and was about to run it back for a touchdown…but he didn’t protect the ball, and a Bills player _swatted it out and recovered it!_ What an epic meltdown! What a horrible lapse of concentration! Clearly this justifies villifying him as the supreme choker of all…oh, wait, the Cowboys were **UP 35 FRICKING POINTS** at the time, a lead which proved more than safe. > > Damn, if I were a coach, I’d _love_ to have that kind of albatross on my team! Does _anyone_ consider him an albatross? I think most people just like to laugh at him for giving up a sure touchdown to showboat _and_ to personally lose a game pretty much all by himself. And, of course he should have known not to touch the ball - it was 20 yards past the line of scrimmage and his teammates obviously know the ball is treated like a punt once it crosses the line. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-quickly-misremembered-sports-details/816641.md?page=4)