Dallas won Super Bowls in '93, '94 and '96.
In '95s NFC Championship game everything went wrong from the start and we lost the game and what eventually could have been 4 consecutive Lombardi Trophies. That blew red and mustard colored chunks.
Oooh, I love that game, the one that goes “these guys lost to those guys, who lost to that team, etc.” until you prove Slippery Rock State is the rightful national champion.
2003 NFC Wild Card round, Giants @ 49ers.
When you’re up by 24 late in the third, you have no business losing. But an utter Giants collapse coupled with felonious officiating made it happen…yeah, still really fricking bitter about that one.
Well, shit, even you have to admit that SRS’s one loss to Bismarck School of Cosmetics and Nail Filing back in '93 was due to the worst officiating in college football history.
Exactly - you have to choose which game you want to play. A lost to B who lost to C, etc. doesn’t work, especially in college. To add insult to injury, right after the ND v. FSU game, Bobby Bowden was whining “we want a rematch in the bowl game”. A week later after ND lost to BC, he wasn’t quite singing the same song.
Any one of those final seven games of the season would do, but the one that made me bawl my eyes out (I was eight years old) was the game that happened the week before.
I still remember screaming at my dad through my tears “WHY DOESN’T DARRELL EVANS RETIRE!?” Oddly enough, I could have sworn for the longest time that he was the one who hit the game-winning homer, but the Jays actually came back from that one in the bottom of the 11th, only to lose it two innings later.
Buckner 
Ugh. Thanks for reminding me guys! I had managed to put that one on the subconscious back burner!
:mad:
Baseball: 2002 World Series, Game 6. The Giants, up 3 games to 2, are cruising toward their first WS victory since 1954. (Fox shows video of that year…the KISS OF DEATH!!). The bullpen blows a big lead and the game, and the Angels come back to win Game 7. I seriously think that game killed a little bit of my Giants fandom that had been in place for 40 years…I haven’t been able to get as excited about them since (of course, Bonds and bad teams helped, too).
College football: Wasn’t even a game my team was in. 1975, USC vs UCLA. If heavily-favored USC just manages to beat the Bruins, Cal goes to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1959. But USC lies down like dogs, and despite numerous opportunities gift-wrapped by UCLA turnovers, refuses to win. I’ve never been so pissed off by a sporting event. And the Bears still haven’t gone to the Rose Bowl.
Excuse me, but I’m about to dump a hurricane on your pity party. What do you mean, “Nobody thought THE BOSTON CELTICS would even make the playoffs” last year? According to ESPN’s panel of experts, their average predicted finish was 1st in the Atlantic division.
Doesn’t the first place team usually make the playoffs?, says I, the Cavs’ fan, as I stomp back to my cave. :rolleyes:
To add insult to injury (and to show how the resentment remains after 35 years):
Cal finished that season with the #1 offense in the country.
USC finished that season on a 4-game losing streak.
USC was offered, and accepted, a bowl bid in early November (Liberty Bowl, IIRC).
Cal was offered doodly-squat and stayed home for the holidays.
I think this turn of events was instrumental in moving toward the synchronized, post-season bowl bid process we have today.
I was sorta waiting for this one to pop up (not to rub it in, I swear; I feel your pain – almost). You forgot to mention that manager Dusty Baker gave the game ball to Russ Ortiz when he pulled him from the game to turn it over to the bullpen. If there are Baseball Gods – and I believe there are – they couldn’t have appreciated that.
Oh hell no. I think the Giants have been in baseball purgatory ever since.
Good to see my beloved New York Football Giants are responsible (or were at least the opponent) in two of the heart-stompings posted so far.
I’m not sure I understand the concept, or maybe I’m wired differently. The obvious one for me was posted by Hal…
…but I don’t feel that game stomped on my heart at all. When I think of that game, I get righteously pissed at how the officials quite literally awarded the game to the 49ers and then later sent the Giants a letter of apology for fucking it up. And while TO did humilate Jason Sehorn all through the last third of the game to effect that comeback, for most of the game the Giants played awesome. In the end, I view that game as a well-played one with a failure to make adjustments at halftime (once they moved TO to the slot at halftime, Will Allen should have been put on him man to man for the rest of the game instead of letting Sehorn deal with him) and ending with highway robbery by the refs. I’m much more pissed than heart-hurt.
The game that stomped on my heart and still makes me want to crawl into a fetal position when I think of it is the 2000 Superbowl against the Ravens. Getting your shit pushed in in the biggest spectacle the country has to offer sucks balls.
By the same logic, while I understand Bills fans offering Wide Right, I wonder if they realize that they’re part of one of the greatest games ever played, and in no small part because the Billies played out-of-their-mind great. Everyone in that game did, (except Norwood, I guess, but he’d never kicked one that long on grass in his life,) which is a third of the reason why the game was so damn good.
I just can’t believe my good fortune as a fan that the Giants gave me another moment of greatness not just on par with that Superbowl but almost an exact replica of it in 2007.
Part of the reason that Wide Right hurts so bad is because the Bills played like utter CRAP, actually. That game wasn’t supposed to be that close.
Game 7 of the 1985 World Series.
As baseball fans know, the Cardinals were on the verge of winning it all in Game 6 when Don Denkinger blew an easy call at first base, allowing the Royals to come back and tie the Series. That sucked, but of course, the measure of a champion is how well they come back from adversity, blah blah blah. Then came Game 7.
John Tudor, the best pictcher on the staff, gives up five earned runs and four walks in 2 1⁄3 innings. Tudor then punches out an electrical fan with his pitching hand. Joaquín Andújar (the THIRD Cardinal pitcher in the fifth inning) loses his head over Denkinger’s calls, and finally gets thrown out of the game (along with Whitey Herzog, who had been riding Denkinger all night). Meanwhile, Bret Saberhagen cruised along with a 5-hit shutout. The Royals win 11-0.
But for a game where I didn’t have any personal stake in, I have to go with Manduck and Buckner
He tossed the pass in toward the basket, his own damn basket, with 1/2 a second left) . He could have thrown it in any other direction and been OK. He flat out blew it.
Bird intercepted it and tossed it under the basket and it was sunk.
ND won the championship in '88, and they were unbeaten. However, there was a controversial call by the ref in their game against Miami that season. UM was driving to tie the game with a few minutes left in the 4th, but the refs ruled Miami fumbled at the 1 yard line (pictures show that Cleveland Gary was down…should have been 1st and goal at the 1 for Miami). Miami scored later to make it 31-30, and tried for 2 to win it, but missed the conversion.
For me, it’s the '98 Vikings loss to the Falcons (last’s season’s loss to the Saints doesn’t come close…'98 Vikings were much better than '09, and the '09 Saints were better than the '98 Falcons, imo) and the 2003 Fiesta Bowl between Miami and OSU* (Miami “won” in overtime, but the ref through a very, very late flag for pass interference to give OSU a 2nd chance…that would have given the Canes 35 straight wins and 2 straight championships).
-The aforementioned Steve Bartman game at Wrigley Field in 2003
-Florida Gators losing to Auburn in 1994 on a late touchdown, killing their hopes for a national title. Auburn was a good team but wasn’t even eligible for the postseason because of NCAA sanctions. There have been other devastating losses, but this one sticks out because it was their first loss since I became a fan.
-Florida losing to FSU in 2003 on a late touchdown on a 40- or 50-yard bomb. What really stung was that FSU fumbled the ball away to Florida multiple times during the game, but every single time, the ACC officials ruled the FSU player down by contact, negating the fumbles. This was the worst-officiated game I’ve ever seen in my life. At least the football gods took pity on the Gators, because they haven’t lost to FSU since then.
Two more as a Minnesota fan, in addition to seconding the 1998 and 2009 NFC Championship losses.
The Hail Mary - the play starts at about 2:00. I was too young to remember it, but it is definitely part of Vikings lore. The aftermath is at about 5:00 - a bottle struck the ref in the head and knocked him unconscious.
Also, Minnesota-Harvard, 1989 NCAA Hockey Championship game. In OT, Minnesotahits the pipe. Harvard wins shortly afterwords (IIRC, off of the faceoff at the end of the video)