That’s revisionist history of the worst kind. The Bills didn’t play like crap any more than the Patriots did in 2007. In both cases the Giants defense took the game from the opposing offense. No turnovers, very few penalties, both teams executed their game plans. (The Bills game. There was one turnover in the Patriots game, though apart from that it was a well-player low-penalty affair.)
Game 6 of the 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals bothered me so much that I don’t think that I watched another pro game for 5 or 6 years. It all but extinguished the passion that I once had for the game.
January 20th, 1991
NFC Championship Game, New York Giants at San Francisco 49ers.
Near the end of a tight game, Roger Craig uncharacteristically fumbles while running out the clock. Down by only one point, shots of Giants players on the sideline team holding hands and praying are shown on TV while their kicker gets set up. I’m busy praying the kick misses. The very first seeds of doubt are sown in my 12-year-old mind as the game-winning kick goes through. I am now an atheist.
May 30th, 1991
NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 6, Portland Trailblazers at Los Angeles Lakers.
Only a few months later. My hometown Blazers were down a game to the Lakers. The best record in the NBA, eight different players averaging over 10 points a game, the money my parents spent for a seasons-worth of pay-per-view home games? It all meant nothing as Magic Johnson grabs a defensive rebound in the waning seconds. Up by just one point, he tosses the ball down the court, which allows the clock to run nearly out as all of Portland watches their hopes and dreams bounce… slowly… away…
It was one of the most brilliant plays I’ve ever seen. (The real game-winner was a Laker three-pointer buzzer-beater at the end of the first half, when the Blazers didn’t think defense was necessary.)
Sports don’t get any more painful than this.
Second would be the Giants’ loss in the last game of the 1993 season. The Salomon Torres game. Inexperienced Torres gets killed by the hated Dodgers, and the Giants miss the playoffs by 1 game despite having 103 wins. 103!
José fucking Mesa.
I’m trying to think of a Canadiens game that applies, but the only one I can think of is Game 4 of the 2002 Eastern Semi-Final against Carolina.
Up 2 games to 1 in the series, the Habs have a 3-0 lead in the third period of Game 4 on home ice. Then it falls apart. Carolina scores a goal. Montreal takes a penalty, the coach protests a little too loudly and gets hit with a bench penalty. The Canes score with the two man advantage. They score in the last minute with the goalie out, and then win it in overtime. Series tied. Habs get killed in each of the last two games, getting outscored 13-3 in the process, and the season’s over.
The pain of that is tempered by the fact that we weren’t even supposed to be close to making the playoffs that year, and we upset the hated (and top-seeded) Bruins in the first round. Still, I would have loved a crack at the Leafs in the Conference Final, especially since we had the best goalie on the planet that year. And even though it didn’t hurt that bad then or now, I won’t watch it if they’re showing it on ESPN Classic or the NHL network.
2003 Fiesta Bowl National Championship game, UM (Hurricanes) vs OSU.
Miami leads in first overtime, 24-17. Buckeyes have 4th and 3 on Miami’s 5-yard line. Short pass to the endzone is incomplete as the clock reaches 0:00. Celebration ensues, but suddenly there’s a flag on the field. A highly controversial pass interference is called against Miami, which gives OSU 1st and goal, and they are able to tie the score and win in 2nd overtime.
Most analysts have since supported that call, but man… as a Miami fan, did that sting.
It’s been mentioned, but I have to go with the Steve Bartman incident. I’m a Cubs fan, my wife even more so. Chicago came alive and fans were going wild in Wrigleyville just to be a part of the experience. The Cubs were playing well until the fly ball to the stands.
EVERYONE near the ball tried to get it, not just Bartman. Moises Alou missed catching it and then, instead of acting professional and going on with the game, flipped out and threw down his glove. The Cubs went on to collapse like the provebial house of cards as the Marlins rallied.
Poor Bartman, a lifelong Cubs fan, had to be escorted out, and the next month or so we got to endure the stupid citywide hatred against him for ruining the game, weak jokes on Jay Leno, and hearing Ron Santo’s call of “Oh no!” over and over.
Great thread.
I was at that game. 14th row, on the 30 yd line. One row up and to my left was Tommy Kramer. 2 Falcons friends of mine and I drove to charlotte and flew to Minny the night before the game. We coincidentally ended up in the same hotel Dennis Green had put the team in.
From where was sitting, Gary Anderson’s field goal looked good, and I spent about a minute celebrating before I realized he’d missed it. It was awful.
Leaving the stadium after the game, I passed a partially-covered pallet full of early edition newspapers proclaiming the Vikings’ victory.
Back at the hotel, some of the Vikings players trickled into the bar area and ate dinner together quietly. My favorite player, Cris Carter, politely snubbed my untimely autograph request.
That’s the thing – essentially, it was just a foul ball. There was no reason for Alou to react the way he did.
Maybe the Cubs would have collapsed anyway if Moises had kept his cool. But his little temper tantrum potentially had much more effect on the team’s subsequent mindset than one fan tipping a foul ball that may or may not have been catchable.
Ellis, be fair. What you, as a biased Giants’ fan, view as the Giants’ D taking the game from the Bills’ offense, a biased Bills’ fan quite naturally views as the Bills’ offense having played like crap.
I’ve never had any use for Miami but I do have to admit that I feel your pain. That must’ve been crushing, to literally have a victory snatched away.
Back when the Lions were a pretty good football team, they were playing the New Orleans Saints. Tom Dempsy lined up to kick a 63 yard field goal to win the game. The Lions did not even rush, they knew he could not make it. The sound of the thump when Dempsy’s foot hit the ball was strange. I thought ,no way ,he has never come close to doing that. Of course it went through the uprights setting a record that still stands.
Dempsy had a deformed foot and wore a shoe with a metal plate in it. I believe he also had an air cylinder jammed up his ass. I know I heard a strange sound when it was activated.
I think Game 7 of the 1997 World Series is the day I switched from being a hopeful young Cleveland sports fan to a bitter old Cleveland sports fan. I remember watching it alone in my new college dorm room. I think I cried.
I had been around for a lot of the '80s and '90s heartbreak of the Browns and Cavs, but it was far away for me, as I’d just been a little kid. As soon as we were crushed in that World Series, the media swooped down upon the charred remains of my heart and implanted all of those past indecencies inside it, over and over again.
The Bills were favored by 7 in that game. That’s a pretty big line for a Super Bowl.
Yeah, fourthed. Plus it was Caywood’s last game.
I’ll add in the Titans-Rams Superbowl. We get to keep seeing the highlight of Dyson stretching for that yard. But on the other hand, we had the Music City Miracle.
Munch, I’m with you on your analysis but you made a minor goof on the timing. Miami lost to FSU, 24-10 on 10/23/89, and then a month later Miami beat the Irish 27-10 on 11/20/89. So your statement should read, …“when they lost to Miami, who’d previously lost to FSU.”
In the bowls that year #4 ND thumped then # 1 ranked Colorado 21-6, while #2 Miami beat #7 Bama 33-25. ND’s win should’ve vaulted them to #1, the same way it did in 1977 when ND beat then #1 Texas.
I am cracking up, laughing my ass off. Schadenfreude, I think it’s called. What, no one has cited the Heidi Bowl?
Why would they? That game was 42 years ago, when no one watched football, and was a regular season NFL game.