# What would a "choke" in sports be? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 25, 2015, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-choke-in-sports-be/715929 "2015-03-25T10:30:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2015, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-choke-in-sports-be/715929/41 "2015-03-28T08:04:53Z")
Seems like a lot of comments relate to upsets rather than “chokes”. Whatever that term means. If it means the sense of the occasion putting too much pressure on them, I guess Jana Novotna. I don’t see how SA are chokers- they have been outplayed- and maybe a little unlucky. They have been a very successful team. Alongside that, I’m not sure how a team today gets a choking tag from a team that played 16 years ago. (As an aside I still think the Australian side that played in the 2003 World Cup was the best Australian team.) ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2015, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-choke-in-sports-be/715929/42 "2015-03-28T08:31:47Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Peyton Manning is a Super Bowl champion, is he not? > > I mean, it seems to me if someone is naturally a choker, **that can’t happen**. There’s just no way Manning, if he’s unable to deliver when it matters, could have won a Super Bowl at all, ever. > > Indeed, I would question if it’s reasonable to conclude any athlete you’ve ever heard of can be a choker. After all, Donovan McNabb could not possible have become an NFL quarterback at all if he choked when everything was on the line. When he was a high school quarterback he played key games in front of college scouts, the biggest games of his life, that would determine if he went to college to play football, and he succeeded. Then in college he had to play well enough to be successful, in the biggest games of his life, in order to get drafted, and he succeeded. Then he had to have success in the NFL regular season to hold on to his job at all, and he succeeded. McNabb passed any number of “choke” tests just to get to the point that he’d be famous enough for an armchair quarterback on the Internet to even know who he was to call him a choker because he didn’t play well in the Super Bowl. I just KNEW someone was going to take a bite at the Peyton chum!😃 If you take a hard look at that game Manning had very little to do with that Super Bowl win, and frankly many sports experts were shocked he got the MVP award with a pedestrian less than 250 yards passing and a interception and his opposition was Rex friggin Grossman. Granted, overall it wasn’t a very good Super Bowl. Im not here too take away Peyton’s ONE Superbowl win but lets not lose sight of how he completely turtled up and panicked two Super Bowls ago after one bobbled snap, resulting in there worst SB blowout since the 90s. And how he shat himself everytime he went to New England. I dont know, maybe a CLUTCH QB would find a way to in a game or two in that situation like say, Elway . . . Montana . . . I’ll be a gentleman and not mention his shit performance at home versus the Colts this past year since he was obviously injured. Great stat guy, and Id want him on my fantasy team. But when the eggs are in the basket, no thanks. As for Donovan McNabb, 1-4 as a favorite in NFC title games, and the one time he made the Super Bowl, he puked on the field in the fourth quarter. If that does not define a choker, then I’d love to know what does. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-choke-in-sports-be/715929/43 "2015-03-28T14:34:35Z")
Until Elway’s end-of-career, back-to-back Super Bowl wins, he had been an SB Choker. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2015, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-choke-in-sports-be/715929/44 "2015-03-28T14:37:01Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#): > > I’ll be a gentleman and not mention his shit performance at home versus the Colts this past year since he was obviously injured. You _ **did** _ mention it! You heel. And a Russian to boot! 😃 (I’m one-quarter Russian, I can say that, right?) ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-choke-in-sports-be/715929/45 "2015-04-16T00:02:16Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I would define a ‘choke’ as losing after you’ve put yourself in highly advantageous position to win. > So for instance, the Yankees taking a commanding 3-0 series lead over the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS, only to lose four straight games and lose. Single game chokes are bad, but when you’re up 3-0 in a best-of-seven-game series, you only have to win one more out of 4, and to lose after being in that position, then IMHO, the choke factor is multiplied by 4. Only had to go to the 2014 NHL playoffs to see San Jose to do just that at the hands of the eventual Stanley Cup winners, the L.A. Kings. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-choke-in-sports-be/715929/46 "2015-04-16T14:51:44Z")
I think of **Dan O’brien** decathalon for the 1992 Olympics, where the media had a huge “Dan vs Dave” campaign saturating the ad-space. Dan failed to even qualify when he missed 3 pole vault attempts that should have been sure things. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-choke-in-sports-be/715929/47 "2015-04-16T19:58:25Z")
I just define it as suddenly not playing as good as you ordinarily would. The implication is that you did so because you got nervous or psyched out, but this isn’t absolutely necessary. I think a team can still choke if they were going to lose anyways. I do admit it is weird to say the winning team choked, however. I guess that, if they still won, the implication is that they weren’t playing their best because they didn’t need to. Hence, you don’t need a negative word like “choke” to define it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-choke-in-sports-be/715929.md?page=2)