Ah yes, Lawrence Phillips. A point of pain for a lot of different teams.
A first-round draft pick for the Rams. Released in his second season after being benched for alcohol-related problems.
Signed by Miami. Released after two games after a woman at a club assaulted his fists with her face.
Signed by the 49ers. Released after three months for defying the coaches.
Signed by the Florida Bobcats of the Arena Football League. Released before he even played a game.
Signed by the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. Suspended, then released for failing to meet “minimum behavioural standards.” Even his agent fired him.
Signed by the Calgary Stampeders. Released after arguing with the coach.
2009 Grey Cup. Mentioning the 13th Man game in Saskatchewan can cause grown men to weep.
1994 baseball strike. I’m a Blue Jays fan now, but my 16 year old self was an Expo fanatic (mainly because we could watch games on CBC French). Best record in baseball when the season got shut down. Not knowing is the worst.
The worst part of it was that Sid Bream was beloved in Pittsburgh, and then we let him go. He scores the game-winning run against us, even though he was as slow as a sedated turtle.
As a lifelong Mets fan I have had my share of disappointment. Going to high school in NJ during the 2000 world series in an area absolutely dominated by VERY vocal Yankees fans was particularly rough. It’s one thing to have friends laugh at you but add teachers to that and it starts to get depressing. Still, the absolute worst was Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. Chavez made one of the greatest catches I’ve ever seen in that game but watching Beltran strike out looking in the bottom of the 9th with the bases loaded was brutal.
Mark Wohlers allowing a three run homer to Jim Leyritz in the 8th. The Braves never recovered from that I believe and spent the next ten years watching the Yankees become the team Atlanta should’ve been.
A classic from Australian Football (and not even my team).
Geelong playing in the 1981 preliminary Final (last game before the Grand Final). Get the bus to the ground. Their star Centre Half Forward (one of the Key players) misses the bus. Lots of rumours, lots of stories - bottom line - they get to the stadium - ‘Where’s Garry Sidebottom?!?!?’.
Fortunately, the reserve Centre Half Forward is at the ground, so he can be frantically pulled out of the grandstands and suited up. Unfortunately, he has already consumed a meat pie, a milkshake, and started on the beers (the legend grows with each re-telling).
The reserve Centre Half Forward plays - does absolutely nothing - doesn’t even touch the ball. he gives away 2 penalties.
Astros fan. Game 6 of the 1986 NLCS. I think that the Astros would have won the World Series that year had they managed a victory in that epic game. Mike Scott was coming up to pitch game 7, and I think the Astros would have won that game and gone on to beat the Red Sox.
Tommy Hutton botched field goal
NFC Championship Game vs Tampa Bay
Ryan Howard tearing his achilles tendon on the very last play Game 5 of the 2011 NLCS
1981 Super Bowl
Eric Lindros going down in Game 7 of the EC finals v NJ in 2001
1993 Fiesta Bowl. Syracuse 26, Colorado 22. A game nobody but me remembers.
Colorado sent home their field goal kicker due to bad behavior, and had their punter handle the kicking duties. He missed two extra points and a 23 yard field goal. Still, why did this game hurt? It meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.
It cost me a five game parlay, that at 20-1 odds, would have paid me $500. MF’ing kicker…
I was going to joke that the memory must be so painful for someone that they deleted the wikipedia page. But it’s just a malformed URL you put in there.
Where I come from, this is affectionately known as “The Miracle in the Meadowlands.”
My biggest point of pain for years was the Eagles losing the 1980-81 season Super Bowl to the Oakland Raiders.
My dad, a Philadelphia native, has two big ones:
He had tickets for Game 5 of the 1950 World Series. The Yankees took it in four games. Ouch!
The infamous “Black September” fold in 1964. Phils had a 6 1/2 game lead with 12 games to go and wound up tied for second place. So glad I was not quite two when that happened - my head would have exploded!
