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Remember when Boise St. was supposed to sneak into the national championship game and overthrow the bowl establishment, breaking through the glass ceiling and restoring our faith in the human spirit. That magical dream season came to a screeching halt when two field goal kicks sailed outside of the uprights, ending Boise’s chances at a national championship. America wept.
But heartbreak and sports go together like Kevin Garnett and cancer jokes. Here’s a list of 10 other unforgettable seasons that ended just short of completing their respective Cinderella stories.
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CATEGORY: GENERAL, SMOKE BREAK, Sports, Spotlight | TAGS: Brett Favre, Minnesota Vikings, MLB Baseball, NBA Basketball, New Orleans Saints, New York Knicks, New York Yankees, NFL Football
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No Leon Lett? That brova worked hard to be on list like these. lol
This is a great idea for a post. I’m going to email my sports talk radio and try to have them use this for their daily list.
My personal entry is when shed didn’t guard rob horry and our streak ended at UNO.
Stills upsets me…..
Grant Hill putting up over 20 7.5 6.5 and 1.5 steals a game until he moved to orlanda and his legs just went “nah”
That Patrick and Gotty exchange re-opened a heavy wound.
*sheed
However, dude was so far away he could’ve been a shed
HAHAHA!
Wait, wait, wait…
So you’re telling me we included ALL of these teams who inevitably have won championships, but we still fail to include ANY Cleveland sports franchise’s once-in-a-blue-moon successful season?
Let me recount the numerous missed opportunities here:
-Any 1980s Browns team. Take your pick. Although, let’s not count out “The Drive” version Brownies.
-The 1995, 1997 OR 2007 Cleveland Indians. In ’97, one out away from WINNING a World Series (freakin’ Jose Mesa). In 2007, one win from kicking the Hell out of the Boston Red Sox en route to demolishing the idiot savants that were the Colorado Rockies that year.
-The 2006-2007 Cavaliers. Sure, the Cavs were completely outmatched by the Spurs that year, but a more inspiring performance from that team would’ve actually given the Whore of Akron the clout he so desperately desires.
Actually, this could’ve been a Cleveland professional sports list that would’ve easily topped every other Cinderella story on this list. Including New Orleans. I still remain adamant that a professional championship in Northeast Ohio would remain the most-celebrated and intoxicating for any fanbase period. Probably would’ve been better considering he-who-shall-not-be-named returns tomorrow night…
Tins wouldn’t allow us to say much about the Cowboys. Sensitive subj for him right now.
Those aren’t heartbreaks for Cleveland, just another day in the neighborhood lol.
*Gone*
I’d hardly call the Bears/Colts Super Bowl boring. Hester took it to the house on the opening play.
Dam are we forgetting another sports story that could have been? The second coming of MJ:
Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway
That dude was a PROBLEM, one of the few guys that really gave MJ & the bulls (mostly Scottie) fits. I swear up & down to this day, he’s still my favorite bball player of all time.
Tins wouldn’t allow us to say much about the Cowboys. Sensitive subj for him right now.
==================================
Tins is a Dallas fan?! For reals player? (FedEx guy voice)
[www.youtube.com]
The only Cowboys football team that has any chance of winning any kind of trophy is Oklahoma State. ***Kanye shrug***
You DAMN RIGHT I’m a Cowboys fan.
A Cowboys fan who isn’t fond of Roy Williams, that is.
Great post.
I thought the ’94 Knicks & John Starks 2-for-18 would be #1. I actually cried that night. But you did mention it along with Ewing’s ill-fated ’95 finger-roll, so that’s dark moment got some TSS shine.
Just thinkin about that shit is makin me mad all over again.
I thought the ’94 Knicks & John Starks 2-for-18 would be #1. I actually cried that night.
==============
He ain’t lying lol
D-Backs, Baby! Sadly, the team is still making back payments on that championship.
With regards to
#1) Fuuuck that. Real football is played outside. The Saints were too soft for it, and Reggie Bush with the taunt of Urlacher on his TD dug his own grave.
Also, Hester opening play KR for a TD, boring? That game was sloppy but not boring. Even with Rex “pick-6″ Grossman at QB the Bears were in that game until middle of the 4th. Damn y’all just opened a wound. FUCK. *starts drinking*
#2) As a White Sox fan, that Cubs collapse made me laugh hard. I actually owned a Marlins fitted I would rock during the series. I was in Champaign-Urbana Illinois for college at the time. I remember leaving in the 6th inning of game 6 to go smoke a blunt thinking the cubs had shit wrapped. I was a freshman in the dorm halls so I had to go on missions to smoke and find cuts to smoke. I return and it’s top of the 9th, whole dorm hall is dead silent. I turn on the TV in my room and laughed my ass off. The next day the choke was official. I rocked the Marlins hat for weeks after. My guy dressed as Bartman for Halloween and was cursed at all night. Great times all-around.
#4) I bet heavy against the patriots and won. They were due, beyond that their fanbase and team was so insuferrable that rooting for them would have felt like rooting for the rapists in SVU. Best bet I ever made.
As a Cowboys fan…f*** Roy Williams.
But yeah, Leon Lett was a 300 pound fail
El Rosado how much bread you won from that?
Kings 2000-2002
I fucking hate Robert Horry.
@ Jbreeze: 3 stacks like Andre
I fucking hate Asante Samuel. He secures that interception? Game over, 19-0 and a 4th Super Bowl. Bitch nigga.
No Butler? Really?
How could Leon Lett be on here? The Cowboys won the game!
Hey man you could’ve used the Miami Hurricanes 2000-2002. Got shut out the title game in 2000 thanks to the BCS, even though they beat FSU that year. Won the championship the following year. And the next year lost in the championship game, even with the nastiest injury seen in a championship game EVER (W. McGahee), due to a mysterious 4th down pass interference in OT. The Dynasty was there, but due to two decisions by referees and the Big Bosses, we’ll never know.
How in the FARK did the Super Bowl 25 and “Wide Right” not make this list? Jebus what about 4 SBs in a row? Even in the most heartbreaking loss ever the Bills get no respect…ffs.
Of course I didnt expect hockey to be mentioned but there is also a little matter of a skate in the crease costing the sabres a chance at a cup that bflo fans still explode into flames over.
Oh well, at least we arent cleveland.
Van De Velde wouldn’t have been that great a story, he screwed it up for himself. He took driver off the tee, giving him a crap line to the green…he then (with a three stroke lead) went for the green in two. Just to get the facts straight. Yeah he took his shoes off and shit but if he had an iota sense he wouldn’t have had to go paddling. Plus he lost so that Paul Lawrie, a Scot, could win. A scot won in Scotland. That hasn’t happened since Mel Gibson came here. If you were to ask anyone who wasn’t French (fuck them anyway) in the crowd that day if they were heartbroken they would have been to drunk with happiness to respond. Trust me, I was there. The real heartbreak was Tom Watson at Trunberry two years ago crumbling to an unlikeable Stewart Cink. No one, regardless of nationality, wanted to see any other result than Tom Watson at the age of 60 winning a major but the poor old man blew it on the last and then looked like true pensioner in the playoff. That was heartbreaking to watch.
A problem with the Expos. The NLCS lost to the Dodgers was in ’81 (the other labor stoppage).
The ’94 Wolrd Series was CANCELLED.
The city never recovered…
fuckin buffalo bills four straight super bowl losses?
How can Butler almost beating Duke not make this list??? A half-court shot to beat the hated Dookies misses by inches…it would have the been the biggest, most famous shot in the history of basketball!
2005-2006 USC Trojans were 2 minutes and 2 yards away from completing an unprecedented 3rd straight National Championship.
LenDale White didn’t wait for his blocker and was stopped on 4th down. Vince Young scored on the ensuing drive.
There was also that stupid Reggie Bush lateral. Instead of scoring, he turned it over and Texas converted to points.
The Expos 94 season really hurt.
The conspirist in me says that the Yanks couldn’t stand the thought of the World Series being played in Canada for a third consecutive year.
Reality says the billionaire owners really wanted to shaft the millionaire players and fans everywhere suffered.
There wasn’t a true Red Sox fan alive rooting for the 2001 Yankees. 9/11 or not. Please….
The 1994 baseball season in total was full of what could have beens. The Expos’ one real shot, Tony Gwynn’s run at hitting .400 and Matt Williams chase for 61 homers. What a goddamn waste of what could have been one of the great seasons in modern baseball. Good article!
Pernell Whitaker v. Julio Caesar Chavez……..Shame on Richard Steele…Shame on Don King!
How is the ’86 World Series not on here???
@ Are You Kidding – I second everything you said. Buffalo teams have had well-known horrible luck in championships & the playoffs.
But you can’t forget the Music City Miracle. It was a forward lateral!
I just looked up and watched the Ewing layup, definitely should’ve made the shot, but you described like someone created a wide open layup for him when actually he got the ball around the top of the key, was briefly double teamed, then dribbled past his man and got to the front of the rim before missing the finger roll.
It wasn’t a “pristine dime,” it was a normal inbounds pass. There’s no way there would’ve been an assist on the play. Just thought you should give him at least a tiny amount of cred for creating the wide open shot.
As mentioned – Lett was not on the list because his ineptitude did not cost the Cowboys the game. I am grateful to him, though, as it kept my Bills from having the most lopsided loss in SB history (still belongs to NE courtesy of Da Bears, I believe).
And, yeah, Wide Right belongs on this list.
Tim
DECEMBER 4, ’10 AT 12:33 PM
Pernell Whitaker v. Julio Caesar Chavez……..Shame on Richard Steele…Shame on Don King!
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You’re thinking of the Meldrick Taylor/Julio Cesar Chavez fight, because Joe Cortez was the referee of the Whitaker/Chavez fight (not Richard Steele). But, anyway, not only was “Sweet Pea” Pernell Whitaker robbed in that fight against Cesar Chavez Sr., he was also robbed even worse in the first Jose Luis Ramirez match, and a lot of people thought (myself included) he deserved the victory over De La Hoya (and Sweet Pea wasn’t even in his prime!) Ah, Pernell Whitaker, one of the best lightweights of all-time.
No, what this site truly missed (because we can through a million robberies in Boxing and to bring up Richard Steele & Julio Cesar Chavez, Sr.) and fucked up by not even mentioning the Meldrick Taylor/Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. fight Holy . . . Shit.
Meldrick Taylor is TWO SECONDS AWAY from beating the undefeated 68-0-0, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and pulling off the HUGE upset, but, refereeRichard Steele steps in and stops the fight (fans booed Steele after this fight for years to come with each new fight he was the referee of – I’ve read that Taylor was seriously hurt after the fight, BUT STILL, the scorecards read: 107-102 | judge: Chuck Giampa 104-105 | judge: Jerry Roth 108-101 in his favor before the stoppage!). Meldrick was never the same fighter after that fight.
Soccer (aka real football), rugby, cricket? These are only sports that appease the American sport’s market.
When you say sport’s stories, I expect all of the best stories in sports, not just sport’s Americans like.
BUTLER DUKE. End of story.
As inspirational as the Yankees winning the World Series would have been, 2001 wasn’t supposed to be their year anyway. The real team that should be on this list from that season is the Seattle Mariners, who tied the MLB record with 116 wins despite losing Alex Rodriguez to his mega-contract with Texas that offseason.
Another 9/11-related what-could-have-been is Colorado vs. Washington State in college football, which was scheduled for that weekend but wound up being cancelled and not being made up. Had the game been played, either Colorado or Oregon (had WSU won) would have played Miami for the BCS Championship that season.