The Top 10 Biggest Sports #Fails of All Time
For athletes on the world stage, nothing is worse than choking under pressure. Here are the 10 most memorable transgressors
- By Jim Morrison
- Smithsonian.com, June 28, 2012
(Gilbert Iundt; Jean-Yves Ruszniewski / TempSport / Corbis)
"We all choke," the tennis champion John McEnroe once said. "Winners know how to handle choking better than losers."
McEnroe knew what he was talking about. He entered the 1984 French Open without having lost a match all year and destroyed Ivan Lendl in the first two sets. With the scored tied 1-1 in the third set, McEnroe, enraged by distracting noise from a cameraman's headset, walked over and screamed during a break.
“I thought, What the hell am I doing? If you start lashing out when things are going well, you may be letting your opponent think that you’re not as sure of yourself as you seem," he said years later.
The rest is one of the great upsets in tennis history with McEnroe losing in five sets, a match remembered more for his outburst and collapse than Lendl's fitness and resolve.
In sports, sometimes it's the losers we remember as much as the winners, usually because they were in a position to win and failed spectacularly. The flip side of every great comeback is a great collapse.
Without the Chicago Cubs of 2003, there would be no Florida Marlins miracle World Series season. Without the Houston Oilers of the 1993 football playoffs, there would be no third consecutive appearance in the Super Bowl for the Buffalo Bills. Without Greg Norman's meltdown, there would be no Masters title for Nick Faldo, who hadn't been a contender on the tour for two years.
Here are our choices for the ten biggest chokes in sports history:
Comments (25)
Red Sox 1986 choke. The Buckner error was actually in game 6, not 7. Mets went on to win game 7 and take the series
Posted by Ed Parker on November 7,2012 | 03:42 PM
The Mariners lost 16 games in a row last season.
Posted by Koschei on September 25,2012 | 09:36 PM
The biggest bust in the history of sports was a draft bust. Actually two draft busts...Cincinnati Bengals involved in both...Archie Griffin (2x Heisman winner) and KiJana Carter (first round pick) If they had not busted on the draft, they may not have busted on the field.
Posted by Bob Runyon on August 9,2012 | 02:41 PM
The biggest bust in the history of sports was a draft bust. Actually two draft busts...Cincinnati Bengals involved in both...Archie Griffin (2x Heisman winner) and KiJana Carter (first round pick) If they had not busted on the draft, they may not have busted on the field.
Posted by Bob Runyon on August 9,2012 | 02:41 PM
"Without the Chicago Cubs of 2003, there would be no Florida Marlins miracle World Series season." Also, without the incredible collapse of the 1969 Cubs, there would be no '69 "Miracle Mets".
Posted by Les Kloss on August 5,2012 | 12:11 AM
How about an umpire choking under pressure? Jim Joyce umped a perfect game with 28 outs...just ask Armando Galarraga.
Posted by Tiger Fan on August 4,2012 | 03:03 PM
Who could possibly forget what was possibly the most incredible,egregious collapse in the history of American professional sports,to wit,the infamous Philly Phold of 1964?
Posted by broil o'groom on July 27,2012 | 12:43 PM
Last year's Red Sox were the biggest #FAIL in baseball. They failed for a whole month straight!
Posted by russ on July 15,2012 | 01:35 PM
Does anyone at your magazine actually proof read anything? It's Bill Buckner, not Bill Bucker, and it's the curse of the Bambino not the Curst of the Bambino. Really come on guys your a highly respected magazine. Please don't bother to correct this post for grammatical errors either. I flunked English, but I don't work as a copy editor either!!!
Posted by L. Backus on July 11,2012 | 08:19 AM
I don't think that the second Leonard/Duran fight was a "fail" by Duran but rather the first fight was a "fail" by Leonard. Sugar Ray was a way better fighter provided he fight "his" fight and stay on the outside and out punch Duran using his speed. But either he or his trainer made a horrible decision and let him fight Duran's style of fight on the inside and he ended up losing. I totally expected Leonard to win the second fight although I was really surprised that Duran "quit". He was touted as one of the toughest boxers in the business and I never expected him to give up, no matter how badly he was being beaten.
Posted by Bob Pfeiffer on July 10,2012 | 07:02 PM
Probably happening right now. The collapse of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2012. Their pitching staff has been a disaster. Their hitters are not hitting. Their bullpen can't even save a lead.
Posted by Iconoclast on July 9,2012 | 11:52 AM
Buckner has been unfairly maligned. Calvin Schiraldi, the Red Sox relief pitcher, gave up three consecutive hits to let the Mets back in the game. Actually, one could argue that choking, per se, is more prevalent among those who pursue one-on-one sports, or near enough to. Golf, tennis, and basketball, particularly match play in golf, college basketball.
Posted by Kathy Phillips on July 8,2012 | 10:31 PM
There is a relatively new documentary called Scapegoat that focuses on the Buckner and Bartman incidents and makes me feel their pain to see these events once more, for the umpteenth time, presented. Check out the movie to learn a lot more about these two events in the history of Boston & Chicago baseball.
Posted by plumskiter on July 8,2012 | 10:10 PM
Being an Houston sports fan, it seems every year is a choke of some sort or other. Yes, my Oilers are near the top of this list. But three weeks earlier, the high school I had attended ten years earlier was playing a Houston-area team in the Astrodome. 35 seconds remained in the game and my team, Calallen, was up by four against La Marque. They were over 40 yards from the end zone. Third down and long. We Calallen fans were cheering wildly. La Marque connected a hail-Mary pass in the end zone, and won the game. As they caught the pass, it was like the cone of silence fell in the 'Dome. Calallen realized we lost, and La Marque was still in shock that they had won. I will see more chokes, but I stand by my teams every year. Go Rockets! Go 'Stros! Go Texans!
Posted by Clay Harryman on July 8,2012 | 02:46 PM
Amazingly, Frank Reich also engineered what was then the biggest comeback in NCAA history, as on November 10, 1984, he led Maryland to a 42-9 second half against the Miami Hurricanes after the 'Canes had built up a 31-0 lead at halftime.
Posted by kevinwparker on July 8,2012 | 02:07 PM
If you read closer Andy the article is written correctly. It states "a decade earlier" from the 1996 Masters, referring to 1986.
Posted by Brian Lucas on July 8,2012 | 01:09 PM
So many mistakes. Btw, it's Buckner.
Posted by Sam on July 8,2012 | 09:57 AM
I love how many of these big failures went on to be big winners in later attempts!
Posted by Linda Chuss on July 8,2012 | 08:41 AM
Being a life long Cleveland Indians fan, I must put the 1954 Cleveland Indians at the top. We had the best record in baseball at the time, an awesome pitching staff with three Hall of Famers (Feller, Lemon, and Wynn), and we got skunked in the World Series by the NY Giants . Now this is a choke that we can never live down.
Posted by J. Alan Day on July 8,2012 | 08:07 AM
i still can't watch jana novotna breaking down on that duchess without tearing up. for sports chokes i would offer the 1988 cincinnati bengals. they had a 16-13 lead on the 49ers and pinned them back on their own 8 yard line with about 3 minutes on the clock. not only did the bengals concede the go-ahead touchdown but they also allowed the 49ers to eat up pretty much the entire clock in the process. even though the 49ers were the superior team the bengals had them on the ropes and just couldn't seal the deal.
Posted by doctor khumalo on July 2,2012 | 09:35 PM
How can I trust any articles you write when you can not get your facts straight on events that happened in the not so distant past. I always thought of your articles as the gold standard or definitive word on a subject, not any more. Who can you trust if you cannot trust the Smithsonian to get the facts straight?
Posted by Bill Hewitt on July 2,2012 | 06:09 PM
The 2003 Cubs led the Marlins 3 games - 2 in the NLCS when the Steve Bartman incident occurred. I've always been mystified why Kyle Farnsworth has not received more blame for the meltdown . . . .
Posted by rastronomicals on July 2,2012 | 02:37 PM
I believe the first baseman's name was Bill Buckner. So close, yet so far....
Posted by Lyman123 on July 1,2012 | 07:52 PM
"The Plot" here contains an error. The Cubs were never leading the series three games to none, and were leading the series 3-2 at the time of "The Choke."
Posted by Andy Dickes on June 29,2012 | 05:50 PM
"The Plot" here contains two errors. Norman led going into the final round of every major in 1986, not 1996. And the lone major he won that year was the British Open (he has never won the U.S. Open).
Posted by Andy Dickes on June 29,2012 | 05:35 PM