With the Ottawa Senators chances of missing the playoffs reaching an all time high this year, I think for a good laugh, lets look at theirs and some other epic collapses in all of pro sports.
2007-2008 Ottawa Senators After starting the season with a 13-1 record, and looking like a shoein to make the Stanley Cup finals, and maybe win the entire thing. But then the Sens ate some bad fish when out on a road trip and started choking. The Sens have been on a nose dive ever since the All-Star break, and they may not have a chance to pull out before they hit the ground.
2007 New York Mets With a 7 game lead, with less than a month to go in the season, the Mets were playing with their family cat and swallowed a fur ball and began to choke. With as good as the Mets were last year, they still couldn't close the deal. Not only did they lose the division to the Phillies, they missed the playoffs all together.
2006 Boston Red Sox What happened? Two years off of winning their first World Series in 86 years, all I remember from this season is what is known as the Boston Massacre. The Red Sox had a lead in the division, then came August 18. The Sox had a four game scheduled series with the Yankees, that turned into five game series because of a rain out. The Yankees went on to lose all five games to the Yankees and then lose the division, and finish in third place. The Yankees are who we thought they were, and we let them off the hook.
1978 Boston Red Sox The original Boston Massacre. most Red Sox fans will remember this for Bucky Dent. With a 14 and a half game lead on July 19, the Red Sox proceeded to break their fans hearts when the coughed up seventeen games losing the division by 3 and a half games. Yankees outfielder, Reggie Jackson said after the season, "We played great, but we didn't win it. They lost it. If they'd played .500 the last half of the season, we'd never have caught them".
1978 Washington Redskins The beginning of the season looked promising with 6 straight wins. But then the the 'Skins had a drink go down the wrong tube, choked and finished 8-8, with 5 straight loses.
1942 Detroit Red Wings The original team to lose a seven game series after leading 3-0. While leading in the deciding game in the Stanley Cup finals, 1-0, they lost the game in 10 miniutes by letting the Toronto Maple Leafs socre three unanswered goals.
Jean Van de Velde, 1999 British Open Who could forget Jean Van de Velde hitting the ball into the water at Carnoustie in 1999. Then after rinsing his ball, Van de Velde decided to get a little wet himself. Van de Velde turned his golf pants into flood pants and waded into the creek and proceeded to attempt the heimlich maneuver. He was unsuccessful.
Greg Norman, 1996 Masters Bogey. Bogey. Bogey. Double bogey. That sounds like a guy at your local dog track executive course, not a professional at Augusta. This was the greatest choke job in golf history, until a monsieur Van de Velde got wet at Carnoustie.
But here is the gold medalist...........
2004 New York Yankees This one is pretty simple because it made history that had not been made in 86 years. After the Yankees took a 3 game lead over the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS, the Sawx "kept the faith" and fought back in three great games to only destroy Yankees in the final game. Then the Sawx lucked out in the World Series to let Bill Buckner rest easy.
You are forgetting the 1958-1959 New York Rangers who led the Toronto Maple Leafs by 7 points for the fourth and final playoff position with 5 games remaining. Toronto won their last five games (including a sweep of a home and home series on March 14 and 15, 1959) while the New York Rangers lost four of their remaining five games and missed the playoffs on the last night of that season by one point.
i could be wrong, but i would call the worst choke job ever occurred this past February when undefeated, unmatched, history hopeful Patriots team lost the most important game thus going from a potentially famous undefeated team, to an infamous 18-1 choke.
illerref15.....not only do I agree with you 100% that it was the biggest choke but believe it is also the most anticipated upset in history. Still haven't heard anything from the chowds either....must be trying to get that apple out of their pie holes yet.
That Van De Velde choke job was painful to watch. The Mets' choke job was my Schadenfreude, because they thought they had it in the bag and all they had to do was show up. But the sweetest was the Patriots' choke job. I've already watched that Super Bowl about 5 times. Plus, one of the Giants (RB Derrick Ward, who was on injured reserve) attended my alma mater (Fresno State).
the 2007 USC football team losing to Stanford. The preseason pick to win the crystal ball by everyone in the sports media, pulled one of the biggest chokes in college sports history by getting beat by the Stanford Cardinals, and thier 3RD STRING QB, yet somehow managed to stay in the top 10 of the AP Polls the following week.
The 2006 Red Sox won't go down in history as a huge choke job except perhaps in the memories of Red Sox fans. While they were in first place most of the season, they were never running away with the division. They had already fallen behind the Yankees when the "Boston Massacre" happened. Check out their game log from that season. It was hardly an "epic collapse".
The 1964 Phillies are the most glaring omission from your list.
Don't forget the Dallas Mavericks choking in Biblical proportion in the last two playoff seasons. Also, my Stars have had a first round exit 4 years in a row. Last year was extremely painful, after such a great season. And the Cowboys, after going 13-3 as the NFC favorites get eliminated in the 1st playoff game.
Dallas is choke city until any team here proves otherwise. At least the Texas Rangers won't let me down, they're expected to suck.
Foxsports has reached a new depth of quality. Is this an article for some junior high school paper? Fox actually has a link to this from the sports pages? Does this guy have photos of Rupert Murdoch in ####kok?
