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What is the worst loss in the last 50 years of sports? (1 Viewer)

fantasycurse42

Footballguy Jr.
Personally, I'm sticking with the Falcons, I'll state an abbreviated case here:

  • Biggest stage
  • Biggest lead surrendered on this stage by 250%
  • Would've been first Super Bowl for franchise
  • Would've been first title for the city in over 20 years
  • Would've defeated the biggest dynasty in modern sports
  • Mentioning again, biggest meltdown I can imagine from a pro sports franchise. 


ETA - Compiling a list here:

  1. Falcons 2017 SB
  2. Buckner
  3. 1972 USA Olympics Basketball
  4. 1980 Olympic Hockey
  5. Yankees/Sox 2004
  6. Tyson/Douglas
  7. Brazil/Germany World Cup
  8. Jean ven de Velde
  9. Golden State/Cleveland 2016 NBA Finals
  10. 1998 Viking/Falcons
 
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I still say USA getting jobbed in the 72 Olympics.

or

last nights 4 OT loss of my Gamecocks to Bama.

 
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1999 Stanley Cup finals, Game 6, triple OT.

BUF v DAL.

#### you Brett Hull. go eat a bag of #####. 

 
That Seahawks loss to the Pats a couple of years ago.  That INT was one of the most improbable and gut wrenching plays I could ever imagine.

The Falcons were an underdog and played crappy for an entire half.  I didn't think they'd even make the game, much less win it.  They were playing with house money and barely lost.

 
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Yankees up 3-0 losing to the Sox. I had to take off from work the day after they lost game 7 as I felt depressed and depleted.

 
That Packers game vs the Seahawks was pretty tough to stomach. For all those things to happen perfectly after the game GB played and winner goes to the Super Bowl, ughhh

 
Brazil losing at home to Germany 7-1 in the World Cup semis pretty much wrecked an entire nation.

If Greg Norman had never won a major, I would have listed his Masters meltdown here.

 
Jayrod said:
The Falcons were an underdog and planned crappy for an entire half.  I didn't think they'd even make the game, much less win it.  They were playing with house money and barely lost.
Everything about this post is stupid, no offense. 

I doubt it was house money when they were winning by 25.

 
shadyridr said:
Yankees up 3-0 losing to the Sox. I had to take off from work the day after they lost game 7 as I felt depressed and depleted.
You deserved it from the kick in the nuts I received from 2003 Sox/Yanks

 
Portland Trail Blazers giving up a 15 point lead with under 4 minutes left to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals Game 7 in 2000 comes to mind.  F You Brian Shaw for banking in that 3 pointer.

Lakers went on to sweep the horrible Pacers in the Finals.  Portland would have crushed the Pacers as well.

 
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Van de Velde at the Open

Maple Leafs losing a 3-1 lead in game 7 against the Bruins with 14 minutes left.

 
As a Michigan alum the fumbled snap of the punt on the last play of the game against MSU still grates me.  But that was a mid-season  college game.

The stat given was the Falcons when leading 28-3 halfway through the third was they had a 98.7% of winning the Super Bowl. That has to be the worst loss on the biggest stage.

Pretty sure the guy who bet 1 million on Atlanta +3 agrees. Midway though the third he was kicking it and had to be celebrating .

 
Golden State losing to Cleveland last year despite a 3-1 lead. It's like they lost the superbowl three times.

 
Eight Belles
scored some nice coin on that 20 (Big Brown)/5 (Eight Belles) exacta - she collapsed on the gallop out  :(

along those lines, the incomparable Ruffian, being put down on the track in her match race against the ironically named Foolish Pleasure, was much more devastating to the sport ... don't think it ever recovered. 

 
The Falcons' loss though is being seen through the glass of what actually did happen though. Is it more accurate to judge it based on what happened early on in the game/fight or before it ever began? There are plenty of stories like the Falcons' where someone was winning on all fight cards and then gets caught and ruins an evening. The Falcons had a statistically significant reason once the game was into the second half but was it the worst loss because of what could have been?

I think losses like the USSR-USA 1980 were much greater because the US had no business being in that fight and somehow won. While a smaller stage, Michigan losing to App State when they were #5 and at home is also one of the worst I can remember seeing even though it wasn't a title game. Let's not forget Oregon getting smashed by tOSU a few years ago for the national title with tOSU starting its third string QB.

 
yeah, that might qualify as the biggest upset...  but i'm not sure it was the "worst loss"   although he didn't recover from it.
I agree. Wrong category. Although a huge favorite, Tyson was getting beat from start to finish. 

 
The Falcons' loss though is being seen through the glass of what actually did happen though. Is it more accurate to judge it based on what happened early on in the game/fight or before it ever began? There are plenty of stories like the Falcons' where someone was winning on all fight cards and then gets caught and ruins an evening. The Falcons had a statistically significant reason once the game was into the second half but was it the worst loss because of what could have been?
A fight where one punch can change everything is not a fair comparison. This was a game, a game in which a team was up handily, 4 possessions to be exact with about 2/3 of the game played. 

IMO it makes it worse, not better.

 
I agree. Wrong category. Although a huge favorite, Tyson was getting beat from start to finish. 
yup, that was my point.

It's one thing for a huge upset to happen... it's one thing for a big comeback/big choke.

But to be completely dominating your opponent in every facet of the game for 3 quarters... and then not only did that team come back on you, but beyond just a comeback they had to have some incredible fortune, and both player and especially coach futility for the opponent had to be at all-time highs.

If you wrote the Super Bowl as a game for Hollywood, they would reject it and say it was too unrealistic.. that's how insane it was.

I mean I can believe the ending to Teen Wolf, Varsity Blues, and Karate Kid more than I could reading the narrative of this game.

 
Rangers had 2 strike counts for the last batter against the Cardinals in 2011 to win the World Series - not once but twice

 
The US Women's hockey team up 2-0 with under 4 minutes left against Canada, a team they had never beaten, in the Gold Medal game in the 2014 Winter Olympics.  I was watching just because it happened to be on.  When they lost they were absolutely crushed.  I felt horrible for them, even though I did not care at all about women's hockey.  The Super Bowl reminded me of that game.

 
Portland Trail Blazers giving up a 15 point lead with under 4 minutes left to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals Game 7 in 2000 comes to mind.  F You Brian Shaw for banking in that 3 pointer.

Lakers went on to sweep the horrible Pacers in the Finals.  Portland would have crushed the Pacers as well.
This was the one. It was 18 pts.

Jordan speith meltdown in last year's masters. Phil Mickelson a few years back in the US open that Geoff Ogilvy won. 

 
Portland Trail Blazers giving up a 15 point lead with under 4 minutes left to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals Game 7 in 2000 comes to mind.  F You Brian Shaw for banking in that 3 pointer.

Lakers went on to sweep the horrible Pacers in the Finals.  Portland would have crushed the Pacers as well.
If "worst" equals "most painful," this one is tough to top.

 
Once you're up 25 with a little over 20 minutes left, that isn't house money, that's your money.
:wall:

In gambling, when you are up big against the casino, the money (that is technically your money) is called "house money" because you won it from the house.

 
I'm going off the board for J.R. Hildebrand crashing in the final turn of the last lap while leading the 2011 Indy 500 by a comfortable margin.

 
:wall:

In gambling, when you are up big against the casino, the money (that is technically your money) is called "house money" because you won it from the house.
This wasn't blackjack at Caesars, this was a competitive sporting match where the odds were roughly 99%, that was no longer house money.

Furthermore, a 3 point dog is never playing with house money :shrug:

 
1984 World Cup.  Columbia losing to the USA 2-1, when a Columbia player scored on his own goal.  That player was shot to death when he got home, and I'm pretty confident most Columbians thought justice was served. 
 

But the worst was still to come. Defender Andres Escobar, known as "The Gentleman of the Field," accidentally put the ball in his own net in a game against the U.S., contributing to Colombia's rapid exit from the Cup and a massive national disappointment.

Ten days later, the 27-year-old Escobar was shot dead in a Medellin parking lot in a killing that sparked national outrage.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/07/02/murder-soccer-player-after-own-goal-20-years-ago-still-resonates-in-colombia.html

 

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