Most Heartbreaking Sports Moment

[Don Wassall]

Mine was when the Pittsburgh Penguins lost in overtime in Game 7 to the New York Islanders in the second round of the 1993 playoffs. The Pens had won back to back Stanley Cups and cruised through the '92-'93 regular season, finishing with a 17 game winning streak. They were overwhelming favorites to three-peat.

They crushed the Devils in the first round of the playoffs, but weren't playoff tough when the Islanders unexpectedly played over their heads in the second round. Darius Kasparatis hounded Mario Lemieux mercilessly and the series unexpectedly went to a seventh game. The Pens totally dominated that game, outshooting the Islanders by a 3 to 1 ratio, but backup goalie Glenn Healy stood on his head and New York was ahead with about five minutes left. Ron Francis scored twice in those five minutes to tie the game. In overtime the Penguins again totally dominated play, but the first Islanders shot on goal, a long distance slap shot about six minutes in by a fourth liner named David Volek, sailed over the shoulder of a frozen in place Tom Barasso. That was the worst feeling imaginable.

Second worst -- Sid Bream completing Atlanta's comeback against the Pirates in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the '92 NLCS by scoring on a single by Francisco Cabrera. Bream was probably the slowest runner in baseball, but scored from second because of a terrible throw by none other than Barry Bonds. Bonds will rank as one of the all-time chokers in the playoffs.

Anyone else?

 

[sport historian]

I was in Neyland Stadium for the 1990 Tennessee-Notre Dame game won by ND 34-28. The Vols came back to cut the lead to a touchdown and recovered an onside kick with about two minutes left. Andy Kelley threw for Alvin Harper who was breaking open at the goal line. A Notre Dame DB reached up and the ball seemed to stick to his hands for an interception. The play happened right in front of me.


Before the interception, I turned to the guy sitting next to me and said, "If we win, it's the greatest win in Tennessee football history." He nodded in agreement. Notre Dame under Lou Holtz was No. 1 in the polls at the time.


Oddly enough, Tennessee came back from a 3TD deficit to beat Notre Dame in South Bend the next year. The Vols blocked a FG on the last play of the game.


Another heartbreaker for me was the NY Giants losing to the Chicago Bears 14-10 in the 1963 NFL Title Game. As a child, I loved the NY Giants (Tittle, Gifford, Huff) of the early 60's.

 

[IceSpeed]

When Tim Wakefield gave up the homerun to Aaron
Boone all of Boston's hearts sank. Of course, in 2004 our hearts
rose again.

When the Patriots lost to the Raiders in a playoff
game way back it was rough. I do not remember the game to well
though.

A few years ago, Air Force almost beat Notre
Dame. The score was 21-14. Man that was rough.

When Cooney lost to Holmes, it was hard to watch.



The heartbreaker that beats them all is the Scott
Norwood Super Bowl. I feel kind of sorry for him. Buffallo
has not recovered and the Bills franchise has not seen any glory
since. The anti-Vinatieri 's life will always have a black
mark on it no matter what he does in things besides sports.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I agree with the Bills-Giants Superbowl XXV. I was 13 and was a Bills fan. I thought even after they lost that one they would win it the next year. I wish we could go back to that 1990 season for a few years. I also remember SuperBowl XX, the first one I watched. The only Bears I liked were McMahon, Perry and Ditka. I wanted the Pats to win but they got crushed. As far as college ball goes. I wish Ole Miss would have beaten Auburn in 2000, so close, but so far away. The same thing with Georgia in 99 and Miss. State in 2001. We had Eli, and they were 2-7, but we lost.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I forgot to include Payton with the Bears, and really him instead of Perry. I think it was sad Walter didn't get the ball when they gave it to the fridge, because that was his last game.

 

[IceSpeed]

How bout McMahon rushing for two touchdowns.
If I remember correctly, he was the first quarterback to do so in a
Super Bowl.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Thanks for reminding me of that IceSpeed. It's too quickly we forget the accomplishments of whites. I guess it's a product of the Caste System, thanks to the likes of the networks and ESPN. It is kind of hard to remember much of that game , as I had just turned 8, but still...

 

[IceSpeed]

I saw Super Bowl XXXI(31) ; Patriots vs. Packers
with an eight year old boy. He was a big Drew Bledsoe and Ted
Johnson fan. He also liked Curtis Martin. It is tough when
you see a kid's favorite team go down the drain after that game.
The end of that season brought in Pete Carrol and depression for New
England fans. Everyone respected Parcells and Carrol just was not a
match for the Patriots. Until the magical season of 01-02, Pats
fans always looked at Super Bowl 31 as the annihilation of their team.

The Packers 35-21 victory really harmed New England as they got progressively worse afterwards.

 

[speedster]

I've got so many I'll have to post several times to get them all in.But for now I'll go with Super Bowl XIII from Jan.21,1979.Yeah,I'm a Dallas Cowboy fan and we are known for thinking the Cow should win every big game,and when they don't we have a truckload of excuses,which I'm about to lay on you now.It's not that Pittsburgh didn't play well,they most certainly did.They sure figured out how to beat the Cowboy's Flex defence,it's just the strange things that kept happening from late in 3rd quarter on.First,it was Jackie Smith's drop of a sure touchdown pass while he was alone in the end zone,shortly after that Terry Bradshaw tossed one up to Lynn Swann,it was just a holy ghoster since Swann wasn't open,buthe and Dallas corner Benny Barnes got their feet tangled up and both went down and Barnes was called for pass interference.Are you kidding me?Pittsburgh got into field goal range and they seemed satisfied to get just that because on 3rd and long they called a running play.A decent hole opened up for Franco Harris,but Cowboy safety Charlie Waters zeroed in on him and was set to make the tackle to stop Harris short of the first down when an official got in Water's way screening him out and Franco romped into the end zone.On the ensuing kick off Roy Gerela fell as he kicked the ball causing a short bouncing kick.The ball ended up in the hands of all people,Randy White.White was wearing a cast because of a broken finger and he ends up fumbling and Pittsburgh recovers and they go on to score shortly after that.Dallas didn't give up as they scored a couple of late touchdowns and just ran out of time.It made think that that no matter what this was Pittsburgh's game to win.

 

[jaxvid]

As a University of Michigan fan I have had an opportunity to suffer some classic heart breaking losses.

Some of the lowlights: Jake the Snake hail mary to beat Michigan on the last play.

Charles Whites "phantom TD" to win the 1980 Rose Bowl for USC.

Missed FG's by Vietnam vet kicker Mike Lantry to cost UM a Rose Bowl appearence

Chris Webber time-out with no timeouts left to lose the NCAA championship.

there are many more. Note this years loss on a FG on the last play of the game to Texas was just another drop in the bucket.