Buffalo BillsAndrew Eggers

There have been many memorable choke-artist moments in sports history, making it hard for me to single one event out from all the others as the worst of all time. Thanks to the Buffalo Bills, who choked four times on consecutive trips to the Super Bowl in the early 1990s, my job has been made easier.

Those Buffalo Bills teams were a potential dynasty. Now they are remembered as the doormats for the 1990 New York Giants, the 1991 Washington Redskins and the 1992-93 Dallas Cowboys who did take home the Lombardi Trophy.

The first Super Bowl the Bills played was their best chance of actually winning. Kicker Scott Norwood missed a field goal late in the fourth quarter that would have given the Bills the lead. You might remember seeing the Bill Parcells highlight when he is celebrating while being carried on the shoulders of his Giants players.

Then Joe Gibbs, Mark Rypien and the Redskins scalped the Bills in the Super Bowl a year later. It is a shame that Bills’ Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly got outplayed by, of all people, Redskins’ quarterback Rypien. Other than winning the Super Bowl that year, Rypien did not have a stellar career by any stretch of the imagination.

The Cowboys handedly beat the Bills in the Super Bowl in each of the following two years and went on to have a dynasty of their own. The big three in Dallas of Aikman, Smith and Irvin put it on the Bills in both games, which were not close.

It is impressive that the Bills won the AFC Championship and advanced to the Super Bowl four consecutive years. With the competitive nature of today’s NFL and the importance that free agency has on a team’s chance of being successful, I do not think we will see it happen in a long time.

It was Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, Don Beebe and Andre Reed who were the Bills’ team leaders. They were a great team that just could not reach the ultimate milestone in their sport. Maybe it was luck, maybe it was fate or maybe it was a lack of skill which caused the Bills to fall short of a championship ring.

Any way you look at it, they lost four straight times on the biggest stage of their sport.

Jean Van de VeldeJustin Tejada

When one thinks about the greatest sports chokes of all time, golf is usually not the first sport that comes to mind. After all, how can such a low-intensity sport compare to games like football or baseball, where everything can come to a head over a field goal (Scott Norwood anyone?) or getting the last out in a crucial game?

There really ought to have been a Bill Buckner joke there, but I digress. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that a choke does not signify a lack of physical or natural ability that caused the error. Above all, a choke is when the mental pressure of a game gets so intense that you lose all sense of your ability. All that training is forgotten.

All that experience goes right out the window. It’s just one of those moments where you slap your head right after it happens and you go, “Well, gee, duh!” And it is in my humble opinion that golf ranks up in the top three when it comes to pressure. But the thing that confuses me about my personal choice for biggest choke of all time is this: Where was the pressure during Jean Van de Velde’s performance in the 1999 British Open?

He played a near flawless 71 holes throughout the entire tournament. In fact, he played so well and was so far ahead of the competition that when he approached the final hole, he could swing for a double-bogey and still walk away a winner.

The proverbial cork was already popped and he could see the bubbly flowing. Maybe he was just looking so far ahead to his victory parade that he couldn’t see the hole in front of him. In either case, his first shot finds the rough. No big deal, right? Just a little adjustment and he could shoot for the green for the approach shot. But with the next swing, he puts the ball into the bleachers. Oops.

Then the next shot ends up in the water. But all is not lost, even with the penalty. All he had to do at that point was find the green for once and putt it in for the victory. Instead, he found out where the bunker was. Ouch.

I can only wonder what was going through his head when he realized he squandered his lead and ended up losing the whole competition.

Giants collapse (2002)Jordan Guinn

I can’t seriously be writing this column. To recall this tragic set of circumstances usually puts me in a mood foul enough to ruin the rest of my day. The Giants had the World Series won in 2002. They had outplayed the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California of the United States in virtually every aspect of the game until the seventh inning of game six of the World Series. They held a commanding 5-0 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh when all hell broke loose.

Manager Dusty Baker replaced pitcher Russ Ortiz due to his bloated pitch count and for some mystifying reason handed Ortiz the game ball before sending him to the showers. This action was far more damaging to the Giants chances than any flea-ridden monkey bouncing on a jumbotron screen. Even if no one on the Angels saw Baker hand Ortiz the ball, the action is devoid of common sense. Yogi Berra said it best, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” The Rally Monkey had nothing to do with the Giants choke. Baker was most likely picturing the post-game interview, in which he was soaked in cheap booze and wearing a shirt reading world champions, rather than focusing on the final nine outs.

It is not fair to hold Baker 100 percent accountable. Barry Bonds bobbled Garrett Anderson’s single and gave the Angels runners at second and third with none out trailing by one. Bonds had put on a Ruthian performance during the Series, but his defensive lapse erased his dreams of a championship title. My three readers know how much I love the Giants and how much I defend Bonds, but this is one moment when I just shake my head. Bonds was more focused on offense than his defense at this point in his career, that is all I am going to say.

I will put some weight into the Rally Monkey theory, simply because it was not the first time the mascot had hurt us. The monkey was born against the Giants back on June 6, 2000. The Angels came back from a six-run deficit to beat the Giants after the graphic for the Rally Monkey aired in the sixth inning. I hate the Rally Monkey and want to see it banished to the Island of Misfit Mascots, the place for loser mascots that make no sense.

2006-07 Dallas MavericksAlexander Villanueva

There are a number of “chokes” in sports, but the one that stands out is the Dallas Mavericks loss to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 2007 NBA playoffs.

This may have been the biggest choke in recent memory, with the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks loss to the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 2007 NBA playoffs four games to two. This is the same Dallas Mavericks team that also had the league’s best record last season at 67-15.

Dirk Nowitzki ended the season as the league’s Most Valuable Player with 24.6 points and 8.9 rebounds per game while shooting 50 percent from the field, but I thought the title should have gone to his former teammate Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns. And it did not help when he played miserably against the Warriors in the six-game stretch with 19.7 points and 11.3 rebounds per game while shooting 38 percent on field goals. But the Mavericks were up against a formidable Golden State team that made an eight-player trade with the Indiana Pacers in mid-January.

The trade brought forwards Al Harrington and Josh Powell and guards Stephen Jackson and Sarunas Jasikevicius to the Warriors, and sent forwards Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, Ike Diogu and guard Keith McLeod to the Pacers.

Also at the time the Warriors still had guard Jason Richardson, so head coach Don Nelson decided to play small-ball for the rest of the season.

This resulted in the backcourt combination of Baron Davis and Monta Ellis, and a frontcourt of Jason Richardson, Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington at center. So when the playoffs started Don Nelson knew that his team had one thing that could stop the Mavericks: speed.

But even with the improvements to the Warriors roster, the Mavericks should have been able to handle the Warriors like any other team they faced in the league. Who knows, maybe the Mavericks just ran out of gas to finish the season with a championship.

Either way, if I was Dirk (at the time), I would have hung my head in shame and returned the MVP trophy back to the league. But it has been almost a year since the playoffs and I doubt that it will ever happen. And with his overall performance and the way his team is playing, he won’t see another MVP title for a long time until he learns not to choke in another playoff series.

Chris Webber’s timeoutJose Martinez

Heading into the 1993 NCAA men’s basketball championship between the Michigan Wolverines and the North Carolina Tar Heels, Chris Webber had already guaranteed a victory for himself and “the fab five.” Little did Webber know that after the game he would forever be remembered as the guy who used a phantom timeout. With 4:32 remaining in the second half, Webber’s Wolverines were up on the Tar Heels 67-63. Shortly thereafter, the entire game would change for everyone playing and everyone watching. The Tar Heels would go on a 5-0 run, jumping out in front of the Wolverines by one point. After countless bonehead plays by the Wolverines, like failing to foul 7-footer Eric Montross and letting him score sure-fire points off of a dunk with less than one minute left in the game, UNC upped its lead to 72-67 with 58 seconds to play. Wolverines head coach Steve Fisher called the team’s final timeout to strategize on how they would finish the final moments of the game. As the team broke the huddle Fisher yelled, “Remember, no more timeouts!” Apparently Webber turned off his brain for that brief moment, as the final seconds of the game would lead to one of Webber’s most memorable moments; or should I say dumbest moments? After Pat Sullivan made one of two free throws, Webber grasped a rebound and turned to pass, but to his surprise the rest of his teammates were already up the floor, leaving him alone in the backcourt. Webber obviously traveled while trying to call a timeout that his team no longer had, but shockingly the referee didn’t see it. To his surprise, Webber gladly rushed the ball upcourt. As two Tar Heel defenders were about to trap him at about mid-court, Webber signaled for a timeout. But unfortunately, his team was out, leading to a turnover and two free throws for the Tar Heels. UNC’s Donald Williams would make both, increasing the Tar Heel advantage to four points. Meaningless moments later, the Tar Heels would sink two more free throws, placing the final score at 77-71. It was probably one of Webber’s most important games in his career at that point, and he will be remembered as the biggest idiot on the floor. Come on, don’t they teach you in elementary school basketball to LISTEN to your coach? If Webber would have only done that, he probably could have done something a little bit more productive than costing his team a NCAA championship. No matter how many titles Webber will go on to win (probably not any) he will be forever remembered as one of sports’ biggest chokers of all time.

2007-08 New England Patriots (18-1)David Green

The biggest chokers in sports history by far are the 2007-08 New England Patriots. Supposedly the best team that was going to make history couldn’t even beat a New York Giants team that was not even the best in the NFC. What a disappointment to go undefeated for the whole year, smashing down teams, and then not performing during the game that counted the most. It is their fault anyway: They were feeling their own hype, starting to think they were the best when the season was not even over yet.

Choke artists; Supposedly the best offense in the history of the NFL could not put up enough points to beat the Giants. None of Tom Brady’s completions through the entire game went over twenty yards. The starting running back, Laurence Maroney, was held to only 36 yards in the Super Bowl. I still don’t believe they should have gone undefeated in the first place. When they played the Baltimore Ravens, the Patriots were given four controversial calls that put them in good scoring position to win the ball game. The Bill Belichick “Spy Gate” scandal casted a dim light over the Patriots organization, but only for a short period of time because they still continued to win games. People forgot all about those things because they had that chance to go 19-0.

Every announcer believed that the Patriots was a team for the history books; Nobody thought the brother of Peyton Manning was going to step up and lead a team to beat the unbeatable Patriots.

I must say it was pretty funny to see all the hype in the pregame shows saying the Patriots were the best team ever, even better than the “Steel Curtain” or the Cowboys of the 90s, but the Patriots could not even beat a team that didn’t even have a cool name like the “Steel Curtain.”

After the show, the Patriots were ranked the fourth best team of all-time. It is a cruel world, but they’ll always have next year. Well, maybe not, because Randy Moss’ contract is up and Belichick does not like to pay wide receivers that ask for more money. Moss didn’t do much in the Super Bowl, but helped out a lot during the season.

2004 New York YankeesCameron Ross

The Yankees failure to capitalize on a 3-0 series lead against the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS is the biggest choke in sports history.

After the Yankees molested the Red Sox 19-8 in Game 3, things looked grim for any non-Yankee fans.

The Yankees’ choke was horrendous, as if they bit off too large of a piece of their famous New York pizza and tried to eat it along with one of their famous bagels.

Game 4 appeared to be a signed death warrant for the Red Sox until Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez began giving up hits and allowed the Red Sox to take the lead for only the second time in the series. Finally a reason to call “El Duque” a demeaning name like “El Puke-aye”, as in vomit, as in puke. He pitched badly enough to make you puke, understand?

It was the first time a team won a 7-game series after being down 3-0 in Major League Baseball and ironically the Yankees beat the Red Sox in the 2003 ALCS in 7 games. The 2003 ALCS is considered possibly the worst defeat by the Red Sox especially since they lost in extra innings.

Finally sports justice! The Yankees 2004 payroll of $182,835,513 was the highest that year and the Red Sox had the second-highest at $125,208,542. While Boston fans were ecstatic to see their Sox win the World Series for the first time in 86 years, regular baseball fans were happy to see the epic villains of baseball lose in such historic fashion.

This series had many heroes but the overall effort of the Red Sox as a team was inspiring like a cross between the movies “Angels in the Outfield” and “Major League.” Generally, sports fans root against the juggernaut and that was the case in the 2004 ALCS. Yankees fans like Billy Crystal and Rudi Giuliani probably cried enough tears to provide showers for the Yankees that night. George Steinbrenner’s money went to waste because he had no trophy to show for all of his spending.

The epitome of a comeback was exhibited perfectly in this series and the epitome of a choke was also. The Yankees may be the epic bullies in Major League Baseball but they will always be remembered for their defeat in 2004.

Knowing the team who has basically bought World Series Championships in the past failed to do so in 2004 is almost as good as your team winning. It’s like watching a gazelle slay a lion, triumph of the underdogs. It was perhaps the sweetest victory for Americans since the Revolutionary War.

The State Hornet staff can be reached at [email protected].