Most painful sporting event ever?

[Dragda]

Gotta be the first SB loss. The second one was nearly as bad. Then the playoff loss in 1976. Also the Portland Trailblazers losing to the Detroit Pistons in 1989 ranks right up there.

 

[diggemsmack]

I was at some friends house (mets fans ) for game 6 in '86. Sox were one strike away from breaking the curse and i was talkin a lil smack waiting for that last out so i could gloat in championship form.........when the game ended i was heckled to death! i lived about 5 miles from where i was and pounded my steering wheel the whole way home! nothing will ever come close.

 

[JTO Smooth]

This is by far and away my toughest loss ever.... in any sport.

To stand there in the stadium and watch Colts fans celebrating in our face was devastating. Also, watching our players run out of gas at the end and choke (including Brady) was really hard to stomach.

It's going to take a long time to get over this one.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

The youth of this board is showing...........

#1 (and by a stretch) - Bucky "effing" Dent - I was a wide eyed kid at the time and my spirit was simple broken after that one in '78.

#2a and 2b - hard to rank one in front of the other, but Buckner (86') and Aaron "effing" Boone (03') are pretty seared into the blackness of my memory banks as well.

In fact, I'd say it wasn't until 2004 that those wounds were fully healed

This was a crushing blow, for sure...... But, I'll be honest, it was starting to fade within 24 hours for a few reasons. 1) I'm older and understand things better , 2) With all the issues this year coming in (injuries, WR drauma, LB Dinosaurs, ect) I really wasn't expecting a serious SB run anyway until the last 4-5 weeks. I quicky came back to the reality of the situation. At the end of the day, what we had, we did pretty damn good.

But most importantly, with 2001, 2003, 2004 firmy entrenched in my mind :rocker: , I was able to take in stride a little easier. If this was 2000, it would have been MUCH more painful given the history preceeding it.

 

[3 to be 4]

i cant believe i forgot the '78 Buck Dent playoff.

yeah, that kinda hurt.

 

[sdaniels7114]

BTW, what happened in game 6 of 1986? Sorry to ask, I just don't understand the reference.

Its Baseball. the Red Sox had the World Series all but wrapped up leading the Mets 3 games to 2 in a best of seven series. Roger Clemens was scheduled to start and that was almost certainly his best year. He got his first Cy Young award and only MVP that season. To this day, I don't think any pitcher has since earned an MVP. Baseball makes it nearly impossible for a Pitcher to do so. He also set the record for most strikeouts in a regular game that year. In a nutshell the game was in the bag. The final score should have been Red Sox-something, Mets-zero. Which would have won a series for Boston for the first time in 68 years.

Instead there was an endless series of improbable events that led to an extra inning Mets victory. Some of the lowlights: Clemens developed a blister on his throwing hand. He says he wanted to stay in, the manager at the time says he asked out. No one knows for sure. His replacement threw a wild pitch which allowed a runner to score. That guy's replacement, a rookie phenom named Calvin Schiraldi completely imploded under the pressure, and most famously of all Bill Buckner allowed an easy ground ball to slip past him.

I know someone like yourself, who's a fan of the Pats and not necessarily a fan of the other regional sports teams doesn't care all that much; but to those of us New Englanders who love all the teams, SB 36 didn't just fix the Pat's sorry history. It also finally removed the dagger that 1986 stuck in our hearts.

 

[pheenix11]

My List

1. Oct 16, 2003 ALCS Game 7 Red Sox vs Yankees: I was in shock. I just sat there staring at the screen unable to believe what I just saw. I moved from Boston to Tampa 30 hours later, what a way to leave the town you've grown up in.

2. Jan 21, 2007 AFC Chamionship Pats vs Colts: This really stung, I hate losing to the Colts and I wanted to see the Pats make history.

3. Oct 25, 1986 WS Game 6 Red Sox vs Mets: I was 12 yrs old at the time and was scarred for life, LOL.

4. Jan 26, 1997 Superbowl XXXI Pats vs Packers: Desmond Howard killed me. I lost a bet because of this Superbowl and had to wear a dress in TGI Fridays. I really thought we could have won this won.

5. Jan 14, 2006 AFC Divisional Playoff Pats vs Broncos: Just depressing to see our run end this way. I really wanted the threepeat.

 

[pheenix11]

I know someone like yourself, who's a fan of the Pats and not necessarily a fan of the other regional sports teams doesn't care all that much; but to those of us New Englanders who love all the teams, SB 36 didn't just fix the Pat's sorry history. It also finally removed the dagger that 1986 stuck in our hearts.

When I was younger I always tetered between Baseball & Football as my favorite sports. But the Pats won my heart forever when they won SB 36. It did take much of the pain away from SB 31 and 86.

You always remember your first.

 

[everlong]

1. Game 6 86 WS
2. Game 7 03 ALCS
3. 97 loss to Pitt
4. 86 loss to Denver
5. 78 Bucky Dent
6. 87 NBA Finals game 4 Bird's shot rims out


Although I like football more than baseball the Red Soxs have just lost in the most painful ways.

Not that last year at Denver or this year at Indy didn't hurt but we've won so many games the last 6 years that it was easier to get over. When Drew threw that pick into the lineman's bread basket in 97 I was pissed off until mini camp.

I'm proud to say that to this day I still haven't seen Boone's HR go out of the park. My wife and I are watching the game and I had the clicker in my hand, what guy doesn't? LOLOL, and I had a bad feeling so I had my finger on the power button. As soon as it left his bat I clicked it off.

My wife says "What are you doing?"
"I have no need to ever see that."
"But you don't know if it went out of the park."
"Trust me it went out and the phone will be ringing in a second any way."

I got calls from a half dozen friends within minutes. I told them all how I didn't want to haunted by that HR the way I was with the Buckner HR having to watch it 1,000,000 on replays for the rest of my life and how I turned it off. They all said they wished they had done the same.

So to this day if that comes on no matter where I am I won't watch it. If it had come down to an AV FG in the Indy game I was planning the same. I look at the Indy game and say well AV didn't beat us so I can deal because having to listen to the national media blow that out of proportion for forever would have sucked Buckner-Bad.

 

[pheenix11]

If it had come down to an AV FG in the Indy game I was planning the same. I look at the Indy game and say well AV didn't beat us so I can deal because having to listen to the national media blow that out of proportion for forever would have sucked Buckner-Bad.

You're right, this year could have been a lot worse, I guess we can be thankful for something.

 

[NoCal Patriot]

Worst loss ever was The 1976 Playoff loss against Oakland when the Corrupt Referee Ben Dreith stole the game from Us.I didn't get closure on this until I pissed on his front lawn in St.George,Utah back in 1995. He came out of his house screaming,"What the Hell are You doing?" I replied ,"Giving You the business!" .He responded,"Damn Patriots Fans!"My friend Tom and I left laughing at this senile old man and drove to Colorado where We stopped and drank well into the night saluting the 1976 Patriots.

 

[Fanfrom1960]

The youth of this board is showing...........

#1 (and by a stretch) - Bucky "effing" Dent - I was a wide eyed kid at the time and my spirit was simple broken after that one in '78.

#2a and 2b - hard to rank one in front of the other, but Buckner (86') and Aaron "effing" Boone (03') are pretty seared into the blackness of my memory banks as well.

In fact, I'd say it wasn't until 2004 that those wounds were fully healed

This was a crushing blow, for sure...... But, I'll be honest, it was starting to fade within 24 hours for a few reasons. 1) I'm older and understand things better , 2) With all the issues this year coming in (injuries, WR drauma, LB Dinosaurs, ect) I really wasn't expecting a serious SB run anyway until the last 4-5 weeks. I quicky came back to the reality of the situation. At the end of the day, what we had, we did pretty damn good.

But most importantly, with 2001, 2003, 2004 firmy entrenched in my mind :rocker: , I was able to take in stride a little easier. If this was 2000, it would have been MUCH more painful given the history preceeding it.

1986 for me, far and away worst. They had the world series, the whole enchilada right there if they could get that last stinking out, two outs nobody on with a two run lead. Would have been the first in 68 years at the time and there would have been no curse of the bambino. In 1978, even after Dent's HR, they still could have come back, but even if they did, they would have had to go on and beat the Dodgers in the world series. 2003 was just a more modern day version of 1978.

Worst Pats loss to me is still the Ben Dreith game, 1976. They should have gone on to win it all because the Steelers, best other team, lost both running backs (Bleier and Franco Harris) in their divisional game with the Colts and got smeared by Oakland. We would have done the smearing and then should have beat the Vikings, who rolled over for the Raiders. This one was more that the Colts won it than our boys blowing it or the refs giving it to the other team. Tough, yeah, but I can live with it, especially because of 36, 38 and 39.

 

[Fogbuster]

What hurt the most for me was the spectacular way the game started for the Pats. I almost called my dad to say, "The Pats OWN the Colts, forever and a day", but decided I'd wait a bit.

Then, the last few minutes of the first half. The way the Colts were marching at will. At this point I began to worry.

Usually the Pats make excellent adjustments at half-time, but this time I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, like it wasn't going to happen.

As much as it wounds my pride in the Pats, I have to say that it very much seems like it was not meant to be a victory for the Pats this time; as much as it was not meant to be a victory for the Colts in 2003. The juice transferred from the Pats to the Colts this time. I hope we can get it back.


//

 

[richpats]

What hurt the most for me was the spectacular way the game started for the Pats. //

That was probably what made it a little harder to take, much like the Denver playoff game. The Pats didn't start off spectacularly in that game but they were shutting down the Denver offense for the first time in recent memory.

I had modest expectations going into the game, like maybe the Pats could hold them under 30 and hang in there long enough to pull out the win in the end. Then the worst thing happened, the Pats got out to a BIG lead. This was bad for 2 reasons - the Colts had no choice but to let 'er rip and the Pats went conservative (as expected). The same thing happened in the 2003 regular season, it was no surprise Indy tied it up 21-21. They had momentum and the Pats didn't wake up until it was tied. As the game progressed, Indy had so much momentum that NE was helpless to stop it.

If this had remained a close game, Manning would have continued to try and hit Harrison & Wayne all day, but the situation called for an adjustment in strategy and he started working the middle of the field. This killed the Pats.

Towards the end of the game, I didn't expect any miracles out of our offense or defense, it seemed that the team was truly beaten and there are no excuses for it.

 

[PatsSox363804]

I would rank them:

1) 86 game 6
2) 03 game 7
3) Bruins in 88
4) Bruins in 04 (blew a 3-1 series lead vs the Habs)
5) Pitt playoff game in 97

This game would be around 10 on the list really.. maybe lower. The only reason it's that high is because of the lead we had but let's be honest, winning 3 titles has sort of made it easier to take a loss. The 97 playoff game, Superbowl 31, the Red Sox pre 04, etc were all harder to take because it got to the point where we thought we would NEVER see them win a title, hell I'm still at that point with the Bruins.

 

[PonyExpress]

Worst loss ever was The 1976 Playoff loss against Oakland when the Corrupt Referee Ben Dreith stole the game from Us.I didn't get closure on this until I pissed on his front lawn in St.George,Utah back in 1995. He came out of his house screaming,"What the Hell are You doing?" I replied ,"Giving You the business!" .He responded,"Damn Patriots Fans!"My friend Tom and I left laughing at this senile old man and drove to Colorado where We stopped and drank well into the night saluting the 1976 Patriots.

Post of the Year.

 

[Dragda]

Worst loss ever was The 1976 Playoff loss against Oakland when the Corrupt Referee Ben Dreith stole the game from Us.I didn't get closure on this until I pissed on his front lawn in St.George,Utah back in 1995. He came out of his house screaming,"What the Hell are You doing?" I replied ,"Giving You the business!" .He responded,"Damn Patriots Fans!"My friend Tom and I left laughing at this senile old man and drove to Colorado where We stopped and drank well into the night saluting the 1976 Patriots.

too bad '95 was pre-youtube era. That would have been hillarious.