You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but I disagree on the last two. The reason for that is that the definition of "choking" implies that the team or player couldn't handle the pressure; i.e., they tensed up so badly they could not breath (choked).
If you are favored and lose, or are winning and lose, there are many other possible explanations other than not being able to handle the pressure. Aside from things like fluke plays, injuries, or bad calls, one important thing that is being totally overlooked is the opponent.
An example of this would be the 1980 Miracle on Ice. The Soviet Union team didn't really do anything wrong; they didn't succumb to pressure and choke; Team USA simply played a great game and won. Sometimes a team loses regardless of how well they played, and sometimed underdogs defeat favorites. It's not always a case of somebody being at fault (i.e., 'choking') for the loss; sometimes the other player or other team simply played better.
In my opinion the term 'choking' has become nothing more than a term with which fans of one team to try to taunt fans of another team. I'd put it side by side with fans who point their fingers and laugh at a team who loses a championship game. This is nothing new; it's been going on in the NFL at least since the Vikings lost a few early Super Bowls. Somehow or other being second best has transformed into being worse than the 10th or 20th best teams in the twisted logic of many fans and media members over the years.
When you stop and think about it, it makes absolutley no sense at all - other than to either make some fan who already feels bad worse, or to build your own self-esteem by tearing down someone else. And that, in a nutshell, is how the term 'choking' is used by many people now: it's simply a word used to put others down, so the person who uses it can feel better about themselves; it usually has nothing to do with what actually happened on the field of play.
