Fox Sports Chokes On Chokes
By Brian Miller
There are top 10 lists and then there are “top 10 lists“. What good is a top 10 list without someone being left off it and then have a large amount of fans ridicule them for it? Well, not a very well thought out top 10 or a very well thought out list. The fact is that if you can pick 10 of everything and have no one argue about it then chances are you won’t have any one reading it either.
Such is the case over at Fox Sports where they just choked on the biggest hot dog I have ever seen. I like Fox Sports, always have and always will. Much better than the phony ESPN crowd who would rather regurgitate what FS had to say. Still, a choke is a choke is a choke.
Fox has on their website the greatest chokes of all time. Spanning all professional sports from Tennis to Golf and Baseball to Football. The list itself will elicit a few smiles, giggles, and even some empathy. When you finished reading it however, you realize that the list is monumentally in error.
Take number 10. The LA Lakers and the Portland Trailblazers 2000 Western Conference Finals. Down 3-1 in the series, the Trailblazers came back and with just over 10 minutes left in game 7, held an easy 15 point lead. Then…you guessed it…they choked.
This continues on their countdown. From the 76 Red Sox to the Greg Norman’s Masters meltdown in 96. By the time you get to number 5…your smiling. 4. 3. You know what’s coming. It is building. 2? Are you kidding me? Seriously? Number 2! Yes, sadly it is true. Jean Van de Velde‘s epic meltdown in the 1999 British Open was number 2. His triple bogey on 18 earned him a playoff birth when as he teed off on 18 all he needed to win was a double bogey. So that was it. It had to be “Number 1”.
Nope, sorry. You don’t get to play anymore. The biggest choke of all time in professional sports does not belong to the 2007 New England Patriots. In fact, the travesty of it all is that in the entire top 10, the New England Patriots are nowhere to be seen. What gives?
When it comes to monumental meltdowns, big time chokes, is there really anything bigger than entering the Super Bowl, the premier championship game in all of sports, the game of games…undefeated and lose? Not just lose…but miserably choke on the last drive? Call it karma, call it destiny, call it anything you want. 19-0 was a great big NO. An entire generation, in fact multiple generations of fans still, months later refuse to accept the loss. Refuse to talk about it and if you bring it up your just as likely to get hit in the mouth than told to shut up.
The 2007 New England Patriots will go down in history as one of the biggest choke teams in all of sports. Unfortunately, the author over on Fox Sports didn’t see it that way. Apparently he didn’t see it as a choke at all. Which begs the question of “was it simply an oversight or is the author a Patriots fan who can’t face the music?”
Either way, he choked.