Quite frankly, I have no idea what just inspired me to make this thread from scratch. Maybe it has something to do with the post I just wrote in the NBA thread, or maybe it also has something to do with the phrase "Malcolm Butler at the goal line!" being etched into the brains of every Seattle Seahawks fan since February 2015. Hey, Seattle's one of my top four favorite NFL teams, and at the time they were my top one favorite. I was just as annoyed as the rest of you. Great read by Butler on that play, though, I've got to admit.
We've all been there- your favorite sports team is playing in a really big game, and on paper, there's absolutely no way your team is going to lose. You might have bases loaded in the top of the 9th, and all you need is just a few baserunners to score. Maybe you're up by upwards of 20 points at the start of the fourth quarter of a basketball game. Or maybe you're an Atlanta football team going into the freaking Super Bowl up by 25 points at halftime. Certainly, there's no way my team loses this, right?
...right? But somehow, your team decides to forget how to finish the rest of the game, and just like that, the other team's fans are on TikTok making viral videos about just how badly your team blew it. Like I've said, we've all been there. No matter what team in what sport you're a fan of, we can all agree on one thing. Seeing your favorite team choke sucks. But if everyone and their mother hates witnessing this phenomenon... why do I want to make an entire thread for it? That comes down to who you ask. For me personally, I'd like to imagine that our favorite teams temporarily forgetting "how to athlete" can be a blessing in disguise. It's not a matter of if your team is going to throw away a big moment. It's a matter of when. With this in mind, teams can take what happened in these games as valuable lessons going forward. It's going to sting like pouring salt on a flesh wound, yes, but sometimes a big-time choke in a big-time game is just what a team needs to avoid such a thing happening later on.
There's also the optimist's side of the coin, too. Sometimes when your opponent(s) start to fall behind when it really matters, it means your own team is the one making the amazing comeback. We just saw this in this season's Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles- on one hand, you could look at this as "The Eagles defense sold in the second half, and there was also that holding call there on the final drive". While these are valid points, you could also choose to look at this from the lens of Chiefs fans who were most likely extremely happy to see their favorite team's offense play almost perfectly after halftime. Sometimes when your team chokes, it's because adjustments were made and the other team(s) just played better. And that's okay. We're all sports fans at the end of the day, and for every comeback our team makes, it's almost certain we'll experience one choke of our own in exchange.
What matters more to me is that we all learn to respect the merit of competition. You never know when there's some kid with a life-threatening disease cheering for the other team whose dying wish is just for their favorite team to give it their all. You never know when there's a team you're facing in the championship who hasn't won a championship maybe ever. And in those instances, why can't we just be happy for them? That's why I made this thread- because even the biggest, most infamous chokes have lessons behind them. And now's your chance to share your stories.
We've all been there- your favorite sports team is playing in a really big game, and on paper, there's absolutely no way your team is going to lose. You might have bases loaded in the top of the 9th, and all you need is just a few baserunners to score. Maybe you're up by upwards of 20 points at the start of the fourth quarter of a basketball game. Or maybe you're an Atlanta football team going into the freaking Super Bowl up by 25 points at halftime. Certainly, there's no way my team loses this, right?
...right? But somehow, your team decides to forget how to finish the rest of the game, and just like that, the other team's fans are on TikTok making viral videos about just how badly your team blew it. Like I've said, we've all been there. No matter what team in what sport you're a fan of, we can all agree on one thing. Seeing your favorite team choke sucks. But if everyone and their mother hates witnessing this phenomenon... why do I want to make an entire thread for it? That comes down to who you ask. For me personally, I'd like to imagine that our favorite teams temporarily forgetting "how to athlete" can be a blessing in disguise. It's not a matter of if your team is going to throw away a big moment. It's a matter of when. With this in mind, teams can take what happened in these games as valuable lessons going forward. It's going to sting like pouring salt on a flesh wound, yes, but sometimes a big-time choke in a big-time game is just what a team needs to avoid such a thing happening later on.
There's also the optimist's side of the coin, too. Sometimes when your opponent(s) start to fall behind when it really matters, it means your own team is the one making the amazing comeback. We just saw this in this season's Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles- on one hand, you could look at this as "The Eagles defense sold in the second half, and there was also that holding call there on the final drive". While these are valid points, you could also choose to look at this from the lens of Chiefs fans who were most likely extremely happy to see their favorite team's offense play almost perfectly after halftime. Sometimes when your team chokes, it's because adjustments were made and the other team(s) just played better. And that's okay. We're all sports fans at the end of the day, and for every comeback our team makes, it's almost certain we'll experience one choke of our own in exchange.
What matters more to me is that we all learn to respect the merit of competition. You never know when there's some kid with a life-threatening disease cheering for the other team whose dying wish is just for their favorite team to give it their all. You never know when there's a team you're facing in the championship who hasn't won a championship maybe ever. And in those instances, why can't we just be happy for them? That's why I made this thread- because even the biggest, most infamous chokes have lessons behind them. And now's your chance to share your stories.
