There is no greater feeling for a true sports fan than when your team makes a huge play to win a huge game; the moment when you realize that the accomplishments of the play lead to victory, especially a championship for those who are so lucky. Those types of moments are engrained in our hearts and souls and somehow enable us to endure the losses, letdowns and close calls that didn’t go our way. Those great moments cast rays of hope over future seemingly impossible situations. They are moments that you will remember as long as you live; when you are 90 years old and your great grandson asks: “Pop Pop, what’s your greatest sports memory of all time,” the answer comes easily to mind. Planted closely beneath that joyous remembrance lies a darker, equally, if not more, accessible memory: the biggest gut punch moment that you’ve endured as a passionate follower of sports.
Today I will offer two stories of huge gut punch moments: one from myself and another from blog/podcast contributor Vinny Mac. Warning: the stories you are about to read may illicit tears of frustration for fans of the respective teams. Read at your own risk.
Marc’s Take:
It was a brisk October night in Baton Rouge during the 2005 college football season. I was sitting in the upper deck which feels like miles away in Tiger Stadium. The raucous crowd of 92,000 did not take it easy on the guys in burnt orange and navy that particular evening. The Auburn-LSU matchup is one of my favorites because both teams play such a physical style of football, and this game was no exception. The game was full of missed opportunities for both sides: LSU’s kicker missed two field goals, Dwayne Bowe dropped a wide open touchdown pass for LSU; John Vaughn missed three field goals heading into the game’s final moments.
In an outstanding attempt to toy with my emotions, Brandon Cox waiting until 4th down to complete a touchdown pass to give Auburn a 17-14 lead with under five minutes to play in the fourth quarter. LSU then rebounded with a decent drive that resulted in a lengthy 44-yard field goal to tie the game with 1:40 left to play. Tie game, Auburn’s ball: at least we won’t lose this game in regulation and now we have a chance to win it!
Auburn had a brilliant drive inside the LSU 35-yard line but ran out of timeouts and had to spike the ball with six seconds remaining. John Vaughn trotted on the field to attempt a 49-yard field goal as time expired to give Auburn the victory. This is the moment that an athlete dreams about: a chance to make a huge play to win the game for your team. The crowd of 92,000 was deafening, even from my nosebleed seat. Of course no one in stadium was in their seat at this point, and a lot of fingernails were a lot shorter than they were when the game started. The snap, the hold, the kick: I see the ball take flight and immediately saw it go wide. He missed it. In boxing terms, the first three missed field goals were the cross to the face, this was miss was a hook to the gut. However, the game wasn’t over as we were heading to overtime.
In overtime, LSU got the ball first and Auburn’s tired defense was able to hold them to a field goal, 20-17 LSU. Auburn now had a golden opportunity: having already started the possession in short field goal range, we had a chance to win the game with a touchdown or at least tie it with an easy field goal. A feeling of optimism flooded the section full of Auburn fans in the upper deck where I was sitting. We knew we were going to win this game, or at the very least tie it up for a 2nd overtime. But LSU’s defense was tough as nails during Auburn’s possession, holding Auburn to a game tying 39 yard field goal attempt: an extremely manageable distance for an experienced field goal kicker.
I’ve been to a lot of football games in my life, all over the southeast at stadiums that held over 100,000 fans. Never in my life have I heard a crowd of people so loud before John Vaughn’s overtime field goal attempt. The stadium was literally shaking and I couldn’t even hear myself think (this phrase is overused, but in this instance I am dead serious- couldn’t process a thought in my head). The snap, the hold, the kick….. dead silence. The crowd went from the deafening to silent as soon as the ball took flight. It definitely had the distance and it appeared to be on target, and that’s when I heard and saw the final blow: CLANK! off the goal post, no good. He missed the kick to tie the game in overtime. Cross, hook, uppercut. I had been gut punched worse than ever before as a sports fan. I will never forget the feeling of that moment, being in the stadium, hearing the noise and seeing/hearing that ball bounce off the goal post to lose the game. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
Vince’s story is a little different: he tells of an entire game that was a collective letdown to his team for an extended length of time rather than a single play. Equally gut wrenching and saddening, here is Vince’s Take:
Have you ever been punched in the stomach? If you have, you know how it feels to have the breath taken from your lungs. You know how it feels to be bent over wondering why what just happened…happened. In sports we sometimes have moments when it feels as if you’ve been punched in the stomach. You’re left breathless, and wonder how what just happened…happened.
I will setup the scene once again to refresh memory of the event and to torture myself once again. Ohio State and Michigan were on a collision course all year. Ohio State was plowing through teams and setting up QB Troy Smith’s bid for the Heisman Trophy. Michigan was winning games that it annually found a way to lose. The Wolverines were winning games on the road that they had found a way to drop in previous years. A month before Ohio State would host Michigan, ESPN’s College Gameday began a countdown clock for what would be a #1 (Ohio State) vs. #2 (Michigan) game for not only the Big Ten Title but for a spot in the BCS National Championship Game. The stakes were huge not only for the yearly bragging rights for the rivals but for epic implications. “The Game of the Century” is what it was being called.
If the game wasn’t emotional enough for both fan bases, the night before the “Big Game” Michigan’s former coaching legend Bo Shembechler passed away. Current Michigan coach, Lloyd Carr, said he would not use Bo’s death as motivational-inspiration, as if either team needed any more motivation. The game started off with a Michigan drive for a quick touchdown. At the time I worked a graveyard management shift and could have made it through the Christmas rush and through half of winter on this win alone. This game meant the world to me. I had planned on watching it by myself, for my own emotional reasons, but had a few friends over as well as my parents. After Michigan scored first I was very happy to say the least. Ohio State quickly responded with it’s own opening touchdown. Game on!
After both sides scored on their first drives Michigan stalled on it’s next. Ohio State capitalized and made it 14-7. They then made it 21-7. My dad was already singing, “turn out the lights, the party’s over…”. I questioned why I invited him about 4 bars into the song. Michigan managed to grab a touchdown before half with the score 28-14 in favor of Ohio State.
The second half opened with a Michigan score to pull the Wolverines within a touchdown. They then managed a rare stop on defense, kicked a field goal and were within four points of the lead. Then it came. The play I wait for every time these two teams play. The fifty-plus yard rushing touchdown that Ohio State somehow always pulls off against Michigan. Just like that the momentum of the game, which had shifted to Michigan’s side, was back with the Buckeyes. After that play Michigan had one more opportunity to get back into the game but had a helmet-to-helmet penalty continue an OSU drive that had faltered. Ohio State scored again and I was left with a final score of Ohio State - 42 Michigan - 39. I wad devastated. My parents left. My friends left, but I did not leave. I sat in my chair for hours watching highlights, player interviews, and opinions from different ESPN sports announcers. Friends texted me with their condolences and smirks. I’m glad I did not own a BlackBerry at the time.
Since that November night a lot has changed with Michigan. The following year had huge promises once again, but started off with embarrassing losses to Appalachian State and Oregon. The Seniors lost to Ohio State again, and left with a 0-4 record against the Buckeyes. Lloyd Carr also decided he would call it a career at seasons’ end. Nothing would be the same again. Enter Rich Rodriguez, who has gone 8-16 in two seasons since taking over the head coaching position. More embarrassing losses, and more losing to Ohio State. Since that November 18th “Game of the Century” Michigan has gone from one of the most respected teams in the nation to going 17-20 over three seasons while being the punch-line to a lot of Double-A battery jokes.
Bo Shembechler preached, “The team. The team. The team.” That 2006 Michigan team was something that I had been wishing for for a long time. I enjoyed it. I loved it,. And then I was punched in the stomach. What could have been, but what happened…happened.
