Learning from their mistakes | Barry Aldworth
Sometimes sport comes down to one brave decision, one moment where you can make history. However that brave decision does not always result in success. Sometimes these decisions backfire and give us the mistakes that are forever etched in history. These mistakes can take many forms, poor tactics on the field, á la the infamous Henry-Pirès penalty, a poor decision when selecting a player, like leaving some kid called Tom Brady fall to the 6th round of the draft, or a missed call by a referee. In this article I’ll look at some of sports most glaring mistakes...Bowie drafted ahead of God: With pick number 2 of the 1984 NBA draft, the Portland Blazers selected Sam Bowie. However Blazers fans were left with a sour taste in their mouths after a kid called Michael Jordan who went as pick number 3 took the NBA by storm, while Bowie had an injury-hit, average career. The fans knew they had missed out on something really special when in 1986 Jordan set a playoff record by scoring 63 points against the Boston Celtics, a performance which led Larry Bird to describe Jordan as “God disguised as Michael Jordan.”Just play it safe: Standing on the 18th tee in the final round of the 1999 British Open, Jean Van de Velde drove his tee shot into the woods. Knowing a double bogey would win the title, the smart decision would have been to play safe and lay-up with his third short. However Van de Velde went for it and, instead of being rewarded for the brave decision, his ball landed in the water. Then rather than taking a penalty stroke, Van de Velde tried to play his shot from the water. The result: a triple bogey and second place in the British Open.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dR1pkCGY80]Hungry for gold: Entering the 1936 Olympics as favourite to win lightweight boxing gold, Thomas Hamilton-Brown suffered a shock first round loss. As disappointment set in, the boxer went on an eating binge resulting in a weight gain of 5 pounds. Days later he received a message saying there had been a mistake in the scores of his fight and he was allowed to re-enter the tournament. However unable to lose the weight gained from his binge, the boxer was disqualified and lost out on his second chance at gold.Perfect, well almost: Many said it couldn’t be done again. Not since the 1972 Miami Dolphins had an NFL team managed to win every game in a season. Entering the Superbowl XLII with a perfect 18-0 record, the New England Patriots were chasing not only a championship but also perfection, and with it a place in history. With 2 minutes left and holding a 14-10 lead it looked like the Patriots were destined to be celebrating. All they needed was one final defensive stand and for a short while it looked like they had it. Asante Samuel had intercepted an Eli Manning pass to effectively end the game, only to drop it. The New York Giants had one more chance. On that final chance the Giants scored the game winning touchdown leaving the Patriots with a perfectly imperfect 18-1 record for the season.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK8x7Q7jLa0]
Stories of success are what we watch sport for. However it is these mistakes, these blunders that in many ways help to define why we spend so much time watching a ball being kicked or thrown around a field. The drama and heartbreak created by these mistakes cannot be found anywhere else, and without stories of failure, we must wonder if the success stories would really be all that important.