10 Greatest Sports Comebacks of ALL TIME

From True/Slant on May 15, 2010:

10 Greatest Comebacks in Sports History (& Where the Flyers Rank)

The Philadelphia Flyers, unholy visigoths adorned in Halloween colors, have added a chapter to the greatest comebacks in sports history with their 4-3 victory at the Boston Bruins, coming back from a 3-0 first period deficit, to complete the comeback in a series in which they were down three games to none. Where does it rank in terms of all time greatest comebacks?

10. 2005 Illinois Illini over the Arizona Wildcats in the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tourney. Channing Frye’s Cats had a 15-point lead going into the final four minutes. The game? It was over. Until Luther Head, Dee Brown and Deron Williams started draining every shot they took and Frye started missing layups. Head created a turnover and then dished to Williams, who hit a three pointer to tie the game. The game went to OT before the Illini won by a score of 90-89. Basketball comebacks are just so much fun. I don’t know that this one has as much historical weight as many of the others on the list, but it’s here because it was just such a wild ride.

9. 1995 Indiana Pacers over the New York Knicks, Eastern Conference Semifinals. Knicks fans hate Reggie Miller with the heat of a 1,000 suns. They hate him so much that ESPN made it the subject of one of their 30 for 30 documentaries. The bad blood wouldn’t be enough to warrant mention on this list, but Miller’s performance in Game 1 of the E.C. Semifinals does. Single-handedly, Miller lead his team to a stunning 107-105 last second victory over the Knicks in the Garden. With 18.7 seconds left, the Knicks lead by six points. Miller kicked into action, hit a three point shot, stole the ensuing inbounds pass, dribbled back behind the three point line, and hit that three-pointer. Miller then hit both free-throws to put the Pacers ahead for the win and up 1-0 in the series. Like I said, basketball comebacks are just so much fun.

8. 1972 Dallas Cowboys Divisional Playoff Victory over the San Francisco 49ers, a/k/a the emergence of Captain Comeback. In the 4th quarter of this 1972 Divisional Playoff Game, the 49ers had built a comfortable 28-13 lead. Pokes coach Tom Landry finally pulled Craig Morton from the game and replaced him with Roger Staubach, who lead the Cowboys to score 17 unanswered points, throwing two touchdown passes with less than two minutes remaining for a 30–28 win. The legend of Captain Comeback is born.

7. 1984 Maryland Terrrapins over the Miami Hurricanes, a/k/a, the Frank Reich game. Bernie Kosar had staked the U to a lead of 31-0. Finally, backup quarterback Frank Reich came into the game for Maryland and completed 12 of 15 passes in the second half, throwing for three touchdowns and running for another. With the score 34-28 Miami, Reich hit Greg Hill with a 68-yard touchdown pass (which deflected off the hands of Miami safety Darrell Fullington) to take the lead. Maryland scored once more to cap an incredible 42-9 second half, and won the game by a final of 42-40.

6. 1975 New York Islanders over the Pittsburgh Penguins, Conference semi-finals. Pittsburgh didn’t merely hold a 3-0 lead over the Islanders, they were abusing them. Through the first three games, the Islanders had never led the Pens for single second. Then they won Game 4 on home ice. No biggie. Then Game 5 in Pittsburgh. Um … nah. Never happen. They won Game 6 easily back in New York. Game 7 was scoreless well into the game, into the third period, as the Pens hit about a hundred posts before the Isles got the game winner from Ed Westfall. Depending on your perspective, it was either the worst choke job of the decade or the greatest comeback. The most colorful part of the story comes courtesy of George Plimpton’s Open Net: ” … the New York Islanders carried around a fifty-pound sack of elephant dung to bring them luck. It has mysteriously arrived special delivery when the club was three games down to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It came with no return address in a big potato sack. Nobody knew who had sent it, or the significance of it being sent. Obviously, it could have been an indication of someone’s extreme displeasure. … So they took the sack to Pittsburgh and it worked. By then a talisman of high value, it disappeared just before the final playoff game with the Philadelphia Flyers.” (which, it should be noted, the Isles lost.)

5. 1972 Olympic runner, Lasse Viren of Finland. Competing in the 10,000-meter final, he tripped and fell while tangling his feet with Frank Shorter. He was done. But he got up and gained on the pack in front of him. Then he passed them. In the bell lap, he just blew away the field and is all alone crossing the finish line. It’s right out of “Chariots of Fire.”

4. 1993 Buffalo Bills over the Houston Oilers Wildcard Playoff Game. The second Frank Reich Game. Things couldn’t have been bleaker. The Oilers led 35-3 early in the second half. Bills QB Jim Kelly was injured. Linebacker Cornelius Bennett was injured. Thurman Thomas played sparingly. The only thing that could have made things more depressing would have been a plague of locusts descending from the sky. The blowout was that biblical. Then Reich drove the team for one touchdown. 35-10. Steve Christie recovered his own on-side kick and Reich hit Don Beebe for a TD. 35-17. The Bills D forced the Oilers to punt. Reich hit another TD pass, this one to Andre Reed. 35-24. And it was still the third quarter. No. Freaking. Way. Henry Jones picked off Warren Moon, setting up Reich at the Houston 23 yard line. Another TD pass to Reed. 35-31. The Oilers missed a FG and the Bills got another TD (again from Reich to Reed). The Bills were ahead for the first time. 38-35. The Oilers tied the game to send it to OT and won the coin toss. It looked like they might avert disaster, but Moon threw an errant pass setting up the Bills in FG range and Christie completed the most ridiculous, unlikely, unbelievable comeback in NFL history.

3. 2010 Philadelphia Flyers Eastern Conference Semifinals over the Boston Bruins. Though the Flyers and the B’s no longer play in the same division, the bad blood between the two goes back generations, at least to the Broad Street Bullies era. But nothing that team ever did will hurt Boston fans like this series will. This will haunt them for the rest of their lives and well into the afterlife. It took a miracle OT win in Game 4 to get the Flyers comeback rolling. Then the Flyers lost netminder Brian Boucher in the Game 5 victory and back-up Michael Leighton stepped up in the Game 6 nail-biter. In a fit of melodrama, the Flyers came back from a score of 3-0 in Game 7, getting the game winner from Simon Gagne, who had come back early from injury (and also scored the OT winner in Game 4.) It is the stuff movies are made of. Bad movies. Unbelievable movies. The kind of movies that are so bad they go straight to video. Philly fans should never whine or complain about their hard luck ever again.

2. 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs over the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals. Believe it or not, I wasn’t alive to see this one. Though the actual games didn’t seem to be as dramatic as 1975 Islanders, this was, after all, for Lord Stanley’s Cup and all the guacamole it can hold. But since I wasn’t around for this, here’s the take of Joe Pelletier of Hockeylegends:

"The year is 1942. The NHL witnesses the greatest comeback in the history of professional sports in North America.

Entering game 4, the Leafs were on the verge of imminent elimination. The Detroit Red Wings had convincing victories in each of the first three contests, and held the series in a 3-0 stranglehold.

Cue the Leafs comeback. Coach Hap Day benches regulars for game four and inserted rookies who responded to win game after game, coming all the way back to take game 7! They were the first team in hockey history to win a series after being down 3 games to none. …

Goaltender Turk Brodawas so good in the final 4 games of the finals that they actually engraved his name on the Cup twice. It was actually an oversight."

1. 2004 Boston Red Sox. Yeah, everybody is beyond their saturation point with the Sox stuff, Sweet Caroline, the Cask & Flagon, the Green Monster, Dan Shaunessy and the Dennis Leary truck ads. But these were New York Yankees we were talking about, a team that had tormented Boston fans for generations and generations, the team that always won in the end, no matter how heroic or beloved the Boston players. The inevitability of the Yankees victory was certain. The history of the match-up, and the fact that the 2004 Sox actually won the World Series, puts this at the top of the list.

Greatest Sports Comebacks. In My Mind.

From True/Slant on May 14, 2010:


The 10 Greatest Sports Comebacks that Never Happened

I hated watching every second of the Penguins Game 7 loss to the Montreal Habs. And I hated myself for not being able to turn away, but a small voice in my head kept saying: “What if they come back? What if the Penguins stage one of the greatest comebacks in the history of sports? And I turned it off? I’d never forgive myself.”

(Following the 2002 season, the Steelers played the Cleveland Browns in the Wildcard round of the playoffs. My buddy the Deadhead was at the game. With the Steelers down 24-7 in the third quarter, he left in disgust. And then, from the parking lot of Heinz Field, he heard the stadium nearly explode with cheers as Tommy Maddox, of all freaking people, lead one of the greatest comebacks in franchise history. I’ve never let him live that one down.)

I started to think about the Penguins coming back — the alleged, hypothetical, completely imaginary comeback — and what it might have meant. I decided to make a list of the greatest comebacks that never happened. But I needed rules.

First, I limited myself to the pros. There are too many college teams and divisions, conference championships, bowl games, March Madness and on and on. Too much. I was dizzy. And I eliminated the solo sports like golf and tennis, although I think one could do a humdinger of a list with those. I gave myself an arbitrary cut off point of 1974.

Then, I decided that the games would have to be important games – playoffs or championships, no random mid-June game when the Pirates are getting their asses kicked.

The list is a little football heavy, but I think that’s due to the single elimination nature of the NFL playoffs, versus the best of seven series of the NHL, NBA and MLB. Without further ado, the ten greatest comebacks that never happened.

1. Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI v. Washington Redskins. (Wash. 37 – Buff. 24.)
I went back and fourth on this pick. A Bills loss, it seems to me, is crucial to the list. The problem was, which one? I settled on this one because, if there were any justice in this world, Jim Kelly would never lose to Mark Rypien. Like, never. That just never happens. To say nothing of the relief of splitting up the four year Buffalo reign of futility.

2. San Diego Chargers. 1981 AFC Championship Game v. Cincinnati Bengals. (Cinc. 27 – SD 7.)
Heading into the 4th quarter, the Chargers were down 20-7, but worse, they were frozen stiff, icicles dangled from Dan Fouts’ beard, and players looked like they very much wanted to go back to the warmth and comfort of San Diego. But what if Fouts had mounted a comeback? They needed just two touchdowns and two successful extra points, chump change for Air Coryell under ordinary circumstances. The notion of a southern Cali team engineering a comeback in sub-zero temperatures with the wind whipping through Riverfront Stadium at like 30 miles per hour? Legendary.

3. Chicago Cubs. 2003 NLCS v. the Florida Marlins (Fla 4 games, Cubs 3 games.)
Yes, these are the Bartman Cubs. But that was Game 6 of the series. What if the Cubs weren’t the Cubs, which is to say, if they were able to shrug off the disappointment of Game 6 to win Game 7? What if Kerry Woods hadn’t given up seven runs in five innings of Game 7? What if the Cubs hitters were able to actually score some runs off Josh Beckett? But that’s so unlikely that it might have caused the entire solar system to collapse in on itself.

4. New York Rangers. 1974 Eastern Conference Finals v. Philadelphia Flyers. (Philly 4 games, Rangers 3 games.)
So much would have changed. The Broad Street Bullies would have had their own eyes blackened, which has to be viewed as an absolute good. And the Rangers may have gone on to win the Cup in 1975, which would have spared the world of the melodrama and preening of Messier’s Rangers 20 years later. That, too, must be viewed as an absolute good.

5. Cleveland Browns. 1987 AFC Championship Game v. the Denver Broncos – The Fumble. (Denv. 38, Cleve. 33)
Everybody remembers Byner’s fumble with about a minute left. What is often forgotten was that the Browns had, in fact, mounted one of the great comebacks in NFL history up to that point. Down 21-3 at halftime, Kosar scored four second half touchdowns. And this at Mile High Stadium, the toughest stadium for a visiting team in the 1980’s. What would the sports landscape look like had Byner held on and scored? A Byner TD would have tied the game, so the Browns would have had to have won in the waning seconds (unlikely) or overtime (more likely.) Such a comeback would no doubt be considered one of the 10 greatest in NFL history, given all the circumstances but, instead, Browns fans are waiting for their first trip to the Super Bowl 23 years later.

6. Boston Red Sox. 1986 World Series v. the N.Y. Mets. (NYM 4 games, Bos 3 games.)
No list is complete without the Buckner Sawks. Like the 2003 Cubs, the 1986 Sox were unable to pull their shit together enough to win in the 7th game after the debacle of Game 6. If they had, the Big Papi 2004 Sox wouldn’t have been such a cause celebre, Dan Shaunessy wouldn’t have written “The Curse of the Bambino,” and Dennis Leary’s career might have been cut short. I can almost hear angels singing when I think about it.

7. Oakland Raiders. 2002 Divisional Playoff Game v. New England Patriots. The Tuck Rule. (NE 36, Oak. 33)
The tuck rule, it happened. It remains an abomination of all logic and reason (if it looks like a fumble, then it IS a fumble), but it did happen. But what if, after the heinousity that was the Tuck, Gruden had decided to try to mount a drive with the remaining 27 seconds? Just what if the Raiders had managed to kick a last second field goal instead of playing for overtime? The world just might have been spared the birth of the “nobody respected us” meme courtesy of this New England Patriots squad.

8. Dallas Mavericks. 2007 First Round Playoffs v. Golden State Warriors. (G.S 4 games, Dal. 3 games.)
Dallas entered the playoffs with the sixth best regular season record in NBA history; Golden State got into the playoffs by the skin of their teeth. Can these Mavs be considered anything but choking dogs, as Tony Kornheiser likes to say? After going down 3 games to 1, why couldn’t the Mavs come back to win three of the last four? Instead, they played dead, or should I say, played like they were already dead, in Game 6, depriving the world of one of the great comebacks in recent NBA memory.

9. Buffalo Sabres. 1999 Stanley Cup Finals v. Dallas Stars. (Dal 4 games, Buff. 2 games.)
What if the the Sabres had come back to win Game 5? What if they had put three goals behind Ed Belfour in the 3rd period of that game? Game 6’s controversial No Goal would not have mattered. At least, not much. Had the Sabres mounted a come back in Game 5, perhaps they would have shaken the OT loss in Game 6 and won the series. Oh, who am I kidding, this is Buffalo we’re talking about. They probably just would have lost Game 7. (See the 1986 Sawks and 2003 Cubs, above.)

10. Cleveland Cavaliers. Last night.
Beyond that fact that no professional Cleveland franchise has won a championship in over 50 years, what will this mean for the future of the Cavs, Cleveland’s best chance for a championship? They are nothing without Lebron. That much is clear from the Celtics man-handling of the Cavs in 6 games. Some thought that Lebron would stay had he won a championship, that he would want to keep the team together and try to repeat. But the loss? Will it push him out the door? Cleveland may have just seen the last of the best athlete they’ve had in decades.