Epic Fails, Giant Collapses, September Slumps I’m sure you’ll hear these phrases over and over again when it comes to the way the Braves and Red Sox played in the final month of the season. As of September 1^st both these teams thought they had the post season all but wrapped up. Even I’m guilty of this, I know I said more than once “don’t worries Braves fans, Atlanta still has a… lead in the wild card.” But this is why we love sports, no matter how insurmountable the odds may seem we still hold out hope that our favorite teams can pull through. The Braves and Red Sox are just the most resent teams to fail down the stretch, today we look at some other epic fails in the history of sports.

You don’t have to go back far to see another bad collapse in sports, just look at last year’s NBA Finals between Dallas and Miami. How many times in the series did Miami have a double digit lead in the fourth Quarter only to lose in the end. In the NHL it wasn’t that long ago that maybe the worst collapse in history happened to the Boston Bruins. Just 2 years ago the Bruins had a 3-0 series lead against Philadelphia in the playoffs and a 3-0 lead in game four. They ended up blowing the lead in that game and eventually losing the series. In the NFL we have two giant collapses that I can’t say which is worse so I’ll present them both. The first one that comes to mind is the 1992 AFC wild card game between the Oilers and Bills. The Oilers had a 35-3 lead in the third quarter when the Bills rattled off 4 TDS eventually getting the win 41-38. More recently we go back to last year with the Giants and Eagles. The Giants gave up 28 points in just under 8 ½ minutes left in the game including the first ever walkoff punt return TD in NFL history. But Baseball has what is regarded as the worst collapse in sports history. 1964 the Phillies had a 6.5 game lead with just 12 games to play. They lost 10 straight games and ended up finishing a game out of the playoffs.

If you’re judging this year’s collapses I have to say the Braves is much worse. They had an 8.5 game lead on September 6^th but for a long time the Braves had the second best record in the NL. Boston’s melt down was pretty bad going 7-20 in the month of September but after starting the season 2-10 nobody thought they would even come close back in April. Either way both these teams are going to be feeling this one for a long time but if it makes them feel any better 22 other teams are sitting out of the playoffs as well.