How not to handle an onside kick-off
Plenty of other mental gaffes in sports world
If you haven’t seen a replay of how the Atlanta Falcons failed to pick up an onside kick by the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday and went on to lose as a result, it’s worth a look on YouTube.
After scoring a touchdown to get within two points of the Falcons with 1:49 left in the game, Dallas tried the onside kick. Greg Zuerlein kicked without a tee and the ball started slowly rolling forward. While the rules state that the Cowboys could not recover their own onside kick until it went at least 10 yards, the Falcons’ players could have recovered the ball at any point. But three Falcons stared at the ball as it trundled 10 yards and Dallas’s C. J. Goodwin pounced on it.
“They definitely know the rule,” said Falcons head coach Dan Quinn of his players after the game. But it sure didn’t look that way.
As Scott Janovitz noted in Bleacher Report, “Combining pressure with the spotlight can do crazy things to the mind. In fact, it’s the primary reason the history of competitive sports is so littered with mental meltdowns and mishaps.”
Here are a few:
Fred Merkle was a pretty good baseball player. Unfortunately, he is mostly remembered for a baserunning mistake he made on Sept. 23, 1908, at the Polo Grounds when his team, the New York Giants, hosted the Chicago Cubs during a tight pennant race between the two squads.
The score was 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth when Merkle, then 19, singled with two outs to put runners at the corners for New York.
Giants shortstop Al Bridwell then hit what appeared to be a game-winning single. But Merkle, seeing fans swarm onto the field in celebration, headed toward the clubhouse without touching second base. Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers retrieved the ball (or whatever ball he could find in the madhouse on the field) and stepped on second base. Merkle was ruled out, negating the run. When the um
pires couldn’t clear the field, they called the game on account of darkness. The game was replayed on Oct. 8 and turned out to be a pennant tie-breaker. The Cubs won 4-2 and went on the win the World Series.
In the first game of the 2018 NBA Finals, with 4.7 seconds left and the Cavs down to the Warriors 107106, George Hill tied the game with his first free throw but missed the second. J.R. Smith grabbed the rebound, but instead of lofting a quick putback, he dribbled the ball back toward halfcourt.
A wide-open LeBron James pointed back towards the hoop while yelling at Smith. With the clock nearly out, Smith finally passed to Hill, who barely had enough time to heave a shot that didn’t even reach the rim. And Smith can be seen mouthing to James, “I thought we were up.”
The game went into overtime and the Warriors won.
In the locker room, Smith claimed he knew the score was tied. But his coach, Tyronn Lue, told Sports Illustrated, “He thought it was over. He
thought we were up one. It just happened too fast.”
Roberto De Vicenzo, one of the greats of golf, won the 1967 British Open and had a chance to win the 1968 Masters. He pieced together a brilliant final round to shoot a 65 to tie the leader, Bob Goalby, and force an 18hole playoff, scheduled to be played the next day.
But De Vicenzo’s playing partner, Tommy Aaron, had wrongly marked down a score of par- 4 on the 17th hole for De Vicenzo when De Vicenzo had actually made a birdie-3. De Vicenzo signed the incorrect scorecard, which ultimately added a stroke and ended up costing him a second major.
“I play golf all over the world for 30 years, and now all I can think of is what a stupid I am to be wrong in this wonderful tournament,” said Argentina’s most successful golfer. “Never have I ever done such a thing.”
In the 1993 NCAA championship basketball game, with 19 seconds left and Michigan down 73-71 to North Carolina, Michigan’s Chris Webber grabbed a rebound off a missed North Carolina free throw. Webber committed an obvious traveling violation as he headed up court, but the referee missed it. Webber dribbled coast to coast, then called a timeout when he was double-teamed in the corner with 11 seconds left.
There was only one problem — the Wolverines didn’t have any timeouts left. That’s a technical foul, giving UNC two free throws and possession. The Tar Heels won 75-71.
On Thanksgiving Day 1993, the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolphins played on a field full of snow and slippery sleet. With 15 seconds left in the game and the Cowboys leading 14-13, the Dolphins set up for a 41-yard field goal attempt.
Dallas’ Jimmie Jones fully extended and got a hand on the football for a block. All Dallas had to do was let the ball roll to a stop, which would have resulted in a dead ball and Dallas gaining possession to run out the clock.
But the Cowboys’ Leon Lett tracked down the ball and tried to pounce on it. It squirted away into the hands of a Dolphin on the one-yard line. That gave Miami another chance on a much shorter field goal, which they converted as time ran out for the 17-16 win.
We all make mistakes, mental or otherwise. Fortunately, ours aren’t generally captured on camera for all the world to see.