I try really hard to be a good person, and for the most part I get rewarded, except when it comes to sports. Not only do my teams never win, they usually lose in heartbreaking fashion. There were three such examples this week of people I was rooting for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
It all started with Nebraska. The Cornhuskers played one of the best defensive games ever, completely shutting down a normally potent Texas offense. Unfortunately, this coincided with an historically bad performance by their offense – totaling only 106 yards. But on the last drive the much-maligned Zac Lee ran for 17 yards, and threw a 16 yard pass setting up what should have been the game-winning field goal. But here’s where they cost themselves the game. Adi Kunalic booted the ensuing kickoff out of bounds giving Texas the ball at the 40. The next play was 19 yard pass with a 15 yard horse collar tacked on, putting Texas at the 26. And despite Colt McCoy’s brain cramp that almost let time run out, Nebraska ended up losing a very winnable game.
And then I watched The Ultimate Fighter Finale. Earlier this year I declared Jon Bones Jones my favorite UFC fighter. In part because I like his style, in part because I think he’s really awesome and I got on the train early. I also like the fact that two of his brothers play football at Syracuse including the great defensive lineman Arthur Jones. And not the least of it, I friended Bones and his babymama on Facebook. When Bones was booked to fight Matt Hammill I even asked her if it was ok to make fun of a deaf guy. She didn’t answer so I didn’t make fun of Hammill. Saturday night Hammill was getting completely dominated by Jones. Jones had the mount and was raining down blows. It turns out Hammill hurt his shoulder during Jones’s ridiculous slam and couldn’t defend himself from the punches. So here’s what you’ve got, Jones pummeling a near defenseless Hammill while ref Steve Mazzagatti watches. Twice Jones pleads with him to stop the fight. Then he went into “what do I need to do to get this guy to stop the fight” mode. So he delivered 2 or 3 vicious elbows to Hammill’s face. Unfortunately, dropping an elbow straight down (from 12 to 6) is illegal in MMA (side to side elbows are ok) so Jones had a point deducted. Here’s when things got weird. Mazzagatti twice asked Hammill if he could continue. He got not answer. Hammill couldn’t hear him, and he couldn’t read his lips because his eyes were bloody and damn near swollen shut. He probably would have said no had he been able to hear because he’d been beaten so badly and had a shoulder injury. But because the fight had to be stopped after an illegal blow (Mazzagatti used video replay to review the blows, believed to be the first use of replay in MMA history), the ref had no choice but to disqualify him, costing Jones a fight he should have won.
Then came the Redskins game, in a lost season the Redskins have been surprisingly frisky the last two weeks before blowing leads to the Cowboys and Eagles. Despite mistakes (a huge fumble after an interception that allowed the Saints to tie it before the half) the Redskins hung tough and had second half leads of 27-17, 30-20 and were poised to make it 33-23 when Shaun Suisham missed a 23-yard field goal. That gave the Saints another chance, which they used to throw a 53-yard bomb to send the game into OT. There Mike Sellers fumbled on the third play, a play so close it should not have been overturned on review. The Saints kicked the game-winning field goal giving the Redskins a loss in a game they should have won.
To sum up the weekend of my discontent I will be putting flaming bags of dog poop on the doorsteps of Shaun Suisham, Steve Mazzagatti and the entire Nebraska offense.
