If you are a big sports fan, you know how emotionally difficult it is to deal with a huge loss by your favorite team. As imperfect human beings, we are not equipped to deal with such heartache very well. Sometimes we are just sad, but many of us choose instead to get angry. We ask ourselves how the team could have let us down when we invested so much heart and energy into them. It’s kind of tough to be angry at an entire group of people, so often we simplify things by targeting one individual who appeared to have done the most to cause the loss. That person then becomes the “scapegoat” for all that went wrong. Sometimes this is justified, but many times it is not. This week’s America Loves Countdown® series looks at ten atheletes who were unfairly assigned all of the blame for a big loss, and why they did not necessarily deserve it.

Scott Norwood (Super Bowl XXV)
Not very many kickers can drill a 50 yard field goal under normal circumstances. Add to that the pressure of doing it in the final seconds of the Super Bowl, and the odds are even worse that the kick will go thru the uprights. Scott Norwood’s miss of a 47-yarder, which would have been his longest ever kick on grass, should not make him the scapegoat for losing Super Bowl XXV to the Giants. If anything, he should be given credit for getting the Bills closer to a championship then they would come during the next three Super Bowls!

Tim McKyer (1994 AFC Championship Game)
Everyone remembers the 4th quarter play in which San Diego WR Tony Martin burned Steelers CB Tim McKyer on a 43 yard touchdown catch to give the Chargers the lead. Few people recall how the Steelers had played a shoddy game all afternoon. The defense – tops in the NFL that year – allowed TE Alfred Popunu to get WIDE OPEN for a long touchdown in the midst of blowing a double-digit lead. The offense couldn’t muster any yards in the second half and then blew a chance to win the game even though they had 1st and goal inside the 10 yard line in the closing minute. It’s unfortunate that McKyer, who actually had a fairly successful career in San Francisco before coming to Pittsburgh, is always remembered as a goat.

Andrés Escobar (1994 World Cup)
Colombian soccer player Andrés Escobar accidentally scored a goal on his own net in a loss to the United States. Colombia played a tight game all around and blew it against the underdog USA, so Escobar’s mistake was not the only reason his team lost. Unfortunately, some fans in his home country didn’t see it that way. In the most tragic case of scapegoating ever, Escobar was was shot dead by a group of people upset over the loss.

John Kasay (Super Bowl XXXVIII)
The 2003 Super Bowl between the Patriots and Panthers was one of the most exciting football games ever played. Sadly, we tend to only remember the stupid halftime show debacle. When we do remember the actual game, we recall how the Panthers tied the score with 1:08 left in the game only to have John Kasay boot the ensuing kickoff out of bounds. That play, according to common belief, gave the Pats great field position and allowed them to drive for the game-winning field goal. For some reason, no one ever remembers that just two plays into their last-minute drive, New England was flagged for offensive pass interference. That mistake essentially nullified their fortunate field position, but somehow Kasay still gets labled as the scapegoat. Also, even if Kasay had pinned them back at the 20 yard line, does anyone honestly believe that Tom Brady wouldn’t have driven them downfield anyway? Or that Adam Vinatieri wouldn’t have made the field goal??

Barry Bonds (1992 NLCS – Game 7)
It kills me to admit this, but the Pirates did not lose that tragic game in Atlanta all because of Bonds’ off-target throw to home plate which allowed Sid Bream to score the winning run. It was just one of several factors: (1) The Pirates had uncerimonously dumped Bream, a servicable player and huge fan favorite, the year before; (2) Doug Drabek had allowed several hits in the inning and had already given up one run; (3) Jose Lind – the best second baseman in the league – had made a critical error, (4) Stan Belinda had given up the hit to a nobody named Francisco Cabrera. Bonds’ bad throw, which actually still could have nailed Bream had Mike LaValliere been a few inches taller, was just the final nail in the coffin.

Rocky Balboa (1985 Creed-Drago Fight)
Rocky was in Apollo’s corner for his exhibition match against Soviet thug Ivan Drago when things quickly turned tragic. Creed was killed in the second round of the fight when Drago landed a final vicous right hook, and Rocky took much of the blame for not throwing in the towel to stop the fight when Apollo was clearly getting the crap kicked out of him. However, it really wasn’t all his fault. Creed completely miscalculated the power of the big Russian and he ignored the advice of everyone who told him not to fight. Furthermore, the referee should have been the one to stop the fight, especially since it was an exhibition match! It was a shame that Rocky became depressed and had to drive his Lamborghini down the highway while reflecting on the past to the sound of “No Easy Way Out”.

Jackie Smith (Super Bowl XIII)
The veteran tight end dropped a pass in the endzone that was – according to Roger Staubach – thrown behind him. The Cowboys had to settle for a field goal which made the score 21-17 Pittsburgh in the 3rd quarter. The Steelers then scored 14 points to make it 35-17. Dallas scored two more desperation touchdowns in the final three minutes – mostly because the Steelers defense was playing soft with such a big lead – and the final score ended up being 35-31. For some reason, that is Smith’s fault. The illogical reasoning is that they lost by 4, and that is exactly how many points Smith’s drop cost them. But no one seems to remember that the score shouldn’t have even been that close. I just never understood why this was such a big deal. It was just a missed opportunity that happened relatively early in the game. Randy White fumbled a kickoff return later in the game that was MUCH more critical to the outcome. So why then does Smith get vilified?

Earnest Byner (1987 AFC Championship Game)
Football is above all a team game. For a play to be successful, it takes all eleven guys doing their jobs, not just the players who happen to touch the ball. Everyone knows about the infamous play in which Browns RB Earnest Byner coughed up the football as he was about to score the go-ahead touchdown against Denver in the closing minutes. However, what many people don’t know is how WR Webster Slaughter was supposed to run a post pattern to the back of the endzone to draw his defender away from the run. Slaughter lazily jogged a few steps, then turned around to watch the play. Guess who hit Byner and caused the fumble? It was the DB who was supposed to be in the back of the endzone covering Slaughter. Yet Byner gets all of the blame while Slaughter gets off the hook.

Bill Buckner (1986 World Series – Game 6)
Boston fans really rub me the wrong way sometimes. It’s really fun to watch them try to handle success now, because for so many years their entire existence was predicated on the mentaility that everyone should feel bad for them. In their effort to create this tragic “”woe is me” persona, Boston fans often found scapegoats to pin their bad fortunes on, and no scapegoat was bigger than Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner in that infamous Game 6. In the bottom of the 10th inning, the Sox blew a two-run lead to the Mets even though the first two hitters of the inning were outs. They allowed several hits, threw a wild pitch which tied the game, and then Buckner made an error which allowed the winning run. The following night, the Sox again blew a huge lead and lost Game 7. It was a comedy of errors, but because Boston needed a scapegoat to help the media coddle their little downtrodden act, Buckner became one of sport’s biggest ever goats.

Steve Bartman (2003 NLCS – Game 6)
The Cubs have a lot in common with the Red Sox, except that they have a much worse streak of losing (it’s closing in on an even 100 years next season) and the media doesn’t treat them like long-suffering die-hard’s whom we should all root for. So for Cubs fans, frustration has been boiling over for quite some time. It was with this history that the Cubs entered Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS against the Florida Marlins at Wrigley Field. Chicago held a 3-0 lead in the 8th inning when a fan named Steve Bartman reached out to grab a foul ball that could have (maybe) been caught by Cubs OF Moises Alou for the second out of the inning. It was a possible missed opportunity, but had the Cubs been able to get out of the inning unscathed, it would have been long forgotten. Instead Chicago suffered one of the biggest collapses ever. They allowed Florida to score eight unanswered runs and win the game. Then they blew Game 7 as well. The players should have been ashamed that they tanked the entire season in one bad inning. Instead it all got pinned on some poor fan who got a little too jumpy over a foul ball. Had he turned a fly ball into the game winning homerun for Florida, then he would be deserving of some blame, but it was just a freakin foul ball!! Why did the Cubs players not get blamed for choking?! This is quite possibly the biggest injustice in the history of sports.

Honorable Mentions:

• Rex Grossman (Super Bowl XLI): Ok, he did throw that costly interception late in the game which iced it for the Colts, and it’s not like he put up great numbers in the three quarters prior to that. However, the reason Chicago lost the big game was because they couldn’t stop the run. Indianapolis ran it right down their throats and Peyton Manning did a masterful job at managing his offense. Grossman is an easy target because he had already been portrayed by the media as a choker, so the media made sure he fit that mold because, as you know, they are never off target about something.
• Art Modell (Browns Move to Baltimore): Yes, Modell was a dirtbag for taking the team out of Cleveland. But he also stood by and watched that city build beautiful new baseball and basketball facilities while simultaneously pouring millions into a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a new science center. When Modell asked what they city was going to do about dumpy old Municipal Stadium, they basically told him to *bleep* off. Kind of like the city/state government here has been doing to the Penguins.
• Mike Vanderjagt (2005 AFC Divisional Playoffs): The Colts-Steelers epic playoff game should have been long over by the time Vanderjagt marched out to attempt a long field goal at the end of regulation. The game should have ended when Troy Polamalu picked off Peyton Manning with about five minutes left in the game, but the refs made one of the most colossal errors in NFL history. The game should have been over when the Steelers had first and goal from the two yard line, but Jerome Bettis lost the ball. The Colts choked as a team and the Steelers completely outplayed them. It wasn’t all the kicker’s fault.