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| Readers' List: Worst choke artists Page 2 staff | ||
After Page 2 ranked its 10 worst choke artists in recent sports history, we asked you to submit your suggestions. Our readers came through with more than 3,200 e-mails about those who most need the Heimlich. Check out the readers' list below and then vote in the poll at right to crown the biggest choke artist of all-time.
1. Buffalo Bills (601 letters)
If you are looking for choke artists, the Bills are your Mama Cass. They found a new way to lose the Super Bowl, lose close (thanks, Scott Norwood), lose your helmet (thanks Thurman Thomas), and lose your dignity to the soulless Cowboys two years in a row.
In the '93 Super Bowl, the Bills managed to make the Michael Jackson halftime show seem good (well, at least tolerable.)
What the hell is a Bill anyway? They should change that miserable franchise's name to the Buffalo Buffalo and follow that change with a quick extinction and save NYers from all the shame they've brought to our great state. From the astute poet Ice Cube:
"Cos I'm the one with the fat mad skills
2. Jason Williams (182 letters)
For all his hype, Williams had very subpar games against
Notre Dame and Indiana. Where was the best player in the game when it was
time to step it up on the biggest stage? Choking on those charity shots, that's where.
He sure didn't look like a Naismith Award winner missing crucial free throws at the
end of three games Duke should have won this year. He probably would have
been better served to try and swallow the basketball rather than shoot it ...
oh wait, he did choke on it, didn't he? While he may be the best player in college basketball right now, he can't hit a free throw when it counts. That is the pure definition of choking.
Anyone can show some skills when there is no pressure. Handling the pressure is what separates champs and chumps.
3. Phil Mickelson (164 letters) At least when Greg Norman goes down in flames, he does it trying to do the right thing. Mickelson chokes because he spends his entire time on the golf course trying to show the world that you can win by hitting a 320-yard drive and an 80-yard pitch shot on a 400-yard par-4 dogleg right.
I've gotten to the point now that I watch him play hoping to see another train wreck.
Not only has he choked away some majors, the choking now seems to be
trickling down to the other tournaments. He is in danger of losing the title "best golfer never to have won a major."
4. Boston Red Sox (143 letters) After having my heart broken year after year by my favorite sports franchise, I have to pick the Red Sox as the biggest choke artists.
It could be bottom of the ninth with three outs, the Sox up by a run with Pedro Martinez on the mound and
my grandmother at bat, and I am still thinking they will find a way to blow it. This is the year though ... sigh.
5. Minnesota Vikings (127 letters)
Not only for their lack of preparation
and effort in the 2001 NFC championship versus the Giants, but more so for
their taking a knee in the 1999 NFC championship game versus an inferior
Falcons squad. The most prolific scoring team of all-time in the NFL and you
take a knee with 38 seconds to move the ball? Whether taking a knee or
choking with both hands firmly around neck, the Minnesota Vikings are the leaders in the team choking category. Because they have always been a top-quality team, but they fail miserably whenever they get the chance to take the gold ... I'd bet big on these guys to win games, all season long, right up to the final game of the year, whereupon I'd wager all of my total winnings that they would choke, as usual.
Maybe they should get Gov. Ventura to lay some smack down because these guys
are a complete embarrassment to the great state of Minnesota.
6. 2000 Portland Trail Blazers (113 letters) It was bad enough that Blazer fans had to watch Kobe gloat every time he ran down the court like a little boy. Or the fact the Blazers' defensive efforts were about as successful as Shaq's acting career. But the most painful part of all was that when going into the fourth quarter with a sizable lead; every Blazers fan who I know had that feeling that the Lakers were going to be the team that would walk off the court victorious that day.
Maybe this year will be different ... oh wait, they just blew a 25-point lead against the Grizzlies.
7. Scott Norwood (106 letters)
8. Atlanta Braves (88 letters)
Usually, October means choking on Halloween candy, not choking on the ballfield.
9. Greg Norman (62 letters)
They each have won as many majors as Greg Norman, and their total combined wealth is 1/10 of the Shark's.
To borrow a phrase from Bill Simmons: There's comedy, there's high comedy and then there's watching Greg Norman go into the final day at a major with the lead. If I had to pick one guy who I would not pick to golf a round
when my life depended on it, it would be Norman.
10. Jean Van de Velde (58 letters)
He could have kicked the golf ball down the fairway and still won. Instead he compounds terrible shots with even greater mental blunders. Clearly a case where the stage was bigger than the man.
Dishonorable mention
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