Different sport (baseball), but I'm reminded of the World Series losing error by Bill Buckner, who, to my knowledge, still just smiles and shakes his head about it.
Or Twins manager Tom Kelly, listening to Jack Morris plead his case to go back to the mound for the tenth inning of World Series Game Seven: "Oh hell, it's just a ball game."
But it worked out for Morris & Kelly.
Kelly would have been the dog if Morris had started throwin’ duds.
For a lifelong Twins fan it was some sweet series.
Times have been a little lean since then though.
Getting technical for a second...Buckner’s error came in the 6th game of the world series between the Red Sox and Mets...The Mets then won game 7 to capture the series...while Buckner’s error did not actually lose the series for the Red Sox, it did cut the heart out of that team...it was as demoralizing a defeat as one can have in baseball...the clubhouse workers had broken out the champagne in the locker room and one of the broadcast team was in the locker room ready to interview the victorious Red Sox...As the ball rolled through Buckner’s legs, the clubhouse team raced to remove any and all signs of a victory celebration...for a team sport, it doesn’t get any worse than that...