It was a critical call on a critical play at a critical moment in what was arguably a critical game. With six seconds left in regulation, Kevin Durant’s heading for an easy layup, when…BAM!!…LaMarcus Aldridge flies in from behind and blocks Durant’s shot.
Or did he? Referee Scott Foster called it goaltending, ruling that the ball hit the backboard prior to Aldridge’s hand contacting the ball. It was a bang-bang play, but the replay showed that Aldridge made contact with the ball a nanosecond prior to the ball touching the backboard. The replay was an academic exercise, of course, because the call wasn’t reviewable, and Blazer fans in attendance were apoplectic. WE WUZ ROBBED!!!
That may well be true…or not. Did it determine the outcome of the game? Who knows? If the Blazers had taken care of business earlier in the game, Aldridge’s alleged goaltending would have been an annoying non-issue reduced to pointless water cooler debate the next morning.
Perhaps if the Blazers hadn’t been outrebounded 59-39….
Perhaps if the Blazers had played a more physical game. Perhaps if they’d worked harder taking the ball to the basket instead of settling for mid-range jump shots they couldn’t hit.
Perhaps if Kurt Thomas had possessed the courage to take the final shot.
Perhaps if Greg Oden and Brandon Roy each had two good knees.
Perhaps if the Blazers had drafted Kevin Durant instead of Oden.
Perhaps…well, you get the point, right?
**
The New England Patriots have the ball with a minute to go in the Super Bowl, 80 yards separating them from another championship. Get into the end zone and they win, simple as that. Tom Brady’s famous for just this sort of last minute heroics, no? Except that, as his wife, Gisele Bundchen said in an unguarded moment of honest frustration, Brady can’t throw AND catch the passes.
Both Aaron Hernandez and Wes Welker dropped difficult but catchable passes in the final minute. Either one of these plays might have changed the outcome.
Did Hernandez’ and Welker’s “failures” cost the Patriots the Super Bowl? Who knows? Perhaps if Tom Brady hadn’t thrown that interception earlier in the game, or if the defense had player better, or….
Right; if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
**
There’s an understandable temptation to blame an adverse outcome on one or two important moments. The goaltending call against LaMarcus Aldridge was a VERY close call. Was it goaltending (if you’re a Thunder fan) or a well-timed and executed block (if you’re a Blazers fan)? Regardless of what the replay showed, the only opinion that counted belonged to Scott Foster, who ruled it goaltending.
The truth is that any athletic competition is the aggregation of the plays and calls that occur as the contest plays out. No one play or player or call (“blown” or not) is responsible for a game’s outcome. A rebound here, a steal there…and perhaps things turn out differently.
Mario Manningham’s impressive catch looms large, because it happened at a time when the Giants needed a big play. Without Eli Manning’s 38-yard completion to Manningham, perhaps I’m writing about how Tom Brady just cemented his legacy as one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. Without everything that happened earlier in the game, Manningham’s catch might have been a “top ten” play on SportsCenter…and not much else.
Fans and sportswriters blamed Billy Cundiff for missing a “chip shot” field goal at the end of the AFC Championship game. If he’d split the uprights, Baltimore might have beaten New England…so the argument went. His teammates were quick to rush to his defense, because they understood that Cundiff wasn’t responsible for the Ravens’ loss.
If Joe Flacco had completed a couple more passes.
If Ray Rice had gained just a few more yards.
If the defense had only made a few more big plays.
If. If. If.
In 1999, my Minnesota Vikings completed a dominant 15-1 season. They set an NFL team scoring record, and their defense was impenetrable. Heading into the NFC Championship Game against Atlanta, people in Minnesota could be forgiven for thinking it was the Vikings’ year.
Growing up in Minnesota I lived the pain of my team losing four Super Bowls. I was as excited as anyone about my team finally breaking their Super Bowl jinx and bringing the Lombardi Trophy to the Twin Cities for the first time.
Atlanta was good, but Minnesota had one of the best teams in league history and was a prohibitive favorite going into the NFC Championship game. All the Vikings had to do was to clear one last hurdle, and…well, let’s just say this is why being a Vikings fan means learning that suffering is part of life in the Great White North.
The Vikings and Falcons are tied at 27 in the NFC Championship Game on Jan.17, 1999. Vikings ball, 30 seconds on the clock, third-and-three on their own 30 yard line. Minnesota still has two timeouts remaining, Falcons have none. Vikings have the most explosive offense in NFL history. But [Coach Dennis] Green decides to play it safe, and runs out the clock. He’s got Randall Cunningham at QB, Randy Moss at wideout, and a pretty good chance to get the NFL’s best placekicker a shot at a game-winner. But instead, Green orders Cunningham to take a knee, hoping the Vikes will get the coin flip in OT. They do win the flip, but Atlanta scores first and wins, 30-27.
Oh, but it gets better. With Minnesota leading 27-20 late in the fourth quarter, Gary Anderson, who hadn’t missed a field goal all season (46 consecutive successful tries), missed a 39-yard attempt that would have iced the game for the Vikings.
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride….
Scott Foster isn’t responsible for the Blazers loss to Oklahoma City. Wes Welker and Aaron Hernandez didn’t cause the Patriots to lose the Super Bowl. Billy Cundiff wasn’t the reason the Ravens lost to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game. And Gary Anderson certainly shouldn’t bear the burden of being considered the reason Minnesota lost, squandering the first 15-1 season in NFL history. Sure, perhaps they didn’t perform as well or as proficiently as fans might have hoped, but that’s the beauty of athletic competition- sometimes humans prove they’re…well, human.
It’s easy to focus on the blown call, the dropped pass, or the missed field goal, and hold those mistakes responsible for an adverse outcome. The reality, though, is that teams lose games. Athletes in team sports understand this. They know that if they take care of business the foibles of one individual won’t matter in the end.
Of course, when the highlights run on SportsCenter, that perspective gets lost in the sound bites. What also gets lost is the recognition that sports are games played by human beings who make human mistakes, sometimes while millions are watching.
Paging Scott Norwood….
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
