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Choke (sports)

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In sports, an individual athlete, or, more commonly, an athletic team collectively, is often said to have choked when failing to win a tournament or league championship and if certain other criteria are also met, especially if the player or team had been favored to win, or had squandered a large lead in the late stages of an event. The usage of the word "choke" in this sense is generally treated as slang.

Generally, if postseason play is involved, the further a team progresses without actually winning the championship, the more likely that the team will be accused of choking (a team that gets eliminated in the early rounds will usually escape the stigma). Also, whether or not the team was favored by the oddsmakers and/or had home-field advantage can be a key issue, and if a team fades in the late stages of a postseason contest or playoff series, that fact is quite often treated as evidence that the club choked.

The term may originate from the Salem witch trials. One test used to expose a witch required the woman in question to simply swallow one communion wafer. It was thought that if she were in fact a witch this task would be impossible. Countless women choked under the pressure.[citation needed]

The opposite of choking is being "Clutch," or rising to the occasion under pressure rather than collapsing under it.

Use in the USA

National Football League

Use of the term "choke" in this context is most frequently encountered in the United States, and appears to be of relatively recent origin, not becoming reasonably widespread until well into the 1960s. Since then, NFL teams popularly labeled chokers (or often, "choke artists") have included the Minnesota Vikings more or less throughout the 1970s, the San Diego Chargers in the late 1970s and early 1980s,the Pittsburgh Steelers of the mid-late 1990s and early 2000s, the Buffalo Bills in the 1990s for their 4 straight Super Bowl losses and, most recently, the Philadelphia Eagles in the early 2000s, the Green Bay Packers in the 2008 NFC title game, and the San Diego Chargers in the mid 2000s [1]. In all instances the respective quarterbacks for these teams — Fran Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, Jim Kelly, Donovan McNabb and Tony Romo[citation needed]; have also been stereotyped personally along with the entire teams themselves, [citation needed] McNabb adding to his reputation for choking with three interceptions in the Eagles' 24-21 loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX after having been intercepted only eight times during the entire 2004 regular season.

Marty Schottenheimer has also been seen as a choker (as well as cursed) due to his 5-13 playoff record, which include losses to the Denver Broncos in the 1986 and 1987 AFC Championship Games as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, thanks to The Drive and The Fumble respectively, losing in 1995 as the top seed in the AFC to the Colts when he coached the Kansas City Chiefs, and as head coach of the Chargers, his loss as top seed again in the AFC to the Patriots in 2006, leading to loss of assistants, and ultimately, his firing less than 45 days after the game.

The New England Patriots were widely considered to be a dynasty after winning three Super Bowls in four seasons (XXXVI, XXXVIII and XXXIX). However, following 2007 season, the Patriots had a perfect 16-0 regular season, and had set many individual and team records. Then in Super Bowl XLII, as the favored team, the Patriots scored only 14 points, their lowest total of the season, and their defense allowed New York Giants (incidentally a wildcard entrant in the 07 NFL playoffs) quarterback Eli Manning to lead his team to victory with a game-winning touchdown drive in the final minutes of the 4th quarter. This game is a notable choke for several reasons; the Patriots were hyped prior to the game as a contender to the mythical "greatest NFL team ever" tag, alongside the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins. Also, during Super Bowl week, Patriots QB Tom Brady scoffed at the notion that they would be held under 17 points, when that was suggested by a Giants player. And finally, the nature of the choke is magnified by the Patriots involvement during the 2007 season of the Spygate scandal.

Major League Baseball

Fewer teams qualify for postseason play in Major League Baseball than in the NFL, so the "choke" label in baseball is more frequently appended to a team that blows a substantial lead late in a pennant race. Probably the two most prominent examples of this have been the Chicago Cubs (most notably in 1969, 1973, 1984 and 2003) and the Boston Red Sox (most notably in 1978, when they relinquished a 14-game lead in their division, ultimately losing a one-game playoff for the division title to the New York Yankees after they and the Yankees had ended the regular season tied for first place). The plight of both the Cubs and Red Sox has often been attributed to a "curse" — the Curse of the Billy Goat in the former team's case and the Curse of the Bambino in the latter, although the Curse of the Bambino is widely regarded as having been broken in 2004, when the Red Sox won the World Series for the first time since 1918; The Boston Red Sox were also involved in another heartbreaking choke in 1986, when they lost a 2 run lead in the 10th inning of Game 6 (with the Sox leading 3 games to 2) when there were 2 men out and no one on base. The New York Mets rallied to win Game 6 (with help from Bill Buckner) and then went on to win Game 7 and take their first World Series title since 1969. Conversely, the Boston Red Sox benefitted greatly in 2004, when their archrival the New York Yankees blew a 3-0 series lead in the 2004 American League Championship Series, which the Red Sox came back to win with four straight victories, the first time in Major League Baseball history that has happened. It was a major choke for the Yankees and the Red Sox finally won the long-awaited World Series title. A summer 2008 poll on ESPN.com had the 2004 Yankees getting a whopping 76% of the vote for "Biggest choke in sports history," the runner-ups being Jean Van de Velde's collapse at the 1999 British Open with 12%, and the 2007 New England Patriots in Superbowl XLII with 7%. (Citation needed)

The New York Mets completed a historic choke during the 2007 season, as they blew a 7 game lead in the NL East on September 12th and lost the division to the Philadelphia Phillies. Also the Cleveland Indians blew a 3-1 series lead on the Boston Red Sox in the 2007 American League Championship Series and the Red Sox went on to win the 2007 World Series. The Colorado Rockies (2007) are worthy of the term "choke" by obtaining an MLB best 20-8 record in September, peaking with a stretch winning 21 of 22 games after September 15th, to win the pennant. They went on to "choke" in the World Series as they were swept by the Red Sox losing by a combined score of 29-10. This term epitomizes the team based on the vast difference between their magnitude of their success and failure.

Also in baseball, notably, Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees is generally called a choker because, despite being one of the top players in the game, he is perceived as underperforming in close or late game situations, although his actual statistics do not bear this theory out.

Individual sports

Athletes in individual sports have not been immune either, particularly in tennis (Virginia Wade, dubbed "The Queen of the Centre Court Choke" by the British tabloid press [citation needed] due to her long string of late-round defeats at Wimbledon — a tournament she did eventually win) and golf (Phil Mickelson until he finally won a "major" golf tournament in 2004 — specifically, The Masters — after a host of second- and third-place finishes in such events). Greg Norman and Jean van de Velde also have been labeled "choke artists."[citation needed] In 1996, Norman took a six-shot lead into the final round of The Masters, but ballooned to a 78, losing to Nick Faldo by five. Three years later, van de Velde had a three-shot lead going into the final hole of The Open Championship, needing only a double-bogey 6 to win. He proceeded to shoot a 7 and eventually lost in a playoff. In bowling, the Area 4 3rd Watch RBT was set to win another trophy in 2008 but lost 3 straight games, one in which they were crushed by the 2nd watch team. In individual sports, a certain top player who is notorious for not winning a major championship are often dubbed "the best player to have not won a major." This term is often used in golf, notably with Mickelson's long Major drought.

Recidivism

Recidivism — that is to say, the same player or team coming close to winning the championship repeatedly without ever actually succeeding in doing so — is another aggravating factor, and indeed this condition is present in virtually all of the most proverbial examples of those castigated as chokers, notably British tennis player Tim Henman, a perennial semi-finalist at Wimbledon. However, once the competitor does win a title, the "choke" tag is typically not reapplied even if the prior pattern of falling short resurfaces: For example, baseball's Atlanta Braves are rarely characterized as chokers despite a lengthy overall record of futility in the postseason during the 1990s and early 2000s, because of one World Series championship in 1995 unlike the Buffalo Bills in football who went to four straight Super Bowls without being able to win one. Golfer Phil Mickelson regularly choked away Major Championships before his victories at the 2004 Masters, 2005 PGA Championship, and 2006 Masters, but when he blew the 2006 U.S. Open, the "choker" label was not applied nearly as liberally as it had been before he won his first Major.

The Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League were routinely among the league's best teams in the early part of the 2000s, and had what many considered the best offense in the NFL, led by Pro Bowl quarterback Peyton Manning. However, despite the Colts potent offense, they were known equally as well for underachieving in the postseason, especially when facing the New England Patriots, who stopped the Colts short of the Super Bowl in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, the Colts got off to a 13-0 start (including a dominant victory over the Patriots), and finished the season 14-2, the best record in the league. However, Indianapolis lost their first playoff game at home against the eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers. The Colts and Manning finally dispelled the "can't win the big one" moniker in 2006, at last defeating New England in a playoff game (the Colts rallied from an 18-point deficit at halftime), and then defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI, where Manning was named Super Bowl MVP.

The Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA were also regularly accused of choking, reaching the playoffs every year from 1981 to 2003 without winning a championship. This included losses in the 1990 and 1992 NBA Finals, as well as a collapse in the 4th quarter of the deciding 7th game of the 2000 Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, in which they squandered a 15 point lead and lost the game by 5. [2]

On a more recent basketball example, the University of California, Los Angeles' basketball team failed to win a national title after reaching the NCAA Tournament's Final Four teams for the third consecutive year on April 5th, 2008. The choking label can be attached to the individual players on the team, many of whom have been varsity starters for three consecutive years.

Another recent example could be seen in the West Virginia Mountaineers losing to the struggling Pittsburgh Panthers on December 1, 2007, on their home field, with a birth to the BCS National Championship on the line. West Virginia remains the most winning team in NCAA history without a National Championship. West Virginia still, however, finished the season as co-champions with Connecticut in the Big East Conference and, because of West Virginia's 66-21 victory over Connecticut on November 24, 2007, has played in a BCS Bowl in January 2008, defeating the Oklahoma Sooners 48-28 in the Fiesta Bowl at Glendale, Arizona.

International use

  • The Spanish national football team had a long history of early World Cup or European Championships eliminations despite regularly featuring superstars. Between 1964 and 2008 they only reached a semi final once, in 1984, beating Denmark on penalties and later losing the European Championship final against France. It wasn't until 2008, with yet another highly talented and star-studded team at Euro 2008 that they reached another final and beat Germany 1-0 to lift the trophy for a second time after a wait of 44 years.
  • The English national football team has lost almost every penalty shootout in its history, crashing out like this in the 1990, 1998 and 2006 World Cups and in the 1996 and 2004 European Championships. The only penalty shootout won was in the 1996 EC quarter finals against Spain, but England lost to Germany in the following semi final - after penalty kicks.
  • Male tennis player Guillermo Coria lost the 2004 French Open final, having been a huge favourite and having a 6-0 6-3 4-4 lead against unseeded Gaston Gaudio. Even when Coria managed to earn the lead several times in the fifth set, and had two match points in the twelfth game, he couldn't close it out and Gaudio prevailed (though it is worth noting that Coria injured his ankle during the third set, and in all likelihood would have closed out the match had he been healthy). Coria has never regained his form.
  • The New Zealand All Blacks have a fine reputation for losing World Cups when entering the tournament as favourites having choked at every event since 1991. In 2007, they entered the tournament as red hot favourites having dominanted world rugby for the preceding four years only to play an astonishingly bad game in the quarter final in losing to the plucky, but limited, French side. When the pressure was on, the All Blacks were simply unable to reproduce their efficient, flair and at times beautiful rugby that had so captivated the rugby world previously.
  • Used in Ice-Hockey when a team with a large lead or who are highly favored in a game or playoff series are unable to win. Typically such losses happen in dramatic fashion. For example in the 2001–2002 Stanley Cup playoffs the Vancouver Canucks held a 2-0 game advantage before losing the next four games and the series to Detroit. The series is memorable because momentum was turned in Detroit's favour by a goal which was scored from the red line by Nicklas Lidstrom of Detroit on Vancouver's goaltender Dan Cloutier. Detroit went on to win the Stanley Cup that year. Despite Stanley Cup finals appearances in 1982 and 1994 Vancouver has never won the Stanley Cup since they were founded in 1945 one of only 6 current teams formed before 1991 to have never won the Stanley Cup.
  • The Italian football team Inter has a long history (overall in the 90s) of failures in the national league and in the European Champions League despite every year is potentially one of the best team in the world.
  • German Bundesliga side Schalke 04 won six championships from 1934-1942, and another in 1958. Since then, however, the club has not won another, failing under almost comical circumstances at times. Second-place finishes include a loss on the ultimate day of the season to eventual champions Bayern Munich (1972), a one-point deficit incurred thanks to a loss to eventual last-place finishers Saarbrücken after goalkeeper Maric missed a ball booted out towards him (1977), a championship celebrated with fireworks on the incorrect assumption that Bayern Munich had lost on a 90th-minute goal at Hamburg SV, only for Munich to equalise in the 94th minute ("Four-Minute Championship" and "Champions of Hearts" in 2001), a win over eventual champions Munich in March that ensured a three-point lead with nine games remaining, but ended in a fourteen-point deficit after a run of three wins, a draw and five losses to end the season (2005), and, most recently, a 2-0 loss at archrivals Borussia Dortmund, who had nothing to play for, on the penultimate day of the season that ended a 99-day run atop the league table (2007). Schalke have yet to win the national league, or Bundesliga, since its establishment in 1963, and this despite having consistently been one of the most famed and best-supported clubs in Germany. Among the clubs that have won the league, 1860 Munich and 1. FC Kaiserslautern now play in the Second Division, and Eintracht Braunschweig now play in the Third, while multiple winners Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Köln have just been promoted after years in the Second.
  • Used in football (soccer), when a team loses its cool at the crucial time of the season, and falls away in spite of huge expectations. An example of this is Arsenal Football Club [1]. Despite being 6 points clear at the top of the table in February 2008, they fell away when everyone expected them to go on and win the league, and their title challenge was over after losing to Manchester United[3]. They did the same in the Champions League, the FA Cup, and the Carling Cup, each time conceding 4 goals in the games that counted.
  • In football (soccer), AC Milan were 3-0 up at half time against Liverpool in the 2005 Champions League final and looked certain to win but choked at vital times and Liverpool scored three goals in six minutes in the second half to equal the score 3-3. It went to extra time and penalties. Liverpool won the penalty shootout 3-2. It has been long cosidered the worst choke in football history. However AC Milan got revenge against Liverpool when they played in the 2007 Champions League final with AC Milan winning 2-1.
  • In Australian football, the Port Adelaide Football Club attracted a reputation for choking in the early 2000s, after the team failed to qualify for the Grand Final in three successive seasons in the top four, including two as minor premiers. They broke the hoodoo in 2004, winning the premiership, and coach Mark Williams used his tie to mime choking.
  • Also in Australian football, the Collingwood Football Club had a choking reputation known as the Colliwobbles. By 1958, Collingwood was the league's most successful team with thirteen premierships, but would not win another until 1990; during the drought, they lost eight Grand Finals.

References

  1. ^ ESPN Page 2 - The Sports Guy: We hate everything
  2. ^ CNNSI.com - 2000 NBA Playoffs - Lakers' late rally stuns Blazers in Game 7 - Monday June 05, 2000 09:32 PM
  3. ^ http://www.sportingo.com/football/a7253_arsenal-beginning-manchester-united-choke-manchester
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