Memories of Bittersweet Loyalty
September 04, 2006
Some of the most memorable and heartbreaking moments in my life are attached to those teams that I follow, blindly but surely, through thick and thin. I looked back in the past 16 years of my life, and came up with those five on each end of the spectrum: And as expected from a Houston-based sports fan, my heartbreaking list was about three times longer than my greatest, most memorable list. My basic criteria for those chosen was that the moment had to define the season, and could carry a level of vengeance from previous years, thus being partially influenced by past rivalries.
MOST MEMORABLE
1) Texas Longhorns over USC Trojans in 2006 Rose Bowl > Vince Young put on one of the single most impressive shows I've ever seen, capped off with that ridiculous 4th down run to win the game. I love the fact we knocked out USC. I went as far as to support USC vs. Notre Dame in the hopes that we would be the one, and we were.
2) Houston Rockets 94-95 Playoffs/Championship (4-0 against the Orlando Magic) > What made this sweeter than the 93-94 Championship was that we were the #6 seed, nobody thought we could do it, and we went on to beat the four teams with the best records in the NBA, including the comeback against the Suns and Hakeem posterizing David Robinson the night he got the MVP award.
3) Houston Astros winning the 2005 NL Championship by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals > I really didn't care that we got swept by the White Sox, what mattered is that we finally made it into the Series after all these years. But I have to say, Pujols' homer in Game 5 scared the shit out of me, and undoubtedly is on my heartbreak list somewhere.
4) Houston Rockets 93-94 Playoffs/Championship (4-3 against the New York Knicks) > The finals were absolutely amazing, including coming back from 3-2 down and the historic O.J. chase.
5) Tennessee Titans over Bills in 1999 Wild Card ("Music City Miracle") > There was no sweeter revenge for heartbreak #3 than this; if anything, this made me feel like that was going to be our year. Unfortunately, then heartbreak #1 happened.
MOST HEARTBREAKING
1) Tennessee Titans losing to St. Louis Rams in Superbowl XXXIV ("The Tackle") > What more is there to say? We came so close. So close.
2) Houston Rockets losing to Seattle Supersonics in 92-93 Conference Semifinals > The first game I ever went to was the Game 6; every team in that series won at home with a blowout except Game 7, which ended up going to double overtime. We had a chance to win it, but Kenny Smith couldn't cash in. What really pissed me off is that we should have had home field, but we didn't because the Spurs beat us in the last game of the season when the referree fucked up and gave Robinson points after the buzzer that took the game to OT (where the Spurs won).
3) Houston Oilers losing to Buffalo Bills in 1993 Wild Card ("The Comeback") > Thanks to the Yankees' for falling asleep against the BoSox, otherwise we'd still be laughingstock numero uno.
4) Texas Longhorns losing to Colorado Buffaloes in 2001 Big 12 Championship > Colorado had pulled off a huge upset the week before by knocking out #2 Nebraska, meaning all we had to do was to win this game to make it to the Championship (we had beaten Colorado 41-7 three months before). But as our fate would have it, we lost to the Buffaloes, who ended up getting mauled by the Oregon Ducks in their bowl game.
5) Houston Astros losing the 2004 NL Championship to the St. Louis Cardinals > For the first time in my life as an Astros fan, I tasted the World Series. We had it in Game 6. Then it slipped away.
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