Biggest Chokes in Sports History

Atlanta Falcons blow 28-3 lead (Super Bowl LI)

Up 28-3 in the third quarter with a win probability north of 99%, Atlanta let Tom Brady and the Patriots score 25 unanswered points, capped by Julian Edelman's impossible shoetop catch and James White's overtime plunge. It's the only blown lead of that size in Super Bowl history, and 'twenty-eight, three' instantly became shorthand for sports collapse itself — cementing Brady's legend while turning Atlanta into a permanent punchline.</br>Nothing else on this list combines the stakes of a championship, the size of the lead, and the sheer statistical improbability quite like it.

Year: 2017Sport: American FootballLead/Advantage Blown: 25 pointsStakes: 10/10Shock Factor: 10/10

added by IJR

Greg Norman's 1996 Masters collapse

Norman entered the final round at Augusta with a six-shot lead, the tournament seemingly a formality, only to shoot a horrific 78 while playing partner Nick Faldo calmly carded 67 and walked away in green. The image of Faldo embracing a visibly shattered Norman on the 18th green became golf's defining photo of heartbreak. It remains the gold standard of major-championship collapses because the margin was so large and the fall so total, from coronation to cautionary tale in four hours.

Year: 1996Sport: GolfLead/Advantage Blown: 6 strokesStakes: 9/10Shock Factor: 9/10

added by IJR

Jean van de Velde's 1999 Open Championship 18th hole

Needing only a double-bogey on the final hole at Carnoustie to win the Claret Jug, van de Velde inexplicably went driver off the tee, hit a grandstand, waded into the Barry Burn in rolled-up trousers contemplating a shot from the water, and eventually made triple bogey to fall into a playoff he'd lose. It's less a blown lead than a public unraveling in real time, a slow-motion horror show that turned one unremarkable golfer into the sport's eternal symbol of self-destruction.

Year: 1999Sport: GolfLead/Advantage Blown: 3 strokesStakes: 8/10Shock Factor: 10/10

added by IJR

2004 New York Yankees blow 3-0 ALCS lead

No team in MLB history had ever lost a best-of-seven series after leading 3-0, and the Yankees — baseball's aristocracy — did it against their most hated rival, capped by Dave Roberts' stolen base, David Ortiz's walk-off heroics, and a 10-3 humiliation in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium. Boston's curse-breaking title only exists because New York collapsed first, making this the rare choke that directly authored someone else's fairy tale. The scale — a 3-0 lead, a legendary rivalry, a 86-year Red Sox drought ending because of it — makes it baseball's benchmark collapse.

Year: 2004Sport: BaseballLead/Advantage Blown: 3-0 series leadStakes: 10/10Shock Factor: 10/10

added by IJR

Golden State Warriors blow 3-1 lead (2016 NBA Finals)

The 73-win Warriors, the greatest regular-season team ever assembled, led LeBron James' Cavaliers 3-1 and lost three straight, including a Game 7 defined by Kyrie Irving's dagger three and LeBron's chase-down block on Andre Iguodala. It delivered Cleveland its first major sports title in 52 years and forced Golden State into an offseason that produced the Kevin Durant signing, reshaping the league's power balance. No modern NBA collapse carries more historical weight — a statistically unprecedented team undone by an all-time opponent refusing to accept the ending.

Year: 2016Sport: BasketballLead/Advantage Blown: 3-1 series leadStakes: 10/10Shock Factor: 9/10

added by IJR

Devon Loch collapses near finish line (1956 Grand National)

Leading by lengths and yards from the finish with the race seemingly won, the Queen Mother's horse Devon Loch inexplicably belly-flopped onto the turf for no discernible reason — no fence, no stumble, just a bizarre collapse that let Ann, ridden home by another horse, steal the victory. Six decades later nobody has a definitive explanation, which is exactly why it endures as horse racing's most surreal choke. It's the purest example on this list of a victory lost to nothing but the sheer strangeness of the moment itself.

Year: 1956Sport: Horse RacingLead/Advantage Blown: Clear lead, ~40 yards from finishStakes: 7/10Shock Factor: 10/10

added by IJR

France blows 2-0 lead in 2022 World Cup Final

Defending champions France cruised 2-0 deep into the second half of the World Cup final against Argentina, only for Kylian Mbappe's own hat-trick heroics to become a footnote as Lionel Messi and Argentina stormed back to force extra time and penalties. It's a strange collapse because the man scoring for the losing side is also its best player, and the match is still regarded as the greatest final ever played. The stakes — a World Cup, Messi's final chance at the trophy, a two-goal cushion evaporating on the sport's biggest stage — earn it a spot despite France ultimately not being the story's

Year: 2022Sport: SoccerLead/Advantage Blown: 2 goalsStakes: 10/10Shock Factor: 8/10

added by IJR

Liverpool blows 3-0 aggregate lead (2019 Barcelona 2nd leg... reverse example) — actually Barcelona blows 3-0

Barcelona, with Messi, Suarez, and Coutinho, arrived at Anfield holding a 3-0 aggregate lead in the Champions League semifinal, missing Salah and Firmino for Liverpool — and lost 4-0, undone by Divock Origi's brace and Trent Alcott-Arnold's quick corner catching Barca napping. It stands alongside Istanbul as Anfield's great European miracle, but from Barcelona's side it's an all-time capitulation: a European giant, a three-goal cushion, a home crowd's disbelief turning to pandemonium. Few collapses have ever been engineered so audaciously by the team on the other side of them.

Year: 2019Sport: SoccerLead/Advantage Blown: 3-0 aggregateStakes: 9/10Shock Factor: 9/10

added by IJR

1993 Australian Open... (replace) Arsenal's 'Aguerooo' title collapse (2012 Premier League)

Manchester United sat one point clear entering the final day, seemingly destined for the title as Sunderland's match wound down, only for Sergio Aguero's stoppage-time strike against QPR to hand Manchester City the championship on goal difference in the most dramatic finish the Premier League has ever produced. Martin Tyler's scream of 'Aguerooooo' became instant folklore, and United's near-title now exists in memory only as the answer to a trivia question about heartbreak. The context — a crosstown rival snatching a trophy in the literal final seconds — makes it the Premier League's defining

Year: 2012Sport: SoccerLead/Advantage Blown: Title lead lost in final minuteStakes: 9/10Shock Factor: 9/10

added by IJR

Jana Novotna's 1993 Wimbledon final collapse

Serving for a 5-1 lead in the final set against Steffi Graf, Novotna's game disintegrated into double faults and unforced errors, culminating in a shocking meltdown that cost her the Wimbledon title and left her sobbing on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent during the trophy ceremony. The image of that embrace became one of tennis's most enduring symbols of heartbreak, later given a bittersweet coda when Novotna finally won Wimbledon in 1998. It's a collapse remembered less for stakes than for the rawness of its emotional aftermath.

Year: 1993Sport: TennisLead/Advantage Blown: 4-1 final set leadStakes: 8/10Shock Factor: 8/10

added by IJR

2007 New York Mets collapse out of playoffs

The Mets held a seven-game lead in the NL East with 17 games to play and missed the playoffs entirely, capped by a season-ending loss to the last-place Marlins on the final day while the Phillies completed the greatest September comeback in division history. Tom Glavine's one-inning implosion in the finale, giving up seven runs before recording an out, became the collapse's grim signature. It's the modern template for a regular-season fold, proof that a choke doesn't need a championship stage to be historically devastating.

Year: 2007Sport: BaseballLead/Advantage Blown: 7-game division leadStakes: 8/10Shock Factor: 9/10

added by IJR

Dennis Bergkamp era Newcastle 1996 (12-point lead blown)

Kevin Keegan's swashbuckling Newcastle side led the Premier League by 12 points in January only to watch Alex Ferguson's Manchester United grind them down and steal the title, triggering Keegan's famously unhinged, red-faced 'I will love it' rant on live television. The collapse turned Newcastle into the Premier League's perennial nearly-men and became the definitive cautionary tale about mental fragility under pressure in a title race. Few managerial meltdowns are as quotable or as replayed as Keegan's on-air unraveling.

Year: 1996Sport: SoccerLead/Advantage Blown: 12-point leadStakes: 8/10Shock Factor: 8/10

added by IJR

Miami Heat blow 3-2 series lead (2011... adjust) Cleveland Indians blow 3-1 World Series lead (2016)

The Indians led the World Series 3-1 against the long-suffering Cubs, one win from ending their own 68-year title drought, and instead watched Chicago storm back — including a rain-delay pep talk from Jason Heyward — to win Games 6 and 7, the latter in extra innings. Rajai Davis's game-tying homer in Game 7 gave Cleveland one electric moment before the Cubs finished the job and ended their 108-year curse. Two of baseball's most famously cursed franchises collided, and only one walked away with the exorcism — making Cleveland's fold historically excruciating.

Year: 2016Sport: BaseballLead/Advantage Blown: 3-1 series leadStakes: 9/10Shock Factor: 8/10

added by IJR

South Africa's 1999 Cricket World Cup semifinal tie-out

With South Africa needing just one run off four balls with two wickets in hand against Australia, a mix-up between Allan Donald and Lance Klusener led to Donald being run out, the match ending in a tie that sent Australia to the final on net run rate. It's cricket's cruelest possible ending — a collapse decided not by a bad shot but by a single fatal moment of miscommunication with the finish line in sight. South Africa's reputation as tournament chokers, fair or not, traces directly back to Donald's dropped bat and desperate lunge.

Year: 1999Sport: CricketLead/Advantage Blown: Match-winning position with balls remainingStakes: 8/10Shock Factor: 9/10

added by IJR

India blows 3-1 lead... (replace) England collapses at 2016 Euros vs Iceland

England, a footballing nation of 55 million against an Iceland squad drawn largely from part-time players, lost 2-1 in the Euro 2016 round of 16, a result so embarrassing it triggered Roy Hodgson's immediate resignation and years of national soul-searching. Iceland's fans' Viking clap thunder-clapped its way into global meme status while England's players trudged off to a chorus of boos. The gap in resources versus the size of the humiliation makes this one of international football's purest embarrassments, a choke measured less in blown leads than blown expectations.

Year: 2016Sport: SoccerLead/Advantage Blown: Heavy pre-match favoritismStakes: 7/10Shock Factor: 9/10

added by IJR

Buffalo Bills lose four straight Super Bowls (1991-1994)

No team has ever been better at getting to the Super Bowl and worse at winning it than the early-90s Bills, who lost four consecutive title games, most painfully Super Bowl XXV when Scott Norwood's last-second field goal sailed wide right against the Giants. Three more defeats followed, each less competitive than the last, transforming a genuinely great team into the league's ultimate symbol of championship futility. It's a collapse stretched across four years rather than one game, which somehow makes the cumulative heartbreak even more brutal.

Year: 1991-1994Sport: American FootballLead/Advantage Blown: 4 championship opportunitiesStakes: 9/10Shock Factor: 7/10

added by IJR

Chicago Cubs' Steve Bartman game collapse (2003 NLCS)

Five outs from their first World Series in 58 years, the Cubs watched a foul ball deflect off fan Steve Bartman's hands, distracting Moises Alou and unraveling into an eight-run Marlins inning that ended the Cubs' pennant hopes. Bartman became an unfair national scapegoat forced into hiding for over a decade, while the Cubs' curse narrative calcified until the 2016 title finally broke it. The collapse's power lies in how a single, ordinary fan reaching for a souvenir became forever fused with one of sports' most infamous chokes.

Year: 2003Sport: BaseballLead/Advantage Blown: 3-0 lead, 5 outs from pennantStakes: 9/10Shock Factor: 9/10

added by IJR

Kansas City Chiefs... (replace) Scotland blows lead vs Argentina 1990 (irrelevant) — Roberto Duran 'No Mas' (1980)

Eight months after losing his welterweight title to Sugar Ray Leonard in a war of a first fight, Roberto Duran shocked the boxing world in the rematch by simply turning his back and quitting mid-round, reportedly muttering 'no mas' — no more. The abrupt surrender from one of the most feared, macho fighters of his era destroyed his legacy overnight and remains boxing's most bewildering capitulation, a collapse of will rather than a blown lead on a scoreboard. Its cultural sting lasted decades, 'no mas' becoming permanent shorthand for quitting under pressure in any sport.

Year: 1980Sport: BoxingLead/Advantage Blown: Competitive fight abandonedStakes: 8/10Shock Factor: 10/10

added by IJR