Hope is a funny thing. I’m not a Rams fan, so I don’t know if any of them actually had any hope late in the Super Bowl, with eight seconds on the clock and trailing the Patriots by two scores. The Rams, in field goal position, opted to kick one and hope for an onside kick recovery, which would leave them with about a second on the clock with which to score a touchdown.
This Rams missed field goal is the saddest play in Super Bowl history
Here’s what hope gets you!
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Greg Zuerlein missed the 48-yard attempt wide left. And it was sad. I did away with hope years ago, but somehow, Zuerlein missing that final field goal crushed me. For reasons I can’t explain, that play was the saddest non-injury-related football play I’ve seen.
And I wasn’t alone in that — no fewer than four of my coworkers said the same thing immediately after it happened. Something about that ball sailing left, everyone aware that it’s a miss well before it gets to the uprights, and the blank-faced Rams sideline.
If I was a better writer, maybe I could actually make something profound about the inevitability of loss and hope being a cruel thing. Instead, I’ll just say it over and over again: that play was sad.
The Patriots are Super Bowl champions (again).
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