Every sports fan dreams of their team winning everything. But the reality is that any team can experience agonizing moments no matter how good they are. They witness their franchises come close to glory but fail to cross the line. It hurts to leave a stadium with a broken heart but that’s part of every fan’s existence.
So today we’ll look at some of the most shocking defeats ever. These sports teams had amazing rosters and may have swept everybody aside in the regular season. But then they suffered one lapse of concentration or ran into an inspired underdog. Check out these teams that came agonizingly close to glory here.
Detroit Lions (2023)
The Lions became one of the NFL’s most exciting teams throughout the 2023 season as they won the NFC North. This was a major redemption story for their quarterback Jared Goff and validated Dan Campbell as an NFL head coach. They made their way to NFC Championship Game where they played the Niners.
However, Campbell’s gung-ho nature and tendency to go for almost every fourth down came back to haunt him. Instead of kicking field goals at opportune moments, he opted to go guns blazing toward the goal line. In the end, the Lions left with broken hearts as they missed out on a first Super Bowl appearance. Later, Campbell admitted that this might have been their only chance (via NBC Sports).