In 1970, Leeds United were heavy favorites in the F.A. Cup Final against Chelsea, the most important English soccer match of that year. Midway through the first half, a Chelsea player hit a soft shot toward the Leeds goalie, Gary Sprake, who handled it and then, inexplicably allowed it to trickle out of his arms and into the net.
I don't remember who scored the goals in the 2-2 tie but I remember that moment so clearly, even though it took place 40 years ago.
Forty years from now, millions of English soccer fans (and maybe a couple of Americans too) will remember England goalie Robert Green's horrendous error against the United States. It will define Green's career. No matter how many saves he makes and shut-outs he records, he will never shake that monkey off his back.
Likewise, Roberto Baggio has to go through life after shanking the final shot of a penalty shoot-out in the 1994 World Cup final, allowing Brazil to win the tournament. Baggio was a fantastic player with many wonderful accomplishments - but he will always be remembered for that ghastly moment.
I guess the equivalent for U.S. sports fans would be Bill Buckner's fielding error in the 1986 World Series.
What is it about such horrendous sporting errors that makes them so compelling? Why do we remember such disasters decades later? Is it schadenfreude, our fascination and guilty pleasure at the pain of others? Does it perhaps provide some sort of confirmation that we are all human and that even fabulously-paid athletes who usually make everything seem so effortless are occasionally prey to elementary mistakes.
The British media had scant sympathy for poor Robert Green. "Cock-up keeper Green wrecks dream start," said The News of the World, tabloid. The Sunday Mirror's banner headline read, "Hand of Clod," a play on the "Hand of God" goal scored by Diego Maradona that knocked England out of the 1986 World Cup. The the Sunday Times referred to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, saying Green's error was "one disastrous spill the Yanks won't complain about."
In the past, society had ample provision for the public humiliation of miscreants - scarlet letters, public pillories and stocks and the like. Today we have reality TV shows like "The Biggest Loser" but that is not as satisfying since the participants volunteer to take part. Do we crave some sort of public displays of humiliation?
I don't know the reason. I'll leave it to psychologists to theorize. But I do know there is something truly compelling about these awful moments. As the TV played and replayed Green's gaffe from every conceivable angle, I couldn't tear my eyes away.
In the end the errors of athletes are not that significant. An Internet compilation of the top ten military blunders in history gives us Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor among others which cost millions of lives. Another list of the worst errors by U.S. presidents offers President James Buchanan, for failing to avert the Civil War, Andrew Johnson's decision just after the Civil War to side with Southern whites and oppose improvements in justice for Southern blacks and Lyndon Johnson's decision to intensify the Vietnam War as its top three.
Compared to those, Robert Green mishandling a shot and allowing a soft goal is incredibly trivial. So why is it so compelling?
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Pressure certainly squeezes the life out of many games. And it becomes a vicious cycle -- as more games are decided 1-0, the likelihood that a single error will make the difference grows. That's less of an issue in, say, basketball -- a missed dunk or dropped pass is just one of a hundred possible turning points.
Compared to those, Robert Green mishandling a shot and allowing a soft goal is incredibly trivial. So why is it so compelling?"
Because it provides sportswriters ( and broadcasters ) with another opportunity to sound like self-serving, sanctimonious clods by spouting how guilty they feel at being forced to toil in unrequited agony in "the toy department of life" while there are more important things in life to worry about.
'...the brain's "negativity bias": Your brain is simply built with a greater sensitivity to unpleasant news. The bias is so automatic that it can be detected at the earliest stage of the brain's information processing... The brain...reacts more strongly to stimuli it deems negative. There is a greater surge in electrical activity. Thus, our attitudes are more heavily influenced by downbeat news than good news. Our capacity to weigh negative input so heavily most likely evolved for a good reason—to keep us out of harm's way. From the dawn of human history, our very survival depended on our skill at dodging danger. The brain developed systems that would make it unavoidable for us not to notice danger and thus, hopefully, respond to it. All well and good. Having the built-in brain apparatus supersensitive to negativity means that the same bad-news bias also is at work in every sphere of our lives at all times...'
(from http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200306/our-brains-negative-bias)
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200306/our-brains-negative-bias