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Yesterday the defending Western Champions of the CFL, the BC Lions, lost the Western Championship to their hated arch-rivals, the Edmonton Eskimos. Next week's heralded Grey Cup will have the Eskies against the Eastern powerhouse Montreal Allouettes.
The Grey Cup is being hosted by BC. This was going to be their year, to have the Grey Cup and the Western Final at home. They had been preparing for this year ever since receiving the Grey Cup nomination, putting together an all-star squad piecemeal over several years. Last year, they reached the Cup, only to come up short to the Toronto Argonauts. If they were that close last year, then this year they could only be better.
The team was led by a future hall-of-famer QB, a Most Outstanding Player backup QB, a receiving core second to none, and a storybook coaching staff, made up of three former Grey Cup-winning head coaches running defense, special teams, and general manager, and an NFL icon as team President. Linebackers were the fastest in the league. Defensive backs were stronger and more durable.
Every expert predicted they would return to the Grey Cup. There was no skepticism in the media, there were no doubts on other teams, there was no lack of confidence on the field. Everyone said that at the outset of the year, the Lions were the team to beat. Ranked #1. They proved it by going undefeated through the pre-season. And that was just them flexing their muscles.
The Lions steamrolled through the first half the season without flinching. They went a perfect 11-0. Nothing seemed to faze them as they beat every team in the league, some of them twice.
Then something happened. They lost. Then they lost again. Then again. Then the wheels fell off as they lost to the worst team in the league. Panicking, they tried to salvage the reports that they "peaked too soon", but the damage had already been done. They went the rest of the season 1-6, finishing 12-6. Remarkably, that was still good for first place, and a bye to the Western Final.
But the Western Final they lost too, coming up a major score short. So they finished the season winning but 1 game out of 8, after starting the season winning 11 straight (13 if you count the pre-season). So that begs the question: What are the biggest nose-dives in sports history?
I don't mean chokes. Because every team chokes. So the Yankees-Redsox series doesn't count. And neither do single game come-from-behind-insurmountable-leads. I mean NOSE-DIVES. An entire season (and maybe playoffs too) that is just completely night and day to a team. Black and white. The first half is impeccable greatness. The last half is stunning. It's like someone literally switched their jerseys with the worst team in the league.
Did the Lions just commit the worst nose-dive in sports history? Can you think of any team that, after climbing too high too hard and too fast, suddenly stall the plane and take a tailspin straight down, unable stop the inevitable?
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