Friday the 13th has a reputation for bad luck, whether or not you believe a ladder or a black cat can really change your day.
Sports have their own way of making misfortune feel almost personal. You can practice for years, do nearly everything right, and still have one strange moment undo it all. In honor of the day, here are some of the most bizarre and painful plays in sports history.
In the 2013 Iron Bowl, Alabama and Auburn were tied 28-28 with one second left. Alabama coach Nick Saban sent freshman kicker Adam Griffith out to try a 57-yard field goal. The kick came up short and landed in the hands of Auburn’s Chris Davis, who was waiting in the end zone.
Davis ran the ball 109 yards for a touchdown as the Auburn crowd erupted. Alabama didn’t just lose a rivalry game; its hopes of winning a third straight national championship vanished in an instant. You can see why people still talk about that play.
The Boston Red Sox went 86 years without winning a World Series, and many fans blamed the so-called Curse of the Bambino, a reference to the sale of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.
In Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, Boston led the New York Mets three games to two and was one out away from a championship. The Mets tied the game in the 10th inning. Then, with the winning run on second, Mookie Wilson hit a slow grounder toward first baseman Bill Buckner.
It looked like a routine play. The ball rolled between Buckner’s legs, and Ray Knight scored the winning run. The Mets went on to win Game 7, and Buckner’s error became one of baseball’s most remembered moments.
Boston had already let its lead slip away, and the team still had another chance to win the title. Even so, it’s hard not to wince watching that ball get through. Unless, of course, you were rooting for the Mets.
Some missed field goals are heartbreaking. Cody Parkey’s double doink in the 2018 NFL playoffs was something else.
On Jan. 6, 2019, the Chicago Bears trailed the Philadelphia Eagles 16-15 in the final seconds of their NFC Wild Card game. Parkey lined up for a 43-yard kick that could have sent Chicago to the next round.
The ball hit the left upright, then bounced off the crossbar and fell into the end zone. The Bears’ season was over. To make matters worse, Eagles defensive lineman Treyvon Hester had touched the ball with a fingertip, so the kick was ruled blocked.
Parkey had hit the uprights four times in a game earlier that season. One doink is bad luck. Two on the same kick, with the season on the line, feels especially cruel.
On May 26, 1993, Texas Rangers outfielder José Canseco tracked a deep fly ball hit by Cleveland’s Carlos Martínez. He backed toward the warning track, got into position, and seemed set to make an ordinary catch.
Instead, the ball hit Canseco on the head and bounced over the fence for a home run. He turned a routine fly ball into one of baseball’s strangest homers—and, understandably, a moment people kept replaying for years.
There are few worse ways to lose a touchdown than celebrating before you’ve actually scored. Former Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Leon Lett learned that in Super Bowl XXVII against the Buffalo Bills.
Lett recovered a fumble and started charging toward the end zone. The Cowboys were already well ahead, and he seemed to have an easy defensive touchdown in front of him. It would have been the only touchdown of his career.
Near the goal line, Lett slowed down and held the ball away from his body to celebrate. Bills receiver Don Beebe kept chasing, caught up just before the line, and knocked the ball free. It rolled through the end zone for a touchback.
Lett went from what looked like a Super Bowl highlight to an all-time blooper. Dallas still won 52-17, but more than three decades later, people remember the fumble.
And that wasn’t his only infamous play that year. Later in the season, during a snowy game against the Miami Dolphins, Lett touched a blocked field goal. Miami recovered the ball and eventually kicked the winning score. Two memorable blunders in one year is a rough run of luck.
Sports reward preparation and skill, most of the time. Every so often, though, something happens that makes the whole idea of control seem a little shaky.
Happy Friday the 13th. Keep an eye out for black cats, steer clear of ladders if you like, and perhaps hold on to the football until you’re safely in the end zone.
