The 10 Biggest Chokes Jobs In Sports In The Past 25 Years

Momentum can be a scary thing in sports; once it’s lost, it’s very hard to get back. It’s important to give credit to the team that came back, but many times a team truly just collapses—and no one has collapsed harder since the new millennium rolled around than these chokers.

These Are The 10 Biggest Chokes Of The 21st Century

The mental side of sports is often overlooked, but it always plays a role in the biggest moments and games. It can make the best teams look like amateurs, and seeing a team that had it all spiral into a shell of itself always makes for great television.

We’ll kick things off with baseball and what is perhaps the most iconic choke of all time.

New York Yankees Blow A 3-0 Series Lead: 2004 ALCS

This one has it all: one of the biggest stages and the biggest possible choke. In October of 2004, the Yankees pulled out to a 3-0 lead in the ALCS against their arch-rival Red Sox, and they had a 4- 3 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game Four and were three outs away from going to the World Series.

An MLB team had never blown a three-game lead before, and the 2004 Yankees hadn’t lost four in a row all year. But that’s what makes this choke so special: the Yankees blew the series and remain the only team in the history of the league to choke away a 3-0 lead.

The Red Sox went on to win the World Series that year, but they also put together a choke of their own a few years later.

Boston Red Sox September Collapse: 2011 Regular Season

Potentially the most statistically unlikely one on the list, as an entire month-long choke is hard to do.

On September 1st, the Red Sox had a 9-game lead over the Rays for the AL Wild Card and were essentially locked in for the playoffs. They would then go on to lose 20 of their last 27 games and were eliminated on the last day.

To salt the wound, they only needed a Rays loss or a win of their own on that last day. The Sox led three to two in the ninth inning of their game, and the Yankees were up seven to zero on the Rays. Somehow, the Rays won, and the Red Sox lost, making this one of the most impossible chokes of all time.

The Golden State Warriors Blow A 3-1 Lead: 2016 NBA Finals

Coming off of a championship, the Warriors tore the league to shreds in the regular season during the 2015-16 campaign. They finished with a record-setting 73-9 record, which remains the NBA record of all time.

Ironically, they found themselves down 3-1 against the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals but had a comeback of their own to reach the NBA Finals.

After beating the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games the season before and taking a commanding lead in the rematch, it seemed like a mere formality that the Warriors would go back-to-back.

However, much like the 2004 Yankees, the Warriors would go on to do something they had not done all year: lose three consecutive games. To this day, they are the only team in NBA Finals history to choke away a 3-1 lead.

Duke Loses In The Last Second: 2026 Elite Eight

The double whammy of choking an in-game lead and choking in the last second to lose definitely earns the Blue Devils a spot on the list.

Duke held a 19-point lead over UConn at one point and somehow found themselves needing a press break in the last second to win.

All they had to do was inbound the ball and get it up the court, but a costly turnover left UConn with the ball, down by two with five seconds left. They passed to Braydon Mullins, who had not hit a three-pointer all game, and he heaved a deep three that swished to eliminate Duke.

As bad a choke as that is, it doesn’t hold a candle to what unfolded in the NCAA Tournament a decade prior.

Northern Iowa Blows It In Under A Minute: Second Round Of The 2016 NCAA Tournament

This is sometimes a forgotten choke because the team that lost was not supposed to be in the game in the first place, and they certainly weren’t supposed to win it.

11th-seeded Northern Iowa upset Texas in the first round of March Madness in 2016, and it looked like they were going to send another state from the Lone Star State packing when you consider they were leading Texas A&M 69-57 with 44 seconds left in the game.

They improbably gave up a 14-2 run, aided by four turnovers, and went to overtime. In overtime, they again allowed the Aggies to break their hearts when Alex Caruso scored with five seconds left to tie the game. The Wildcats concluded their choking masterpiece, finally losing 92-88.

Moving on to the gridiron, a pair of games that many people regretted turning off.

Atlanta Falcons Blow 28-3 Lead: Super Bowl LI

Unfortunately for Falcons fans, this game has gone down in infamy.

They had a 28-3 lead with under five minutes left in the third quarter, and while the Patriots needed a miracle, they got some help from Atlanta.

Matt Ryan got strip-sacked in his own half, but it was the possession that followed that really finished the choke. Atlanta worked its way into field goal range with a chance to bring it back to a two-possession game and end the comeback for good.

A holding call and a bad sack forced them to punt, and the Falcons would go on to blow a 25-point lead in the biggest game of the year in what is possibly the most infamous choke of all time.

Chargers Blow 27-0 Lead: 2022/23 AFC Wild Card Game

Justin Herbert’s first career playoff game couldn’t have started any better, but it couldn’t have ended any worse.

The Chargers jumped out to a 27-0 lead, thanks in no small part to four first-half interceptions by Trevor Lawrence.

Jacksonville finally scored at the very end of the first half, cutting the deficit to 20. The Chargers would then let Lawrence score on every drive in the second half, culminating in a walk-off field goal that eliminated them.

Now, we turned our attention to the other type of football and back to series-based choking.

Paris Saint-Germain Blows 4-0 Aggregate Lead: 2017 Champions League

For those who don’t know, the Champions League knockout round is decided by playing a game in each team’s stadium and combining the scores. The tiebreaker at the time would go to whoever scored more away goals.

In 2o17, Paris Saint-Germain beat FC Barcelona 4-0 at home in the first game of their Round of 16 showdown, and they seemed firmly poised to advance at that point.

However, after going down 3-0 in their away game in Spain, things were falling apart. A goal in the 62nd minute made it 3-1 and gave them an away goal that should have made it impossible to squander.

But in shocking fashion, they conceded three goals, all past the 88th minute, to lose outright 6-5 on aggregate.

Tampa Bay Lightning Get Swept By Columbus Blue Jackets: 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs

How can a sweep be a choke?

Well, the 2019 Lightning were not only the best team in the league, but they were the best regular-season team of all time. They had the most points ever at the time, Nikita Kucherov won the Hart Trophy (MVP), and Andrei Vasilevskiy won the Vezina Trophy (Best Goaltender).

They entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed (obviously) and were heavy favorites against Columbus. Matching a similar theme to some other teams on the list, they had not even lost three games in a row up to that point in the season.

The Lightning would then, astonishingly, lose four straight games and be swept in the first round, a loss that was so bad they felt the need to formally apologize to their fans.

Jordan Spieth Blows A Five-Shot Lead On The Back-Nine: 2016 Masters

Jordan Spieth entered the final round of The Masters in 2016 with a one-shot lead and was hoping to claim back-to-back green jackets at Augusta National. His margin had ballooned to five by the time he got the turn, and it seemed like he’d be able to coast to the clubhouse.

Two bogeys in a row made things close, but it was the par-three twelfth hole that made the choke. After hitting it into the water, Jordan’s penalty shot was one of the worst strokes you will ever see a professional golfer make. He chunked a wedge so badly the ball never made it halfway over the water.

After tapping in a quadruple bogey, Spieth lost the lead and never got it back as Danny Willett took advantage to get the win.