Earn Your Happy Ending / Sports

• The New Orleans Saints. For most of their existence they were, by any measure, one of the worst teams in NFL History. They played 20 years before making the playoffs the first time, and they were such a sad sack franchise that their fans took to wearing paper bags over their heads out of mock-embarrassment of being seen at the games. Then, of course, came Hurricane Katrina. They were forced to play the entire 2005 season on the road, while their home stadium became a shelter for storm victims that news accounts were describing as a hell on earth (later shown to be exaggerated, but still). During that road season, the owner publicly flirted with the idea of permanently moving the team to Texas. After the return, the team made some successful hires and became a serious contender, ultimately culminating with New Orleans winning the 2010 Super Bowl. And when we say "Happy Ending," we mean it. The Super Bowl fell two Sundays prior to Mardi Gras, and by all accounts, the continuous party was epic beyond belief.
• Much like the Saints, the famed Boston Red Sox. A franchise whose (in)ability to win became legendary. Over the course of 80 plus years, the Sox were constantly foiled in their attempts to win a World Series, either losing their division to the Yankees, or being beat in the Series, usually after having some sort of lead. Unlike the Cubs and White Sox who simply never won the pennant for decades, the Red Sox WOULD win the American League Championship 4 times and every single time lose the World Series in 7 games, usually in dramatic fashion or by blowing a lead, particularly in 1986 when they were a strike away from winning it all. Numerous star Sox players went their whole careers without a title (e.g. Williams, Yastrzemski, Fisk, et. al) or would defect to other teams, particularly the Yankees to get a ring (Boggs, Clemens). As recently as 2003, the Sox, who were leading the Yankees in the 7th game of the ALCS, BLEW THE LEAD AGAIN, and were beaten, and due to a bad managerial decision. During that offseason the Red Sox attempted to trade franchise icon Nomar Garciaparra after contract talks failed, for Alex Rodriguez, the best player in the game. Due to union complications on A-Rod's contract, the trade failed, and he ended up being traded to the Yankees. Nomar would be yet another Boston legend to leave when he was traded in July. On top of this, several Red Sox players including ace Pedro Martinez, Jason Varitek, and Derek Lowe were on their contracts' final years(only Varitek would return as team captain). The VERY NEXT YEAR, Boston curb-stomped the entire American League, flipped the script on the New York Yankees, by BEATING THEM after THEY HAD TRAILED; and then SWEPT the vaunted St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004 World Series. Staunch Red Sox haters had to bow to the awesomeness, and stand and applaud the Sox finally winning a hard-earned title at last.
  • And not just any trailing in the ALCS. The Red Sox fell to an 0-3 deficit in a 7 game series and did something that no other baseball team had done before — come back and WIN from that. And it wasn't easy either. They were down 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th on the 1 year anniversary of that fateful 2003 ALCS game. But as Kevin Millar went up to bat, the clock struck midnight and somehow he managed a walk against probably the best closer of all time, Mariano Rivera. Then Millar was substituted for with Dave Roberts (who was part of the Nomar trade) who stole second on an extremely close play. Then Bill Mueller hit a single that was just out of the reach of Rivera to score Roberts for the tying run. And that was just the beginning. Games 4, 5, and 6 were real tough battles throughout full of twists, turns, strange umpiring calls, Curt Schilling pitching on a torn foot ligament that had to be sutured before the game (you could see blood on his sock) and Keith Foulke basically sacrificing his career for the chance at glory. Needless to say, the Happy Ending was earned in a huge way.
• For balance's sake.... even though the same Yankees that the Red Sox defeated have long been reviled because it seemed they simply waltzed to their titles, that particular Yankee team had to earn their happy ending. After the Yankees lost in the 1981 World Series, the team became a joke. For the next almost 15 years, the Yankees were either average or just plain lousy. They blew tons of money on stars like Dave Winfield and Rickey Henderson and watched those players win titles, with other teams. Then comes 1993 and manager Buck Showalter has the Yankees in a tight 4-team race for the AL East Division, one of the closest finishes ever. The Yankees lose the division that year to Toronto (who would go on to win it all for the second time straight). Then comes 1994, the Yankees are in first place, almost from the first month of season....BUT THEN COMES THE '94 STRIKE!!! 1995, the Yankees blow a lead in the opening series and get eliminated in five games by the Seattle Mariners, crushing the Yankee fandom. And then to top it off, the manager who got them to that point leaves and is replaced by Joe Torre, a man of dubious managerial skill. Honestly, nobody had any idea that that same team was going to win 4 of the next five World Series (they lost in the ALDS in 1997).
• Sports history is peppered with teams that have endured long droughts without a league championship. The moment they break these droughts are prime examples of this trope for the team and the region they represent. Notable examples:
  • The 1994 New York Rangers, enduring a nail-biter of a playoff season, Game 7 of the conference finals, vs. the New Jersey Devils, was tied up just seconds away from the end of regulation and took a second overtime before the Rangers broke through. Then there was the big one against the Canucks: another 7-game slog that wasn't decided until the final face-off, mere seconds from the end of the game. Only when the Rangers won the face-off in front of their net and ran out the clock one goal up could New York fans finally cheer the end of a 54-year drought.
  • The 2005 Chicago White Sox. One year after the Red Sox had snapped their legendary drought (see above), it was the White Sox' turn to get the monkey off their back, sweeping the Astros and breaking an 88-year drought.
  • The 2013-14 University of Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball team. Their only ACC championship was in 1976, and since 1995, they had won a whopping one ACC and NCAA tournament games each. The 2013-14 season started 9-4, including a 35-point loss at Tennessee. Sounds like a write-off? They went 16-2 in the ACC regular season, breezed past Florida State and Pittsburgh to beat Duke (the only conference team they hadn't beaten in the regular season) to win the tournament title, earned a 1-seed into the NCAA tournament, and got to the Sweet Sixteen, only to lose by two to Michigan State, the team many people (including the president) had picked to win the title. The sheer list of "first time since" accomplishments for that season is mind-boggling, and the play-by-plays are filled with more Wham Lines than you could count. Suffice it to say, for the first time in a long time, basketball fans in Charlottesville are filled with Tears of Joy.
  • Here's one better. In 2018, they were the number one seed in their group in the NCAA Tournament. And then, in a shocker, they lost the very first game to the 16-seed. So come the following year, redemption was the goal in mind as the Cavaliers are once again top of their group. This time, the Cavs turn out to be the only top team not to choke, winning their way through the tournament to be the only top-seed to make the Final Four. Then it got interesting, as Virginia finally had to endure a nailbiter: slipping past Auburn by just one point. Then it got more interesting, as Virginia had to come back in the championship game and hold a tie to force overtime and finally outlast Texas Tech 85-77. "From Ruin to Redemption" seems the best tagline to Virginia's first ever NCAA Men's championship.
    • Auburn and Texas Tech were not the only nailbiters. In the first round, Virginia was down double-digits to ''another'' 16-seed, before coming back to win. In the Elite Eight game against Purdue, Virginia needed a buzzer beater set up by a missed free throw and a three-quarter court pass to force overtime.
• Oftentimes, an expansion team has to earn their happy ending; struggling to establish an identity and a fanbase and respect among more established teams. Some teams do it and succeed, big time. Two New York sports teams exemplify this trope. The New York Mets in baseball and the New York Islanders hockey team were both expansion clubs that were considered pale imitators of their more established and storied rivals, the Yankees and Rangers respectively. Predictably they both began their first few seasons actually being dismal and finishing at or near last place. But patience from the fans and the executives with these teams led to them surviving. The Mets staged a Crowning Season of Awesome by winning the World Series in 1969, 8 years after they came to be (The fastest team to date: the Arizona Diamondbacks; they won it in 2001, in only their fourth season). The Islanders pulled off something greater; a Crowning DYNASTY of Awesome. Beginning in 1980, the Islanders won FOUR STRAIGHT Stanley Cup Championships, one of the most impressive eras of dominance in North American sports. They too, won a little over 8 years after their inception. In a side note, it was William Shea, he who also brought the Mets to New York, who played a role in bringing the Islanders to Long Island.
• Some expansion teams take longer than usual to earn their ending, like the 2012 Los Angeles Kings. In their 45-year history to that point, they'd only been to the Stanley Cup Finals once (and that was with the help of NHL great Wayne Gretzky). While some happy endings only come at the last minute, Kings fans had plenty of time to celebrate as the clinching game wasn't even close: four unanswered goals before the streak was broken just once and then two more after that. As the final minutes ticked away, the atmosphere was such that some of the commentators minimized their talking to let the cheering be heard instead.
  • Two years later, they win it again, but not without a fight, as they had to go seven games three straight times just to make the Stanley Cup finals. The first round, against the Sharks, they were down 3–0 and had to win four straight to advance. The conference finals, against the Blackhawks, had the additional agony of a Game 7 overtime. The Stanley Cup Finals themselves only went five games, but it took two overtimes for the Kings to seal the deal at home. The CBC commentator put it this way: "They did it the hard way. They did it the long way."
• The Washington Capitals got their chance to share the feeling when they won the 2018 Stanley Cup, the first in their 44-year history to that point. Like the Kings, prior to their victory, they'd only been to the Finals once (in their case, in 1998, only to get swept by the Detroit Red Wings in their dominant late 90's-early 2000's period). And their championship run was not without moments where it was seemingly not meant to be, especially when all four of their opponents they faced were favored and the Capitals were also notoriously known not to survive past the second round. After surviving a dangerous upset attempt from the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Capitals then had to take on the defending back-to-back champion Pittsburgh Penguins, which has proved to be That One Boss that has not only devastated the Capitals' championship hopes numerous times, but had also gone on to win the Cup from right under their noses. And even after the Caps finally got over the Penguins for the first time in 24 years, they then had to face the conference-leading Tampa Bay Lightning in the semi-finals, which threatened to blast them all the way back to square one after the Caps started the series with a 2-0 lead. At last, after managing to down the Bolts after being pushed to the brink of elimination, the Caps stumbled into the Finals against a team no less hungry: the Vegas Golden Knights, who also got there in their inaugural year. Yet after the first game ended in an intense neck-and-neck loss for the Capitals, they fortunately found out that the Knights weren't as tough as first anticipated; they collapsed under the Capitals' resolve and potent offense, giving up four straight wins that finally ended the Capitals' misery. For the team as a whole, and for team captain Alex Ovechkin and coach Barry Trotz in particular, this was a long time coming: Ovi had been with the team since 2004, and Trotz had been a head coach for nineteen years before raising the Cup (the longest wait of any coach who won it).^note It had also been a long time for Washington sports as a whole; this was the first championship for a Washington team in the 4 major leagues since the 1991 Washington Redskins won the Super Bowl in 1992, 26 years earlier. It was also the first championship for any Washington team since the DC United won the MLS playoffs in 2004.
• And in 2019, the St. Louis Blues finally got their name on the Stanley Cup, breaking a drought dating back to their establishment as one of the Expansion Six in 1967. Three trips to the Finals, not one win. From then until 2019, the Blues never returned to the Finals. The 2019 team was a real Cinderella story, as by January that year, they were dead last in the league and practically written off. But as the team re-organized, they clicked and went on an absolute tear (30-15-5 to close the season) to climb all the way to third in the Central Division, earning them a ticket to the playoffs. And they kept winning, eliminating Winnipeg, Dallas, and San Jose to reach the Finals for the first time in nearly 50 years. But Boston wouldn't make it easy, mauling them several times and denying them a chance to clinch in St. Louis, forcing it to go the distance. But it was the Blues who out-bruised the Bruins in game 7, becoming the last of the four untouched Expansion Six (still in its original city) to win the Stanley Cup.
• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were, much like the New Orleans Saints, a franchise born under a bad sign. Their history opened with the longest losing streak in pro football history (26 consecutive losses across the 1976 and 1977 seasons) before beating the Saints(!) to end the skid. After a brief flirtation with the playoffs between 1979 and 1982, the Bucs slid back down into mediocrity with 15 straight years of losing seasons replete with terrible coaches, horrible draft picks, and penny-pinching ownership. By 1997, with new ownership, a decent head coach in Tony Dungy, and after a series of pretty smart drafting, the Bucs earned a winning season and a re-appearance in the playoffs. Although Dungy would get kicked out by 2001, it was still pretty much his lineup that won Super Bowl XXXVII under Jon Gruden. And Dungy would still get his chance. He gets hired by Indianapolis and eventually leads the Colts to victory in Super Bowl XLI.
• The 1991 World Series as a whole, played between the Minnesota Twins and the Atlanta Braves: The season before saw both the Twins and Braves finish at the bottom of their respective divisions. The '90 Twins in particular suffered the distinction of losing a game AFTER setting a historical first during that game: Turning two triple plays. The '91 teams played the longest (in number of innings) seven-game World Series to date, drawing four of its contests into extra frames, including a marathon 12-inning Game 3, decided when Twins manager Tom Kelly ran out of pitchers in the bottom of the 12th, and the decisive 1–0 Game 7, which was won in the bottom of the 10th inning by a single hit by career utility infielder Gene Larkin over the heads of a drawn-in outfield, scoring Dan Gladden from third base, capping starter Jack Morris' heroic ten-inning three-hit complete game shutout. Morris earned the World Series MVP award; teammate Kirby Puckett had made Game 7 possible the previous night by launching a Charlie Leibrandt pitch into the left-center-field seats. Sports Illustrated named the 1991 World Series the greatest of all time.
• Manchester United were red hot favorites for the 1958 European Cup (and everything else besides) - until the Munich disaster killed eight players, left two so injured they never played again, and the manager so close to death he was read the Last Rites twice during his stay in hospital. Somehow they still managed to make the FA Cup Final that year (losing to Bolton); they next won the FA Cup in 1963, the League in 1965 and finally, with only two of the surviving players still present, the European Cup in 1968.
• It took NFL Hall of Famer John Elway nearly his entire 15-year career to win a Super Bowl. He took the Denver Broncos to three Super Bowls between 1987–90 (XXI, XXII, & XXIV), and was blown-out every time, in addition to suffering jarring playoff exits (including being defeated by the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars 30–27 in the 1996–97 playoffs after a 13–3 regular season). Finally, in 1997, with the help of running back Terrell Davis, the Broncos defeated the heavily favored Green Bay Packers (led by 3-time NFL MVP Brett Favre) in Super Bowl XXXII, giving Elway his elusive Super Bowl ring, a day many thought would never come for the veteran. The following year, the Broncos won Super Bowl XXXIII over the Atlanta Falcons; Elway was the MVP of the game, and it proved to be a fitting end to a long journey, as he retired shortly afterward.
• Just as John Elway was hanging up his helmet, a certain Tennessee quarterback by the name of Peyton Manning made his start in the NFL. Like most rookies, he had a bit of a rough start, but he learned the ropes quickly. The Colts built itself around Manning and started becoming a playoff-class team, reaching its peak in Super Bowl XLI when they defeated the Chicago Bears, earning Manning his first ring and an MVP nod. But after that, the toil on his body started a slide. While the Colts would return to the Super Bowl, they were defeated soundly by Drew Brees and the Saints. Then Manning suffered a serious neck injury that sidelined him for practically the entire season. The Colts realized they needed new blood, so they released Manning and drafted Andrew Luck to replace him. Eventually, though, a familiar face stepped forward and offered Manning another chance: none other than John Elway (having returned to the Broncos as their manager). Now in a Broncos uniform, Manning worked hard to make Elway's decision matter. And while he continued to amass passing accolades, he was starting to get a bad reputation for "choking" in the playoffs. He led the Broncos to Super Bowl XLVIII but then got trounced by the Seahawks. Then, the following year, a bit of irony struck as the Broncos fell in the divisional playoffs... to Peyton's old team, the Colts, led by Andrew Luck. But even as his body was beginning to show signs of wearing out (when he broke his foot early in the 2015-16 season, sidelining him until the last game), he still had the support of the team, the fans, and especially John Elway, who helped build that missing link in the team: a smothering defense. Thanks to this defense, the Broncos maintained strong standing in Manning's absence, and then, in that crucial last game, when they needed him the most, Manning stepped up and led the team to the win that would clinch them the top seed. Riding on the momentum of that defense which would give rise to names like DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller, Manning led the Broncos through the playoffs, surviving the challenges of Ben Roethlisberger's Steelers and Tom Brady's Patriots to reach Super Bowl 50 where the rising Cam Newton and the Panthers awaited. And again, with the defense keeping the Panthers in check, Peyton Manning and the Broncos won Super Bowl 50. And after taking some time to let it all sink in, Manning makes the decision everyone was expecting and becomes only the second quarterback (after Elway) to retire a champion.
• How about Jerome Bettis? Plays the first 12 years of his career without getting so much as a sniff at the Super Bowl, and by his final season, he was practically a cripple (he was in pain just from walking), and then the Steelers have to play the vaunted Indianapolis Colts, led by future HOFer Peyton Manning, in the divisional round of the playoffs. When the Steelers got the ball at the Colts 2 yard line with a 21-18 lead, and only 1:20 left in the game, they hand it off to Bettis, who hadn't fumbled once that year to seal the lead. He fumbles. Then cornerback Nick Harper scoops up the loose ball, and starts running for the Colts end zone, with only quarterback Ben Roethlisberger the only Steeler between him and a go ahead touchdown. Somehow, Roethlisberger makes the open field shoelace tackle to save the game, and a few minutes later, after a missed field goal, the Steelers win and advance to the AFC championship game. After beating the Denver Broncos, the Steelers advance to the Super Bowl, being played in Bettis's home town of Detroit, Michigan. And then after the Steelers win the Super Bowl, Bettis announces his retirement.
• Ray Bourque, who set several team, position and league records in his 21 years for the Boston Bruins... including one for NOT having his name on the Stanley Cup despite his lengthy career of 1,826 regular and playoff games. A secret trade to the Colorado Avalanche in 2000 put him exactly where he needed to be for the 2001 Finals. After trailing 3 games to 2 against the New Jersey Devils, Colorado came back to win in Game 7. Avs captain, one of the greatest players in recent memory, and all-around great guy Joe Sakic broke tradition by handing Bourque the Cup to take the first victory lap rather than himself. And it was sweet.
  Gary Thorne (play-by-play announcer): And after 22 years - RAYMOND BOURQUE!
• Sachin Tendulkar, the India cricket legend, made his international debut at the age of 16 and over the course of a career spanning 21 years and counting has come to be recognized by many as the best batsman to ever play the game, setting individual records that may never be broken and leading the team to victory in many matches single-handedly. For most of this time, he was part of a below average team which failed to progress much at major international events. In 2003, the team made it to the finals of the World Cup in South Africa only to be hopelessly outclassed in the first half of the game by Australia, leaving no chance for victory by the time Sachin came in to bat. And when in the next world cup the team crashed out in the first round, many felt that that's one trophy he'd never have. And then, the 2011 world cup, his 6th as a player, where he was playing as a 38 year old, with many of his teammates being toddlers when he started his international career and who had repeatedly stated their desire to win the cup for their childhood hero Sachin. With Sachin playing an instrumental part in their progress, that is exactly what they did! Manly tears were shed aplenty on that beautiful night... none more so than when after giving Sachin a lap of honour on their shoulders, a young member of the team said: "He (Sachin) has carried the burden of the country for more than 20 years, it's time we carried him".
  • The story continues. One of the hallmark achievements of his career is his recording 100 centuries in international competition (between Test and ODI cricket). For some time, Sachin was stuck on 99 centuries. To use cricket lingo, he was caught in a unique version of the "nervous 90's"...for a whole year. And Indian cricket took a bit of a skid at that time as well (including a notable whitewash by England). Finally, he breaks the drought and scores his 100th and last international century in 2012. He then hangs on to compete in a total 200 Tests before retiring to much appreciation; everyone present applauded the man who had became a symbol of his nation and a credit to his sport.
• The 2011 NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks are a prototype example. For the first 20 plus years of their existence, they were either mediocre, or they were great...right up until the playoffs. On top of that, every period of Mavericks excellence coincided with another team's dominance; i.e. the Lakers in the 80's, the Rockets in the 90's, and of course, their hated rivals the Spurs in the early 2000's. It never helped that while the the Mavericks couldn't make to the Finals, their rival Texas teams managed to win multiple championships. But then....the Mavs finally make it to the NBA Championship in 2006 against the Miami Heat..and even managed to take a commanding 2-0 lead. The Miami Heat behind the phenomenal play of Dwyane Wade beat the Mavs 4-2. Also, the Golden State Warriors eliminate the heavily favored Mavs the following year in the first round, making them the best regular season team ousted in the first round in NBA history. Beyond that, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry wind up being the only two guys from that '06 squad to remain with the team over the next few years. By the time the '10 - '11 season rolls around, the Mavs are largely forgotten. But they win 57 games to clinch a spot in the playoffs, they then outlast the Trail Blazers in a tense 6-game series. They then take on the vaunted superstar-packed LA Lakers AND SWEEP THEM. After beating a talented OKC Thunder team, they make it to the NBA Finals and face.......that's right, the same Miami Heat team that defeated them five years ago, only now instead of Shaquille O'Neal, D-Wade is joined by LeBron James and Chris Bosh, two of the NBA's biggest stars. It certainly seems like history will repeat itself when Miami goes up 2-1 on Dallas. But, Dallas, led by Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd (another guy who earned his happy ending), Jason Terry, Tyson Chandler, et al. pull it out and wind up beating the mega-team of the Miami Heat. Well earned, indeed.
  • Speaking of the Miami Heat, LeBron James would earn his happy ending in the following year of 2012. At the beginning of his career, LeBron was seen as a basketball prodigy that would take Cleveland to multiple championships the minute he put on the Cavalier trunks. Jokes were often made about how the city of Cleveland was spending all the city's money on James himself. Unfortunately for Cleveland, LeBron wouldn't be able to give them a championship, despite taking them to the finals and many playoff appearances. Rumors began to spread that LeBron didn't have the "clutch gene" to make crucial plays when needed to win the big games. There were also doubts about his mental ability to handle real pressure during games, as he would seem to wear down in the 4th quarter. James often complained that he couldn't win the big games himself and needed the right role players, but sports commentators saw that as an excuse and more proof he wasn't on the level of Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant - never mind the fact that both men did have the right role players on their teams when they won championships. If that wasn't bad enough, his decision to leave Cleveland for Miami to join his friends Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to create a mini-dream team was met with a huge backlash by both basketball fans and the sports media. LeBron was the most hated man in sports in 2011 and many cheered when the Miami Heat lost the finals to the Dallas Mavericks. However, in 2012, LeBron would finally prove himself by playing some of the best basketball anyone has ever seen. He would show up during the big games and make crucial shots even while he was injured during the finals. He would earn the respect of both the basketball fans and the sports critics in the media. He finally won his NBA championship ring and proved himself as one of the greats. To add icing on the cake, he would win the finals MVP and lead the London Olympics Dream Team to a gold medal victory. However, some critics still doubted LeBron's 2012 championship victory, because it happened during the lockout year and not during a full season. He silenced the critics again by winning the regular season MVP award for the fourth time, and lead the Miami Heat to back-to-back championships against a very tough San Antonio Spurs team. He won the Finals MVP award again for scoring 37 points in Game 7, tying Bill Russell and Michael Jordan as the third player in NBA history to win the Finals MVP awards in back-to-back championship runs.
    • LeBron would then return to Cleveland after four years in Miami, and that has a fairy tale all its own. One of the biggest reasons for being a Cavalier (and returning to Cleveland) was to bring a title home. And Cleveland had been starving for one in any sport since 1964. But even here he had a couple bad bumps, mostly in the form of another hungry team in the Golden State Warriors, who beat the Cavs in the 2015 finals to win their first title in 40 years and then went on the next season to amass the league's greatest regular season record ever, surpassing Jordan's 1996 Chicago Bulls. So both teams were hungry for the 2016 championship, and it eventually played out in a dramatic 2016 NBA Finals. The Warriors took an early lead and looked ready to clinch back-to-back titles, leading 3–1 after four games, but then Cleveland dug deep, and with help from his wingmate Kyrie Irving and the rest, LeBron led the Cavs to an improbable comeback, culminating in the most exciting Game 7 finish in recent memory, tied literally until the last minute^note And LeBron played a big part in keeping it that way, including the now-famous "Block Heard 'Round the World" of Andre Iguodala that would've broken the tie with about 90 seconds left when Cleveland finally scored and held on to win 93–89. The emotion the Cavaliers showed after the final horn was summed up best by LeBron himself: "Cleveland, this is for you!"
• Jenson Button, the 2009 Formula One World Champion probably counts. It was his tenth season, he'd only won one race and had most recently endured two years in absolutely hopeless Honda cars and few people believed he really had what it takes any more. Then to cap it off, Honda pulled out of the sport after the 2008 season - leaving Button possibly without a drive for the next season, which he had sacrificed a strong performance in 2008 in anticipation of. Then, Honda Racing F1 Team Principal and co-architect of Michael Schumacher's string of successes at Ferrari, Ross Brawn took over the team with Honda's blessing (They even supplied some funds to help pay off debts & get through the season - they felt it was the honourable thing to do) & Button seized the day - winning six of the first seven races (Including four in a row and the the first three races ever won with a single F1 engine) becoming the first man to win the Championship before its final round since Fernando Alonso did it in 2005. He has since gone on to success at the prestigious McLaren team (Britain's answer to Ferrari), including becoming the first man to ever beat Lewis Hamilton whilst driving the same F1 car as him in 2011 - a season in which he was also pretty much the only driver able to consistently challenge the dominant Sebastian Vettel (who is often called the Baby Schumacher with good reason). All this after his career had at one point looked like it had run its course without him fulfilling his early promise.
  • The salvaged team Ross Brawn put together to do all this probably counts as well. They were essentially founded as British American Racing in 1999 (British American Tobacco having acquired the once-proud Tyrrell as that outfit floundered) as, what amounted to "Team Jacques Villeneuve". Management claimed they'd win a race their fist season. Cue them scoring no points and Villeneuve retiring from the first 11 races. They then spent several years bumbling around the midfield before Button joined in 2003 (eventually outperforming Villeneuve enough that season to see the Canadian former champion ejected before the last race for Japan's Takuma Sato to get a shot). Button led the team in a fairly successful 2004 campaign (they came second, him third) and a hit & miss 2005 season before Honda acquired the team. In 2006, they managed their first win and Button had a fairly successful second half to the season. Unfortunately, the team was screwed by Executive Meddling, resulting in the loss of star aerodynamicist Geoff Willis right before that win. This led to two years propping up the grid with the disastrously slow Honda RA107 and the better, but fundamentally flawed enough to scrap further development on long before halfway through the season, Honda RA108 before the rug was pulled out from under them by Honda's abrupt departure. Suffice it to say, the team that became Brawn GP (and is now Mercedes GP) had been around the bend a bit before becoming the only team in history to win every championship it contested (those being the 2009 World Constructors' Championship & the 2009 World Drivers' Championship with Button).
  • Any driver who survived the late 60s/70s in F1 has to count, although special mention should go to Sir Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda. Stewart raced at a time when a Formula One driver was twice as likely to die at a race than finish it, and lost his mentor (Graham Hill), his best friend (Jim Clark), and his protégé (François Cevert) among many others during his racing career. Lauda suffered from a similar problem as well as nearly burning to death in a horrific crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix, only to come back to racing less than three months later. Both of them achieved hard-earned peace with the advancement of safety measures (Stewart), and returning to win even more world championships as well as rising through the media to become an important media personality and later govern a team into winning races again (Lauda).
• In 2005, gymnast Nastia Liukin lost the world all-around title by less than one hundredth of a point. She was poised to defend her title in 2006 but had a major ankle sprain that left her unable to compete in any event except bars at Worlds. Liukin's ankle injury required surgery and did not heal properly. The recovery period kept her out of both national and international competition for much of the year. Her subpar performances in 2007 led many to believe her prospects as an all around competitor were greatly diminished, especially in light of the rise of teammate Shawn Johnson, who had won every all around competition she competed in during 2007. In 2008, Nastia won an early match over Shawn due to her falling on a vault, but after that Shawn beat Nastia in ever all around meet, and was touted as the favorite to win the all around competition at the 2008 Olympics. At the Olympics, Nastia performed at peak performance and won the all around competition.
• A similar story goes back to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The U.S. women's gymnastics team (dubbed "The Magnificent Seven") were up against the usually-stiff challenge and under incredible pressure to win their first-ever gold medal, and everyone there had to give their all, but perhaps none as much as Kerri Strug. It had been a tight contest throughout, and it would be down to her, on the Vault, to decide it all. But then, she flubs the first vault and lands badly, twisting her ankle. Meaning the gold medal would come down to her pulling off a good second vault on a bad ankle^note The Russian team was about to come on, and coach Béla Károlyi believed Strug's points would be needed to stay ahead. They weren't, as it turned out, but he didn't know that. In the Moment of Awesome of the 1996 games, Strug bit the bullet, ran, leapt, and appeared to stick the landing on one foot^note she actually landed briefly on both feet, then immediately picked up her injured foot and hopped in a circle for the salute to the judges — a credit card commercial with Morgan Freeman is responsible for the "on just one foot" meme., winning Team USA its first-ever team gymnastics gold: a story worthy of a Hollywood movie, only played out for real.
  • Less well remembered is the image of Strug dropping to the ground crying in agony immediately afterwards. Harsher in Hindsight with recent revelations about what the team endured with Coach Károlyi, his wife and co-coach Márta, and child-molesting doctor Larry Nassar. Strug never competed in gymnastics again, and McKayla Maroney, who'd competed on a broken foot, retired early.
  • Strug wasn't the only American to win gold while injured during those Olympics, as Kurt Angle competed in freestyle wrestling with a bad neck sprain (later memetically mutated to a broken neck).
• Everyone remembers how the 1980 US Olympic hockey team beat the Soviets, generally thought at the time to be the greatest hockey team in the world, and that they would go on to win the gold medal. But what very few people remember is that their first game in that Olympics ended in a draw, and that every time they won, they did so by coming from behind. Every single time they won.
• The 2014 NASCAR season was full of uncertainty because, in a bad to raise the stakes, they altered the format of their championship Chase. For 2014, there would be 16 qualifiers, but after three races, the bottom four would be cut, until the final race where only four would remain. Whoever beats the other three there wins. It was controversial to say the least, but the idea was to make racing teams take the gamble and go for the win because it now mattered a lot more (a win means a free pass to the next round). The Chase wound down to the final race in Homestead, Florida. And there, the Championship race delivered a thriller, with the four remaining drivers giving and taking throughout. Until finally, with his rivals still bearing down on him from behind, Kevin Harvick won the championship the only way left to him: by winning the race itself. The finale was a win-win for the sport: Harvick takes his first Championship after racing for fourteen years while NASCAR's gamble pays off with an exciting finish the fans enjoyed.
• Not since Affirmed in 1978 had a single horse won horse racing's Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes in succession). Zayat Racing, trainer Bob Baffert (three previous failed attempts), and jockey Victor Espinoza (two previous failed attempts) knew the heartbreak all too well. But in American Pharoah^note They didn't catch the misspelled "Pharaoh" until he was already registered—too late., everything finally came together. He won by a length at Churchill, cruised to a win in the mud in Pimlico, and then in the one that stumbled many a horse before, American Pharoah led the race wire-to-wire, pulling away in the end to win by 5½ lengths and in impressive time (sixth fastest in race history, and second-fastest among Triple Crown winners behind the legendary Secretariat). After a wait this long, practically the entire horse racing world joined in much-awaited jubilation (noted among the celebrating spectators was Penny Chenery, lifelong owner of Secretariat).
  • American Pharoah would follow it up on Oct. 31, 2015, by winning the Breeders' Cup Classic, and thus winning the first ever 'Grand Slam' in U.S. Thoroughbred Horse Racing. May the Pharoah reign, indeed.
  • And then, three years later, Baffert finds another star in Justify, and the name suits him as he won the Derby and the Preakness. And while not as dominant as American Pharoah, Justify never looked under serious threat as he took the Triple Crown in the 150th Belmont Stakes. Now that the drought has ended, the victories have kept on coming.
• Rugby union has its share of examples, but a couple will do for starters:
  • England's Jonny Wilkinson, despite missing an ungodly amount of time to injuries during his career,^note notably, he missed more than three years of international rugby in one stretch became his country's all-time leading point scorer in Test (international) matches, and most notably scored the drop goal that won the 2003 Rugby World Cup for England. As his England career was winding down, he joined French club Toulon, which had assembled a vast array of international stars in the preceding years but couldn't translate it to domestic or European success. Then, in 2013, with Wilko as the triggerman, Toulon finally broke through, winning Europe's top club prize, the Heineken Cup (replaced by the European Rugby Champions Cup from 2014–15 forward). But there was still the matter of missing domestic success—the rouge et noir^note red and black hadn't won a domestic title since 1992. Near the end of the 2013–14 season, Wilko announced he would fully retire as a player at the end of that season. He had two chances to go out a winner—Toulon eventually advanced to the finals of both the Heineken Cup and the Top 14 (the French league). First came the Heineken Cup final, when Wilkinson personally outscored Toulon's English opponent, Saracens, to claim the second of what proved to be three straight European titles. One week later, Wilko ended his playing career on a winning note, personally outscoring Toulon's opponent Castres and making Toulon the champions of France for the first time in more than two decades.
  • Brian O'Driscoll is generally regarded as Ireland's greatest player of the 21st century, if not of all time. He ended his international career with more caps (international match appearances) than any other player in history^note a record that soon after fell to New Zealand's Richie McCaw and is now held by Wales' Alun Wyn Jones, and also retired as the all-time leading try scorer for both Ireland and the Six Nations Championship^note the main competition for European national teams, involving England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. In the same 2013–14 season that saw Wilkinson's retirement, he had two chances to go out a winner.
    • First came the 2014 Six Nations, which came down literally to the wire—Ireland, England and France went into the final matchday with a chance to win the tournament. Ireland had to beat France away and hope that England didn't beat Italy by enough to overtake their advantage on scoring difference. Ireland led for most of the match, but France cut their lead to 2 points with about 17 minutes to go. In the end, neither team scored in the remaining minutes, and Ireland won 22–20. In the meantime, England won 52–11, but it wasn't enough to overtake Ireland, sending BOD into retirement as a Six Nations champion.
    • Then came the final of the Pro12, a league which then involved teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. (It's since expanded to include teams from South Africa and is now known as the United Rugby Championship.) BOD's club, Leinster, was facing the Glasgow Warriors. Glasgow took an early 3–0 lead, and O'Driscoll was forced off injured after 8 minutes. However, there were no nail-biters this time. Leinster soon took a lead and never gave it up, winning 34–12 and giving BOD a winner's medal in his final appearance as a player.
• Australian Rules Football: Going into the 2016 season, the Western Bulldogs had only won one premiership, way back in 1954, and hadn't played in a Grand Final since 1961: the longest cold streak in the league in both counts. During that time, they had lost seven Preliminary Finals between 1985 and 2010, narrowly avoided being merged in 1989, and suffered near-constant financial troubles. Then, in round 3, captain Bob Murphy injured his knee and was out for the season. They finished seventh after the home-and-away season, and were underdogs (pardon the pun) all through the finals - against the West Coast Eagles in Perth, then reigning three-time premiers Hawthorn, then Greater Western Sydney in Sydney, before finally making it to the Grand Final against the top-placed Sydney Swans...and they won. Even injured captain Bob Murphy got a happy ending, with coach Luke Beveridge calling him up during the presentations and giving his premiership medal to him.^note Murphy later decided to return the medal; it's since been given to the club's museum. And on top of that, Western Bulldogs' list manager—i.e., the person who put together the premiership-winning roster^note (the equivalent to a general manager in North American sports)—was one Jason McCartney, who had been suspended for the only Grand Final his team reached during his playing career, and even more significantly came back from near-fatal burns suffered in the 2002 Bali bombings to play again before retiring to the front office.
  • Next year would see another team break a lengthy drought. Filled with ambition, loads of fans, a desire to avenge a lackluster finish last year, and an interesting combination of seasoned veterans and surprisingly-skilled rookies (including several who joined in the last weeks of the regular season), the Richmond Tigers faced off in the G against the favored Adelaide Crows. At first it seemed the Crows would continue their dominance, but somewhere in the second quarter the Tigers' fire was lit, and they pounced. With contributions all over^note Including from the rookies such as Jack Graham—youngest on the ground at only 19, yet he ended up leading the ground with three goals, the Tigers went on to absolutely smother Adelaide and earn the club its first premiership since 1980. The celebrations went on long and hard, especially at the Tigers' traditional ground of Punt Road, located literally next door to the MCG. The victory was capped by them claiming a first in the sport, as Dustin Martin became the first player to win a premiership, the Norm Smith Medal for best on the ground in the Grand Final, and the Brownlow Medal for best and fairest in the season all in the same year.
• The 2016 Chicago Cubs, the most notoriously-cursed team in practically all of sports. Not having won a baseball league championship in over a century (108 years as of 2016), they hadn't even been to the World Series since 1945. But the Cubs' fans haven't wavered, and they waited as the organization patiently built up a winning roster. The patience and careful planning finally came to fruition in the 2016 season, as the Cubs comfortably won the division and went on to beat the Giants and then the Dodgers to punch their ticket to the World Series. Thing was, the other night, they learned who their opponents would be: the Cleveland Indians, the second-longest-droughted team of baseball (at 68 years). Two teams hungry to make history meant this World Series would shape up to be a good one, and it did not disappoint. In a series full of drama, the Indians took a 3-1 lead after four games, but then the Cubs pulled something very familiar to Cleveland fans: they came back, taking games five and six to force a decisive game seven that put the exclamation point on an exciting series. Nothing ran according to plan, it seemed, in a run-peppered, mistake-prone game that was eventually tied by the Indians in the bottom of the 8th and held there through the 9th, taking the game to extra innings. And then, rain briefly delayed the game, as if mother nature herself wanted to add to the tension. The Cubs broke through in the 10th to take a two run lead but had to weather a final rally from the Indians before getting the final out. Champions at long last!
• And then the following year (2017), two more teams hungry for a title make it to the World Series: the Los Angeles Dodgers (haven't won since 1988) and the Houston Astros (yet to win since forming in 1962 as the Colt .45's). The Dodgers avenge their loss to the defending champion Cubs last year while the Astros slog their way in seven past a young but skilled New York Yankees, setting up another exciting series that literally went back and forth, as in every time the Astros won and took the lead (including a dramatic 10-inning marathon in game three won 13-12), the Dodgers came back and won the next game to tie it up, forcing it to go the distance for the second year in a row before the Astros take it in the final game.
  • Unfortunately, the win would be tainted when two years later, it was discovered the team had used cameras to steal signs from opposing pitchers.^note Sign-stealing itself is not illegal, but using technology to do so in real time is.
• Baseball's Earn Your Happy Ending for 2019 is the Washington Nationals. Both the city (never won since 1924 with the original Senators) and the team (never won in the 51-year history of the franchise which began as the Montreal Expos) were desperate for a title. The team had reached the National League Division Series 4 times in the past decade, but suffered devastating losses. They lost their best player, Bryce Harper, to a hated division rival before the season, and they certainly didn't start out as a championship-caliber team; a 19-31 start to the season had people talking firing another manager. But the Nationals started to develop a trend... for persisting and coming back. To begin, they turned a 19-31 start into a 93-69 finish, clinching one of the two Wild Card slots. From there, the Nationals' fight really began.
  • First, they had to win the Wild Card game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Down two runs in the eighth inning, the Nats endured infamous closer Josh Hader, found their chances, took the lead, and held it.
  • Next, the Division Series versus the Dodgers: a team with plenty of recent playoff experience. And they hit early, going up 2 games to 1 and forcing the Nats to win two in a row to avoid going home. They won game 4 easily, then outlasted the Dodgers to take the rubber game.
  • The only respite came in the Championship Series against the Cardinals, as they managed to hit repeatedly off the Cards' pitching, eventually sweeping them easily and getting a break before...
  • The World Series against the Astros (the aforementioned champs from two years ago). Funny thing happened along the way. The Astros started their best for the first two games and got creamed. Then, the Astros somehow found a way to score against the Nats' best starters. Five games, five away wins. Once again, the Nationals needed to win two in a row. And this turns out to be exactly what happened. In the final game, down two runs in the seventh inning, the Nationals once again hit their comeback stride, eventually scoring six and sealing the deal, ending the first-ever World Series^note or any other best-of-seven series in North America entirely won by the away team.
  • Somewhat ironically, the Capitals (see above) led a chant of "back to back!" at their victory parade in the summer of 2018. While that didn't happen (see the Blues' entry on this page), the Nationals' victory more than makes up for it.
• To punctuate a 2016 full of hard-earned happy endings, there is the tale of Nico Rosberg. For 11 years, the German had appeared in over 200 races and won 23 of them, but one accomplishment had always escaped him: the Formula 1 Driver's Championship. It didn't help that his biggest competition was his teammate: three-time and defending champion Lewis Hamilton. As expected, the 2016 F1 season swung back and forth between the two rivals, but this year Rosberg managed to build a bit of a lead as the season wound down to the final race at Abu Dhabi. In spite of Hamilton seemingly keeping the opportunities open for other racers to unseat him from the podium, Rosberg persevered and in the end finished just behind Hamilton, taking the title by a mere five points. A hard-fought title taken at the very last race makes Rosberg's Driver's Title earned in the truest sense. For Rosberg, it also made a fitting finish, as he soon after announced his retirement from the sport.
• The Major League Soccer 2016 season for Seattle Sounders FC. Shortly before the start of the season, the Sounders lost one of their high-profile players to the Chinese Super League. A string of inconsistent and poor performances led to the team spending much of the first half of the season below the playoff line. At one point, the Sounders were sitting at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, being given single-digit percentages towards even making the playoffs, much less winning. After the firing of head coach Sigi Schmid and his replacement by then-assistant coach Brian Schmetzer, as well as the signing of Designated Player Nicolás Lodeiro, the Sounders went on a run of form rarely seen in MLS, carrying the team all the way to the MLS Cup finals. There (as the away team, and in freezing cold weather), despite the Sounders not registering a single shot on goal, a tight defense (and a miraculous save from GK Stefan Frei) led to penalty kicks and the Sounders' first MLS Cup win in their history of being an MLS team.
• From the ranks of NASCAR, there's Martin Truex Jr. Despite a promising start to his career, with back to back titles in the second-tier Busch Series (now Xfinity Series), his early years in the top-tier Cup Series established him as a solid No. 2 driver who seemed to lack the intangibles needed to lead a team. When thrust into this position, he struggled mightily, as demonstrated between 2008-11 when three different teams (Dale Earnhardt, Inc., Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing^note the result of DEI and Chip Ganassi Racing merging to avoid shutting down and Michael Waltrip Racing), and he only began to run well again when Waltrip recruited Clint Bowyer to drive for the team. Truex's most notable "accomplishment" during his first decade on the circuit was going nearly six years between his first and second career wins, which nearly set a new record for longest streak between two wins.^note Truex's six years equaled out to 218 races; the actual record for a driver who actually snapped their streak was Bill Elliott, who took 226 races to win his 41st of 44 career wins And just after he'd gotten that monkey off his back, he got swept up in a race-fixing scandal explicitly designed to benefit him, but for various reasons did not actually loop him in.^note specifically, as Truex was about to (potentially) lose his spot in The Chase, NASCAR's post-season format, his teammate Bowyer, already locked into The Chase, was instructed to deliberately spin his car to draw a caution, which in turn forced pit stops that reshuffled the field and got Truex his spot back. The fallout when this scandal was exposed cost Truex his spot in The Chase; then his sponsor NAPA Auto Parts, who decided to end their deal with MWR two years early to avoid being associated with the scandal; and as a result of that, his job, since MWR was unable to gain new sponsorship to keep the team going.^note the owner points were sold to another organization, who promptly ran the resulting team into the ground and shut it down in early 2015 Just as it looked like Truex might be done for good in Cup, Furniture Row Racing, a team that had just upped their game to become frontrunners after years of midpack performance, came along and offered Truex a contract. Doubters were prolific, due to his previous struggles with team leadership and the fact that, while all his previous teams were multi-car efforts, he would be driving for a single-car organization and thus have no one to rely on. Indeed, in 2014, Truex had the single worst season of his career, notoriously leading a single lap for the entire season and finishing well out of the top 20 in points. He also endured hardship in his personal life - girlfriend Sherry Pollex was diagnosed with cervical cancer during this season, which forced Truex to miss part of a race weekend to be by her side.^note her cancer was seemingly forced into remission over the next year before recurring in 2017 By 2015, it was looking like Truex was forever destined to be a case of What Could Have Been. But in the leadup to that season, Furniture Row made a number of behind the scenes changes, most notably a new crew chief for Truex,^note Cole Pearn, replacing Todd Berrier suddenly resulted in both Truex and Furniture Row becoming top-tier competitors - Truex broke back into victory lane in the midst of tying a record for top tens in the first fifteen races of the season, and eventually maneuvered his way to the Championship round of The Chase.^note he unfortunately finished fourth among the Championship round drivers He stepped his game up further in 2016, winning four races that year (for those not keeping count, his first ten seasons ended with a combined three wins), but fell out in the second round of The Chase after an engine failure. 2017 became the best season of Truex's career - he won eight races during this season, again more than the rest of his career combined, and with a big leg up from changes to NASCAR's points format^note in 2017, NASCAR began awarding stage points to drivers in the top ten at predetermined points in the races, and leading at one of these points gains a point to be awarded to the driver at the start of the rebranded NASCAR Playoffs; winning a race earns a further five of these points. Truex scored more Playoff Points than any other driver by a huge margin, including multiple races where Truex took every available playoff point; no one else did this even once. Truex also earned 15 more playoff points for leading the points at the end of the regular season. was able to cruise back to the Championship round. This time, he stepped up instead of wilting, and with fellow Championship rival Kyle Busch hounding him for the entirety of the final twenty laps, Truex was able to hold on and win his first Cup Series title.
• Individual race example: During his previous 19 years as a full-time NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt had won a record-tying 7 Winston Cup^note now simply the Cup Series championships while establishing himself as of the sport's most dominant drivers. His one "white whale", though, was the season-opening Daytona 500; which Earnhardt had never won, losing four of those races in especially gut-wrenching fashion^note 1986; when Earnhardt led late until running out of gas; then having to watch Geoff Bodine win after Earnhardt blew an engine attempting to restart following his pit stop, followed by 1990 when Earnhardt led late only to blow out a tire on the final lap after running over a piece of bell housing from Rick Wilson's blown engine, allowing little-known driver Derrike Cope to win in an upset. 1993, meanwhile, had the Intimidator leading until being passed on the last lap by eventual winner Dale Jarrett. Finally, 1997 saw him in contention with 10 laps to go before being knocked out in a crash. However in 1998; Earnhardt - aided by a Lap 138 push by teammate Mike Skinner - took the lead, eventually holding off Bobby Labonte to win the race (on a caution-checkered flag); not only finally getting a victory in the Daytona 500 after 20 years but in the process snapping a streak of 59 races over nearly 2 years coming in.
• From 2003, Chelsea FC were notorious for coming up short in the UEFAChampionsLeague, even when they were regularly collecting domestic trophies. In 2005, they were eliminated in the semifinal by a goal where the ball might not have crossed the line; in 2007 they were eliminated in the semifinal on penalties, and a year later they came within a single penalty of winning the final. Then, in 2009, they were eliminated in the semifinal after being denied numerous clear penalty appeals, before coming up against superior opposition in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, they finally got their hands on the trophy; overturning a 3-1 first leg deficit against Napoli in the round of 16, beating Portuguese side Benfica (no slouches themselves) home and away in the quarter final, beating Barcelona in the first leg of the semifinal before coming back from 2-0 down with ten men in the second leg to advance to the final on aggregate, before beating German side Bayern Munich on penalties in the final - in Munich, no less! - with several key players suspended.
• The Cleveland Browns, the perennial Butt-Monkey of the NFL, finished 0-16 in their 2017 season, the second time in NFL history that a team finished a regular season without any wins since the 2008 Detroit Lions. The Browns opened their 2018 season with a tie against the Pittsburgh Steelers, becoming the first time since 2004 that their season opener wasn't a loss. But in week 3, they won their first game since Christmas 2016 (which only happened thanks to a missed field goal attempt by the San Diego Chargers) by beating the New York Jets 21-17, made more awesome by the fact that they'd ended the first half trailing 14-3.
• The 2019 Cricket World Cup can easily be described as one of the most exciting and dramatic tournaments the sport has ever seen, particularly for England, the hosts, who had to that point never won it. To say they embody this trope would be to make light of the incredible drama they endured for a month and a half. They went into the tournament in strong standing, among the best in the world. But after seven of nine matches in the round robin, England had lost three and seemed on the verge of elimination; they had to win the last two to ensure advancement, and one of their opponents was India, #1 in the world. They endured, winning their last two matches to lock in third place and advance to the final four. Standing between them and the finals were eternal rivals Australia, who had beaten them during the round robin. And they would bat first, which had statistically been the favored position. But England again knuckled down, bowled out Australia, and then ran their score down easily. Then came the final; New Zealand would give England the challenge of their lives. They survived England's fearsome bowling to rack up 241. England had easily scored in the 300's multiple times in the tournament, but New Zealand's bowling attack would steadily knock out England's strongest hitters one after the other. But to use cricket lingo, the tail wagged just when it was needed. Anchored by Ben Stokes, the bottom order went for broke and desperately caught up. They needed two to win from the last ball. They hit the last ball, they scramble and get one...and lose their last wicket in a run out. Level at 241! It would go to the Super Over: the first time it was ever used in the World Cup or any ODI. And England made use of their second chance, scoring 15 key runs. So it was up to New Zealand to score 16 in six balls. And in the last ball, Ironic Echo hit. They needed two to win from the last ball. They hit the last ball, they scramble and get one... and get run out. Level again! BUT.. the rules state that if the Super Over ends level, the match would be decided by the total number of boundaries hit by the teams. Because of England's desperate clawback, they had more boundaries and knew it. The moment they made the run out and stopped New Zealand from overtaking, they and all of Lord's Cricket Ground erupted in celebration. As commentator Ian Smith exclaimed, "England have won the World Cup! By the barest of margins!"
• The 2019-2020 Kansas City Chiefs earned their first Super Bowl victory in 50 years, and it wasn't easy. They were minus a few players from their run last year, and several key players (including their key quarterback Patrick Mahomes) had to sit out here and there due to injuries, but they earned second seed and a bye week...but then it got interesting. In the Division Round, they dropped 24 straight points to the Texans before finding their groove and answering with 28 unanswered points of their own, ultimately crushing Houston 51-31. Then, in the AFC Championship Game, the Tennessee Titans once again took an early lead (17-7) against the Chiefs, but once again the Chiefs rallied, smothered Tennessee's running back Derrick Henry, and scored another 28 unanswered points on their way to a 35-24 win and a ticket to only their third Super Bowl in franchise history^note Their last two appearances? A loss to Green Bay in the very first AFL-NFL Championship Game in 1967 and a win in Super Bowl IV in 1970: incidentally, the last Super Bowl before the AFL and NFL merged. Their opponents? The San Francisco 49ers, hungry to win their first title in several decades themselves. And Super Bowl LIV turned out to be an intense back-and-forth contest: the first half ending in a 10-10 tie. Then, the pattern emerged again. Mahomes struggled for a bit, threw two rare interceptions, and the 49ers capitalized to build a 20-10 lead. For the third time this postseason, the Chiefs were down ten or more. It took until about six minutes to go in the game before Mahomes finally found himself again. A 44-yard pass from Mahomes to Tyreek Hill was the first hint of a Chiefs surge where they would score a touchdown, force the Niners to a three-and-out, and score again. From down ten to up four in just a few minutes, then they would hold on, stopping the Niners from scoring further and getting in one more touchdown to seal the deal. Particular happy endings go to Patrick Mahomes (youngest ever to win Super Bowl MVP), Head Coach Andy Reid (finally winning the big one after 21 years), and the State of Missouri (the Cardinals won the World Series in 2011, the Royals joined them four years later, and the Blues won the Stanley Cup the previous June; with the Chiefs' victory, every major Missouri team had made it to the top within a ten-year span).
• Argentine football is no stranger to recovery cases and happy endings:
  • Here's the tale of San Martín de Tucumán, one of the biggest teams in its province, whose economic mishandlings led them from being relegated from the Primera B Nacional (AFA's second tier) all the way down to its regional league (which back then qualified as the fourth tier, with a Harder Than Hard tournament separating these leagues from the Torneo Argentino A, the third tier for non-AFA Argentine teams). Then, after a restructuring of the categories, San Martín was invited to the newly-created Torneo Argentino B in 2004, the new fourth rung. A speedy recovery had them blazing throughout all of the rungs led them not only to returning to the Primera B Nacional in 2007, but also reach the upper level, Primera División in 2008.
  • Belgrano de Córdoba, one of Córdoba's province's most legendary teams, started the 2010/2011 season of Primera B Nacional battling against relegation. A coach change in half-season led them to a strong recovery that led them to reach a promotion match against a team from Primera División at the end of the season. That team? River Plate, one of the two biggest teams in Argentina's football history. The odds were clearly stacked against the Pirates (as Belgrano are known), however a 2-0 home victory and a historic tie 1-1 in Capital Federal brought them to the Primera División, and had the added bonus of being the team that relegated River Plate.
• For Los Angeles Lakers fans, the 2019-20 season can be considered that for them. Before even starting that season, the Lakers dealt with serious turmoil ever since the end of their 2010-11 season against the Mavericks above, starting with head coach Phil Jackson (winner of 11 NBA Finals championships as head coach) announcing his retirement from coaching that season. After failing to trade for Chris Paul due to what was officially considered as "basketball reasons" under the NBA's ruling at the time, their aging core failed to live up to their expected NBA Finals contender status despite still winning the Pacific Division in a lockout season. To further compound the problems they've had, they tried to go the Miami Heat route of "superteam" contender status by trading for superstars Steve Nash & Dwight Howard to help them out... only for them to inadvertantly begin an Audience-Alienating Era with a coaching carousel (having five different head coaches in six seasons), owner Jerry Buss dying on February 18, 2013 to cancer (which led to his sons and daughters all owning the Lakers under a trust fund), and unfortunate injuries to their star players devastating the team when they weren't offset by improper team chemistry. While they still made it to the NBA Playoffs by 2013, it would be the last time they got to that point at all under The New '10s. Starting with the 2013-14 season, Kobe Bryant's talent got hampered with serious injuries that he never overcame like he used to (to the point where the Lakers had 35 different starting line-ups that season), which led to their worst downslide in franchise history. By the 2014-15 season, it felt like the Lakers mysticism had faded away due to the rise of superteams like in Miami under LeBron James, Cleveland under James' comeback there, and Golden State once Stephen Curry and his crew grew to new levels themselves. It got to the point where under Jim Buss' leadership, big names weren't a part of their agenda, but names like Ed Davis, Wesley Johnson, and Ronnie Price were to help get them as many promising, young talents in the NBA Draft as they could before Kobe Bryant retired. By the time Kobe officially retired in 2016, the Lakers reached their lowest point ever with a franchise worst 17-65 record, with Kobe's career having a major Downer Ending outside of his final game with the Lakers. Even then, team turmoil continued to follow the Lakers, with Jim Buss eventually being fired from his position on March 27, 2017 as the head honcho of the Lakers and replaced by his sister Jeanie. Despite their many changing of the guards, even after eventually getting LeBron James and having Magic Johnson become team president by the 2018-19 season, the Lakers still felt like a sideshow due to their constant turmoil within themselves, especially between the culture clash of winning for the future and winning right now with LeBron in town.
  • The 2019-20 season saw the change that Lakers fans wanted once Magic Johnson publicly resigned from his position. Starting from that point, they fired head coach Luke Walton (who previously played for the Lakers the last time they were in the playoffs) for former Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic coach Frank Vogel and then finally traded for Anthony Davis during the 2019 NBA Draft after previously being declined his services a season earlier due to incompetence from the New Orleans Pelicans' managerial end. Once they added Davis to help LeBron out a bit in more tense matches in exchange for most of the young talents they acquired (leaving only Kyle Kuzma and arguably Alex Caruso as the sole leftovers from that era), the Lakers returned to being bold with their free agency signings once again, signing veteran talents like Jared Dudley, Danny Green, and Avery Bradley to help bolster their roster up against the serious competition of that time. Then throughout the season, the Lakers acquired players like Dwight Howard (who was once considered a major negative from their dark ages, but played like he wanted redemption there, even if he was initially planned to stay until DeMarcus Cousins got healthy before becoming an official part of their lethal center core with Anthony Davis and JaVale McGee later in the season) and Markieff Morris to help bolster their chances once they returned to the Playoffs. However, even this season gave the Lakers emotional turmoil, albeit for two completely unexpected reasons entering 2020. First, the news of Kobe Bryant (alongside eight other people, including his daughter Gianna and two of her youth basketball teammates) dying in a helicopter crash on January 26 of that year shocked the team, their fans, and pretty much everyone that followed the NBA to their very core. Second, and much more serious to the world at large, the COVID-19 Pandemic officially began in the U.S.A. on March 11, 2020, five days after the Lakers officially made the NBA Playoffs and were playing on pace for the best record in the Western Conference, if not the entire NBA. That damage caused a serious mental toll on the players signed (including future signings made during the unexpected break in Dion Waiters and J.R. Smith), with many people wondering if there was even going to be a finished season at all. However, the NBA did devise a plan to continue their season under what was considered the "2020 NBA Bubble" in Walt Disney World, and in spite of serious concerns at the time, no player ended up catching COVID-19 there once the regular season continued. While the Lakers still faced emotional turmoil in relation to the pandemic (including a point on wanting to stop the NBA Playoffs completely alongside their in-town rival Clippers), they ultimately recovered from their slump to end the resumed regular season in time to get serious with the Playoffs going forward. Once there, they managed to beat their first three opponents (the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, and Denver Nuggets) with considerable ease, winning 4-1 in convincing fashion for each series, before meeting one of LeBron's old teams, the upstart Miami Heat, in the NBA Finals. While the Heat played the series like any other as underdogs with nothing to lose, the Lakers' talent levels proved to be no match for the Heat in the end, winning that series 4-2, with Game 6 ending in a 106-93 beatdown that looked a lot closer than it actually was. At the end of their time in the Bubble, the Lakers made sure to dedicate their 17th championship to Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, with LeBron saying this championship was about respect.
• Following the Lakers from that season, we have the Phoenix Suns seeing almost similar results after seeing an even worse Audience-Alienating Era by comparison. For a team that once saw plenty of successes despite never winning the NBA Finals beforehand, the 2010's is easily considered the worst decade for fans of the team ever, no questions asked. From failures to providing worthwhile replacements for Amar'e Stoudemire and Steve Nash once they left the Suns to having a rotating carousel of head coaches to many draft picks that are seen as busts of the modern-day era to even relying on two interim general managers simultaneously at one point all while under a Faux Affably Evil Slime Ball team owner in Robert Sarver (who's owned the team back in their famous Seven Seconds Or Less era in 2004, but his behavior wasn't exposed to the public until a 2022 investigation revealed the racist, sexist, and otherwise ugly and disgusting things he's said and done while as the team owner), it's no wonder why the Suns saw a decade of misery at hand despite having one season where they had a winning record at 48-34 at the time. However, when it came to them earning back their respectability as a franchise after losing it in the 2010's, we actually have to look back at the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic in this case. After being one of the last teams to join the 2020 NBA Bubble as perceived long-shots to do anything worthwhile there in the process (to the point where even the signing of back-up point guard Cameron Payne didn't move the needle much at all for Suns fans at the time since he was playing in China and the NBA G League before the pandemic began), they somehow managed to go a perfect 8-0 in their Bubble run and were both a Giannis suspension and missed shot by the Brooklyn Nets away from returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2010.^note Technically, it was more either Giannis' suspension or a missed shot by the Nets since 2020 was the first year the NBA implemented the idea of the then-experimental play-in tournament where if both a Seed 8 & Seed 9 were at least 4 games apart from each other, the two teams would compete for the 8th and final spot in the playoffs available. However, because of the difference of games played that season due to said pandemic, the Suns failed to compete in it due to both the Memphis Grizzlies and Portland Trail Blazers tying with the same record over the Suns having a 34-39 record at the end of their season. If either or even both teams lost their final regular season games in the Bubble, it would have been possible for the Suns to get in by beating either team either once or twice (depending on positioning), which would have let them get in for a first round match against the Lakers, ironically enough. Despite not making it to the playoffs that season, Chris Paul (who was with the Oklahoma City Thunder at the time) was genuinely impressed by the Suns' efforts within the Bubble, which led to a surprising trade before the start of the next season between the two teams where the Suns acquired the superstar point guard for a few of the key players the team had at the time. Not only that, but they also signed Miami Heat forward Jae Crowder to the team to help shore up the loss of Kelly Oubre Jr. at the time as well. With the two players helping the young nucleus of Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, and Cameron Johnson out, the Suns went from a team that would have just been happy to be in the playoffs to a sudden, surprise NBA Finals contender, making it there for the first time since 1993 after beating the defending-champion L.A. Lakers in 6 games, sweeping the Denver Nuggets, and beating an upstart L.A. Clippers in 6 games. While they didn't win the NBA Finals that year, losing a 2-0 series lead in part due to an injury by power forward Dario Šarić, they did reach a happy ending in the fact that they escaped the darkest parts of their history and entered a new era of success going forward.
• Picture this: the 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche had their worst season on record, finishing dead last in the standings with 22-56-4, exacerbated by having to hastily hire a new coach at the beginning of the season due to the previous one quitting in a hissy fit, a disjointed team, and their star player demanding a trade because he wanted to be on a team that makes playoffs. (Even that trade had been ridiculed as a bad move because it looked like they had gotten stiffed.) It took five years, a lot of good draft picks and trades (including the aforementioned one, which history later vindicated as the best trade the Avs had done outside the Patrick Roy one), finally building some cohesion, and three straight years of heartbreak from losing in the second round, the 2021-22 Avalanche finally were back on top as Stanley Cup Champions. For Gabe Landeskog, Nathan Mackinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Erik Johnson, and J.T. Compher-all members of the 2016-17 team-it was a happy ending indeed to lift that cup. (And in case you're wondering, the star player that demanded the trade? Was lucky if his team even made playoffs, and those that did never got past the first round.)

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