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  • In general, many sportsmen over the years have started celebrating their impending victory with fist-pumping and other gestures before the game/race/etc. is over... only for the one in second place to make a comeback from behind and win. One explanation for this is that multitasking impedes your focus and therefore your performance, so this phenomenon is quite common. There are several "Don't celebrate too early" anthology videos on YouTube, for example.
  • American Football:
    • Before Super Bowl XLII, New York Giants player Plaxico Burress told the media his team would beat the perfect season New England Patriots by a score of 23-17. When the media told Patriots QB Tom Brady this during an interview, he laughed at the prediction. During the Super Bowl, Tom Brady, who had his best career season scoring 50 touchdowns, was mostly stopped by the Giants defense, resulting in them only scoring 14 points and losing the game that mattered the most. Since then, Brady and the New England Patriots haven't lived it down. Especially since they would lose the Super Bowl to the New York Giants again four years later.note 
      Tom Brady: We're only going to score 17 points?! HA HA HA! Okay!
      • Happened again to Tom Brady during the 2017–18 season. When Tom Brady, after winning his fifth Super Bowl last season was picked to be on the cover of Madden NFL's latest entry, he did a commercial talking about the Madden Curse. He bragged that the curse was a myth and wouldn't stop him. This seemed to be true at first. The Patriots went back to the Super Bowl, Tom Brady at 40 years old had one of his best seasons ever, becoming the first player to win the regular season MVP at 40 years old. Only for him to lose the Super Bowl to the Philadelphia Eagles in a rematch of the controversial game in 2004. And he got outgunned by a backup quarterback in Nick Foles, who was close to retiring before the beginning of the season.
      • Compounding the fate-tempting was just about every commentator and Patriots fan in existence during the 2017 off-season. The trade for Wide Receiver Brandin Cooks was hyped up to be the second coming of the Randy Moss trade, 28–3 jokes were everywhere, and quite a few people suggested in all seriousness that the Patriots might go 16–0 again. In the pregame prior to their home opener, the Patriots celebrated the 28–3 comeback with a lot of pomp and circumstance, seeming to really rub everyone's noses in their win. Then the Patriots were crushed by the visiting Kansas City Chiefs, 42–27, which neatly shut up all that talk. They did eventually reach Super Bowl LII, but lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. Cooks was injured partway through the game and did not return, and he would be traded away to the Los Angeles Rams the following offseason (ironically enough, the Patriots would win Super Bowl LIII that season, going through Kansas City to do so before ultimately defeating Cooks and the Rams in the title game).
    • 1998–99: The Minnesota Vikings came off a 15–1 season and were in the NFC Championship, massively favored over the 14–2 Atlanta Falcons to make their way to their first Super Bowl in 22 years. With a little over two minutes left and leading 27–20, they called forth Gary Anderson, their kicker who had made 122 consecutive kicks, his last miss being December 1997, for a 39-yard field goal that would put the game out of reach for Atlanta.
      Pat Summerall: And Anderson hasn't missed in two years.
      John Madden: So that's a pretty good bet if you say "Do you think Gary Anderson will make this field goal?", the answer should probably be yes.note 
      Pat Summerall: 39 yards away... And it's not good!note 
      • Sure enough, the Falcons proceeded to score a touchdown and force overtime, where they won the game 30–27.
        • This game could be seen as Atlanta's revenge for the 1991 World Series, a 7-game thriller won by the Minnesota Twins over the Atlanta Braves, where the home team won every game. Thus, the Falcons were able to do in January 1999 what the Braves could not do in October 1991 - win in the Metrodome when it mattered the most.
    • At the start of overtime in a 2003–04 playoff game between the Seattle Seahawks, and the Green Bay Packers, the Seahawks won the coin toss. Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck famously (or infamously) said, "We want the ball, and we're going to score." He was forced to eat his words after throwing an interception that was returned by Green Bay for the game-winning touchdown. (To this day, virtually any video montage that features that interception will precede it with a clip of Hasselback's boast.)
    • In Super Bowl XXXIV, as the Tennessee Titans set up for their last chance to tie the game and force the first-ever Super Bowl overtime, one of the commentators stated that it was "probably the final play of the game" — which, of course, it wouldn't be if the game went to OT. He belatedly added "in regulation" to the end of the statement, but his earlier words proved to be correct, as the Titans were stopped just short of the goal line.
    • Two years later, in Super Bowl XXXVI, the St. Louis Rams were trailing the New England Patriots by 7 until receiver Ricky Proehl scored a touchdown with 1:21 to go, after which he looked into a camera and, in celebration, said, "It ain't over 'till it's over, baby!" Unfortunately for him and his team, the Patriots proved him right, winning the game with a clutch field goal in the final seconds of the game.
    • Late in a 2017 NFL game between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos, NBC commentator Cris Collinsworth brought up a discussion he'd had with Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler regarding Osweiler's offseason stop with the Cleveland Browns and how he felt working with the Browns coaches had improved his game, leading to the following exchange between him and fellow commentator Al Michaels.
      Collinsworth: And I’ll tell you, [Osweiler] looks better, he looks sharp out here tonight.
      (Osweiler throws an interception)
      Michaels: (laughing) That's on cue.
      Collinsworth: Nobody can do it like I can!
    • In Week 6 of the 2017 NFL season, the Green Bay Packers paid a visit to U.S. Bank Stadium to face their fierce rivals in the Minnesota Vikings. Five minutes in, Troy Aikman talked about how the Packers "have been just decimated in a lot of areas with injury, but they got #12 (Aaron Rodgers) each and every week and that's been a big deal". Three minutes later, Rodgers took a hit from Viking linebacker Anthony Barr that caused a collarbone injury and shut him down for the season.
    • In the leadup to the 2020 Wild Card playoffs, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster shrugged off the idea that his team should be concerned about the visiting Cleveland Browns, calling them "nameless gray faces" (a term he borrowed from Steelers coach Mike Tomlin) and the "same old Browns". The game went wrong for the Steelers literally from the first snap (which flew over quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's head and resulted in a Browns touchdown). It didn't get much better from there as the Browns defense forced multiple turnovers and scored on all of them, leading to the Steelers being down 35-10 at halftime. Though the team rallied in the second half, it wasn't enough to overcome the deficit they started the half with and the Browns held on to win by 11.
    • In 2023, when it was announced that elite NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers — who'd spent most of his career playing for the Green Bay Packers, including helping them win Super Bowl XLV — had chosen to go to the New York Jets as a free agent, many people in New York were excited, including some in the local sports media who quickly started talking about Rogers leading the Jets to a Super Bowl victory for the first time since Joe Namath did it in 1969, and HBO Sports even did a Hard Knocks special showing the team's training camp leading up to the 2023–24 season. During the first quarter of the Jets' Week 1 game against the Buffalo Bills, Rodgers was injured after what seemed like a basic tackle. He left the game and didn't return, and it was later announced that he had suffered a left Achilles ankle tear and would be out for the rest of the season. One positive, however, was that the Jets rallied with their backup to still win the game.
    • Collegiate American Football: In 2010, the University of Florida Gators had been enjoying a string of success, earning two national championships in the past 4 years and having a 6-year winning streak against their in-state arch rivals, the Florida State Seminoles. To play up the achievement, a group of Gator fans erected this obnoxious billboard sign outside of Tallahassee, Florida (the location of FSU's campus) to taunt the Seminoles for their woes. Guess who won the very next rivalry game between the two teams.
  • Baseball:
    • At the start of the 1934 season, the New York Giants' player-manager Bill Terry was asked by reporters to size up his team's competition in the National League. After naming the Cardinals, Pirates, and Cubs as the teams they would have to beat, Terry facetiously added: "I was just wondering, is Brooklyn still in the league?" While he meant for the crack to be lighthearted, the Brooklyn Dodgers and their fans took deep and immediate offense, and vowed to get revenge when the opportunity presented itself. Came the final weekend of the season, and the Giants were neck and neck with the Cardinals at the top of the standings, with just two games left to play — against the Dodgers. Sure enough, Brooklyn took both games to deny their rivals the pennant, their fans giddily shouting towards the Giants' dugout: "Hey, Terry! Is Brooklyn still in the league? Is Brooklyn still in the league?!! "
    • On August 12, 1951, with the Brooklyn Dodgers sitting comfortably on a 13½-game lead in the NL standings over their in-city rival New York Giants and having just completed a three-game sweep of the latter team, their manager Chuck Dressen happily, if ungrammatically, declared "The Giants is dead!" Immediately afterward, the Giants went on a 16-game winning streak. By the time the season ended on September 30, the Giants had tied Brooklyn in the standings by going 37–7 to the Dodgers' 26–23, forcing a three-game playoff series which ended in Bobby Thomson's immortal "Shot Heard 'Round the World" to give the Giants the pennant.
    • In an interview prior to the start of the 1986 ALCS regarding the pressures of postseason play, Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner said, "Your dreams are that you're gonna have a great series and win, and the nightmares are that you're gonna let the winning run score on a ground ball through your legs." Guess what happened, and to whom, in Game 6 of that year's World Series nineteen days later?
      • Speaking of Game 6 in the 1986 World Series, another tempting fate moment happened during that memorable game. Before the ninth inning, with the New York Mets at bat, NBC (which was televising the series) named Boston's second baseman Marty Barrett as the Player Of The Game, pretty much concluding that the game was all but over and the Red Sox were minutes away from winning the World Series title. It was after this was done the epic comeback started, ending with the infamous Bill Buckner moment. This is pretty much the reason you no longer see this done in modern baseball telecasts. Instead, they wait for the game to end before declaring the best player during those nine innings.
    • In one game at Philadelphia in 1989, the Pittsburgh Pirates took a 10–0 lead in the first inning, prompting their radio announcer Jim Rooker to declare on the air, "If we don't win this one, I don't think I'd want to be on that plane ride home. Matter of fact, if we don't win, I'll walk back to Pittsburgh." The Phillies ended up rallying and won 15–11. Rooker kept his word by going on a two-week, 337-mile charity walk from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh later that year.
    • In Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS against the Florida Marlins, the Chicago Cubs had the lead and were six outs away from clinching the pennant and going to their first World Series since 1945. Celebrity guest Bernie Mac was called up to sing the traditional "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch. Instead of singing "root, root, root for the Cubbies" like singers usually do, he sang "root, root, root, for the champs, champs"... and sure enough, the Cubs lost the game and the following game to fall short of the World Series. (Of course, this was also the Steve Bartman game.)
    • In Game 2 of the 2013 ALCS, the Red Sox were trailing 5-1 in the eighth inning and facing the prospect of going to Detroit down 2-0 in the series. With two outs, Boston slugger David Ortiz came to the plate. Tigers manager Jim Leyland then decided to send in closer Joaquin Benoit after the three previous relievers proved ineffective, prompting Fox commentator Joe Buck to note that Ortiz had "never homered against Benoit in his career". Ortiz then proceeded to send the Fenway Park crowd into a frenzy by hitting a game-tying grand slam. The Red Sox went on to win the game, and subsequently defeated the Tigers in the series 4 games to 2 on their way to their eighth World Series title.
    • After defeating the Oakland A's in the AL Wild Card game in 2018, New York Yankees fans began chanting "We want Boston!" Well, they got Boston, and lost 3 games to one, including the worst playoff loss in Yankee history.
      • Aaron Judge also made a blunder, playing "New York, New York" on a stereo in the hallway leading to the Red Sox locker room after winning game 2. This would lead to the Red Sox 16-1 thrashing of the Yankees the very next night.
  • Basketball:
    • According to Larry Bird in his autobiography Drive, he was overjoyed that his team, the Boston Celtics, had drafted Len Bias in 1986, saying (paraphrased): "Finally. We've found someone who can give me a break." Bias would die of a cocaine overdose shortly after he was drafted, demoralizing Larry and the Celtics.
    • The infamous 2004 Indiana Pacers–Detroit Pistons brawl was immediately preceded by ESPN sportscaster Mike Breen complimenting the Pacers for having "played a very intelligent game tonight."
    • During the 2012 NBA Eastern Conference playoffs, the Indiana Pacers were ahead of the Miami Heat 2 games to 1. With both LeBron James and Dwyane Wade playing poorly, it seemed like the Pacers would advance to the Conference Finals. However, star player Lance Stephenson decided to mock LeBron by making a choke sign. Guess what happened next? Yup, the Heat came back to win the series and the team eventually won the NBA Championship.
  • In Britain, this sort of thing is sometimes known as the Murray Walker Curse, after the Formula One commentator who had a reputation for observing that a particular driver's victory was inevitable mere moments before their car suffered some catastrophic failure that put them out of the race. Frequently led to commentary along the lines of "Unless I'm very much mistaken... I am very much mistaken!"
    • Walker himself called this the "commentator's curse," saying that it happens to everybody in his profession, but pop culture particularly associates it with him.
    • American sportscaster Curt Gowdy was sufficiently known for this that the term "getting Curt Gowdyed" became part of the sports vernacular in the 1960s and '70s, and is still occasionally used today.
    • One particularly hilarious example was the ending of a 1984 NBC broadcast of a college basketball game between #1-ranked, Michael Jordan-led North Carolina and Arkansas. Arkansas led 65-64 with two seconds left, leaving UNC to try a desperation last-second shot. NBC announcer Al McGuire shouted "it's good!", immediately followed by the ball bouncing off the rim and the shot most emphatically not being good, giving Arkansas the upset win.
  • Figure skating: Michelle Kwan, heading into the 2002 Winter Olympics having choreographed a program to the song "Fields of Gold" as the massive, overwhelming favorite. She promptly fell in the final round to slip from gold to bronze. What makes it worse? She should have known better, after having ALREADY lost as a heavy favorite in the final round four years earlier in the 1998 Olympics.
  • Association Football (Soccer): Brazilian team Cruzeiro was in the Copa Libertadores final against Estudiantes, a team which they met in group stage. First game of the finals, a draw in Argentina. Second and final game is at home, a draw gives the title, the game during the group stage ended 3-0. So, the team president did a reunion to discuss the player's prizes, and the supporters went mad, making "Champion" ribbons — one even started paying the ticket to Dubai, where the FIFA Club World Cup would occur! In the actual game, Cruzeiro scored first, but Estudiantes went on to win 2-1.
  • Rugby: This advert proclaimed England to be the 2011 Grand Slam winners in the six nations. For those not in the know, the six nations is an annual tournament between England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy. A country wins a grand slam when they win all their matches. Trouble is, it was made before their final match against Ireland. Ireland won by 24-8.
  • Australian Rules Football: Speaking at the 2010 Grand Final Breakfast, following the hung parliament in that year's election, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said, "Please, we cannot have a draw!". Guess what happened?
  • "Commentator's Curse" (complimenting a player on their performance right before they screw up) is an established technical term among BBC commentators (also quite prevalent Stateside, esp. among commentators talking about field goal kickers). A typical exchange would be:
    Guest commentator: Davis really is producing some brilliant snooker tonight.
    [player misses a colour off the spot]
    Main commentator: That's a nice case of commentator's curse you've got yourself there, Gerald.
    • In January 2012, ESPN covered a Clippers game in back-to-back weeks. In both games, color commentator Hubie Brown mentioned Clippers guard Chauncey Billups being among the top-5 leaders in free throw percentage in NBA history as Billups headed to the line. In both games, Billups missed the very first FT after Hubie put the whammy on him, something lampshaded by his play-by-play partner Mike Tirico.
  • In the 2008 Olympic Games, the French men's swimming team was the favorite to win the 4x100 freestyle relay and they bragged about how they would crush the US team, their main competition. Cue Jason Lezak miraculously overcoming a full-body length deficit in the last 25 meters against Alain Bernard, who had entered the race as the world record holder at 100mnote , to edge the French out for gold.
  • Boxing:
    • During his prime, heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson, defended his title against a no-named journeyman fighter named Buster Douglas in Tokyo. Before the fight, it was heavily reported that Tyson didn't take Douglas seriously as an opponent and spent most of his time before the fight partying and sleeping with different call-girls every night. During the championship fight, Douglas knocked out Tyson in the 10th round in one of the biggest upsets in sports history.
    • Also in boxing in 1980, white British boxer Alan Minter made a major "he did not just say that" gaffe during the run-up to his fight with the African-American Marvin Hagler when he said "I do not intend to lose my title to a black man", widely seen as a tasteless, inflammatory remark. This may have had something to do with the curb-stomping that Hagler gave him in the ring.
    • In 2023, there was the super welterweight championship fight between Brain Mendoza and Sebastian Fundora. Fundora, a 6'6 lanky boxer who is surprisingly good fighting on the inside was the heavy favorite. However, for the first time he decided to use his height advantage and box on the outside. As a result, he was dominating the fight for the first 5 rounds. In round 6 he started to fight on the inside again, but Mendoza was able to get in a few good shots. Before round 7, Fundora's father and coach told his son" Don't worry. He thinks he did something, but he really didn't." In round 7, Fundora goes back on the inside and gets caught with a huge punch staggering him. Mendoza follows up with a two punch combination sending Fundora to the canvas resulting in a knockout. Mendoza wins the championship and causes one of the biggest upsets of the year. To add insult to injury, Fundora was caught while throwing his money punch, the uppercut inside.
  • During a MotoGP race, the late Marco Simoncelli takes the lead of the race in Jerez, and starts to pull ahead from the rest of the field. And then comes probably the most amazing 'Commentator's Curse' ever from main commentator Toby Moody.
    Moody: Marco Simoncelli leads this Grand Prix and is leading it brilliantly. [Simoncelli starts to slide] Oh NO! NO! [Simoncelli crashes] OHHHH! Simoncelli crashes, he nearly held it, and Lorenzo now leads the Grand Prix! That first corner is glacially slippery! Simoncelli, what have you done? What have I said?
    Co-Commentator: Wonderful commentator's curse, Toby!
  • In hockey, goaltenders have a reputation for being rather superstitious. Accordingly, if a goalie has a shutout going, it is considered to be extremely poor form (and, of course, tempting fate) for them, or even a teammate or commentator, to reference that fact, to the point where most hockey players, commentators, and even fans won't say the word "shutout" until the game is over. Similarly, in baseball, if a pitcher is in the midst of a no-hitter or perfect game, players will refer to said achievement as "it" until the deed is done or lost (e.g. "I think he might do it.").
  • Hockey has a slew of playoff superstitions and defying them is often seen as courting disaster. Players (and some fans) often stop shaving during the playoffs in order to grow a playoff beard; shaving one is seen to invite disaster. Similarly, the Stanley Cup is considered to be a "jealous trophy", and touching any other trophy will ensure that you lose in the finals; accordingly, many team captains do not accept or handle the Prince of Wales Trophy or the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl (awarded to the Stanley Cup finalists from the Eastern and Western conferences respectively) after winning them in the conference finals. It's also considered very bad luck to touch the Cup itself until you've actually won it.
    • Sidney Crosby, who is otherwise well known as one of the most superstitious players aroundnote , did not touch the Wales trophy after the 2008 conference final and lost the cup to the Detroit Red Wings. A year later, he did touch it and won the cup. He touched it again when the Penguins won the cup in 2016.
  • Alexandre Daigle is an infamous case in hockey circles. Drafted first overall by the Ottawa Senators in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, he was interviewed afterwards and commented that he was very glad he was taken first, because "Nobody remembers number two." Who was the second overall pick in that year's draft? Chris Pronger, who would go on to become a superstar defenceman and win multiple Olympic gold medals with Team Canada, as well as a Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks. Daigle managed 51 points over three seasons and is generally considered to be one of the biggest draft busts in NHL history.
  • During the 2016 Olympic Games, crowds chanting "Eu acredito" ("I believe") for the home Brazilian athletes started becoming this for viewers not on location, given most "Eu acredito" were followed by failed comeback attempts or painful defeats. An ESPN Brazil narrator even ranted against it remembering the origin of the chant - "'Eu acredito' only worked for Atlético!".
  • 2015 Rugby World Cup: One South African commentator's words on Pool B's teams: "Japan and USA are there on holiday, so we don't have to worry about them." Japan then went on to upset South Africa 34-32 in their opening match. Oh damn! At least he was half-right.
  • Having secured automatic promotion and seven points clear of second-placed Newcastle United with three matches left to go, Brighton & Hove Albion goalkeeper David Stockdale hit out at those who predicted that Brighton would slip up in the race for promotion and the 2016-17 Championship title race, saying "Bottlers? Who’s bottling it now?" Brighton went on to lose their next two matches and concede an 89th minute equalizer in the last match to allow Newcastle, who had won all three of their remaining matches, to overtake them on the final day.
  • The 1967 Grand National at Aintree went down in history as one of the most bizarre races in British horse racing. Two horses, Popham Down and April Rose, had thrown their riders at the first and third fences, but continued running without them - and with the reduced weight, they were running ahead of the pack. Michael O'Hehir, upon taking over the commentary during the second lap, observed as the racers jumped over Becher's Brook (the sixth and twenty-second of the race's thirty fences) that the riderless horses didn't seem to be interfering with the race. At the very next fence, this happened...
    Michael O'Hehir: Rutherfords lost a bit of ground there, but he's... all right at the turning out of the fence after Becher's, and as they do, the leader is Castle Falls, with Rutherfords along the inside, [Popham Down and April Rose suddenly run to the inside of the track just before the next fence, straight into the path of the other racers] and he's been- and Rutherfords has been hampered! And so has Castle Falls! Rondetto has fallen! Princeful has fallen! Norther has fallen! Kirtle-Lad has fallen! And The Fossa has fallen! There's a right pile-up! Leedsy has, er, climbed over the fence and left his jockey there! [a single horse manages to run around the confused mass of horses and jockeys and jump the fence at the first attempt] And now, with all this mayhem, Foinavon has gone off on his own!note 
  • Rugby Union. The 2017 British & Irish Lions Tour to New Zealand. Lions Head Coach Warren Gatland took issue with the way the New Zealand All-Blacks gave his players during the 1st Test, particularly Scrum-half Connor Murray, a good pasting. Steve Hansen, NZ Head Coach, was not impressed with the accusation of foul play; only two New Zealand players had ever been sent off in Test Rugby history, the last being the legendary Colin "Pinetree" Meads in 1967, and defended the conduct of his players as hard but fair. A New Zealand newspaper even had an image of him with a clown's nose, labeling him a "clown" for such accusations. Before the week was over, Inside Centre Sonny Bill Williams became the Third All Black to be dismissed in a Test Match (and the first to be dismissed on home soil!) for a head high Shoulder Charge on Lions Right Winger Anthony Watson during the 2nd Test, which proved vital in the Lions winning the 2nd test and ultimately going on to tie the series, the best they've done since they won there in 1971. Following the 3rd Test, Gatland turned up with a clown's nose at the press conference.
  • Dutch football national team manager, Dick Advocaat was asked about scenarios for the match between Luxemburg and Sweden, which would be decisive for the Dutch team. When a journalist stated that Sweden could beat Luxemburg 8-0, Advocaat said "They're not winning 8-0. What kind of stupid question is that?". Sweden won 8-0, meaning that Netherlands would have to beat Sweden by a margin of 7 to qualify for the 2018 World Cup playoffs (they only defeated Sweden 2-0 and therefore failed to qualify).
  • In the run-up to the West Indies cricket team's 1976 Test series against England, England captain Tony Greig (a white South African by birth) declared that he intended to make them "grovel". West Indies won the five-match series 3-0. Towards the end of the last match, Greig fell to his knees and crawled across the grass in front of the Windies supporters.
  • German soccer side VfL Bochum managed to barely keep their prestigious place in the national league for about twenty years. In 1992, fans began to wear shirts with the new-coined adjective "unabsteigbar" ("irrelegable"). Guess what happened the next year...
    • Possibly a reference to this occurred in 2011: regional rival Borussia Dortmund had an almost insurmountable lead to win the national title, which hadn't happened for nearly a decade. Everyone from the team was so careful not to say the word "championship" that the fans started to carry mocking signs saying "Klassenerhalt!" ("non-relegation"). It worked - Dortmund won the 2011 Bundesliga.
  • After their relegation from the English Premier League in 1994, Swindon Town manager John Gorman said that Swindon "wouldn't be in Division One for long". He was right - they were relegated out of Division One and into Division Two in 1995.
  • In October 2017, the United States Men's team faced heavy scrutiny after finding themselves in third place and only two points ahead of their competition in 4th and 5th in "The Hex", the final round of qualifying for the North American slots in the 2018 World Cup. The top 3 teams would automatically advance, the 4th place team would enter a playoff, and the 5th and 6th were out. If the US so much as earned a draw away to Trinidad and Tobago, ranked 6th and mathematically eliminated from coming 3rd or 4th, they would automatically qualify as they had the tiebreaker over Honduras and Panama in 4th and 5th respectively, meaning the only way the US were out would be if they were to lose and Panama and Honduras were able to earn wins against the Top 2, Mexico and Costa Rica. When asked about this heavy scrutiny, Tim Howard replied with "Ultimately, when we punch our ticket to Russia? None of this will matter." The US lost 2-1 (with Howard committing a howler of a miss on the second goal), and both Honduras and Panama won, meaning the US were out of the following World Cup Finals. This ended up kicking off the start of an Audience-Alienating Era for the US Men's team.
  • In November 2018, Napoli had collected 9 points from 5 group stage matches in UEFA Champions League (UCL) tournament. Napoli's last group stage match would be against Liverpool at Anfield. Napoli was heavily favored even by neutral fans to reach the knockout phase as they just had to stall Liverpool to a draw while Liverpool needed to win 1-0 or by two goals. Napoli's manager Carlo Ancelottinote  then said "If we don't get through… we will be proper idiots". Guess what, Liverpool beat Napoli 1-0 and relegated Napoli to the Europa League. As intelligent as Ancelotti was, he practically jinxed his own team out of UCL. Really, he should have learned considering 14 years ago, Liverpool were in the exact same situation against Olympiakos. Back then, Liverpool won 3-1 and went on to win the tournament, beating Ancelotti's AC Milan in the final. This time…
    • From the same tournament, Liverpool were facing Barcelona in the semi final round. Barcelona won the first tie at Camp Nou with 3-0 score line. They continued the second tie at Anfield with Liverpool scoring the only goal per half time, reducing the aggregate score to 1-3. Barcelona's PR team then posted on their official Twitter account that Barcelona would get at least one goal to increase the score gap and make things difficult for Liverpool. Before full time whistle, Liverpool managed to score three more goals while Barca kept firing blanks. The tie ended on 4-3 aggregate score in Liverpool's favor, who went on to the final and won the tournament by beating Tottenham Hotspur.
  • During the 2013/14 Premier League season, it looked like Liverpool would be ending their title drought (they last won it in 1990). After a win over challengers Manchester City, captain Steven Gerrard formed a huddle with his teammates and said, "This does not slip! Every game is now a Champions League final!". After victory in their next game at Norwich, a win against Chelsea would see them all but secure the title (Manchester City needed to win their remaining games and - due to having a better goal difference - hoped Liverpool (who would have been six points ahead of City had they won) lost a match). Gerrard’s words would come back to haunt him after literally slipping on the turf, allowing Demba Ba to break away for the opening goal in a 2-0 win for Chelsea. To add insult to injury, the team would slip in their next game by allowing Crystal Palace to draw after losing 3-0 with just eleven minutes left, which echoed the legendary Istanbul Champions League final, but in reverse (Liverpool came back from 3-0 down in the final minutes to force extra time). With Manchester City winning their remaining games - they had a game in hand when Liverpool played Chelsea - they were able to claim the title for themselves and made Liverpool have to wait to win the title (which they would eventually do in 2020).
  • Mixed Martial Arts:
    • During the open workouts for UFC 153, heavyweight Dave "Pee Wee" Herman declared that "everyone knows jiu-jitsu doesn't work." Four and a half minutes into the second round, Herman was tapping to an armbar from "Minotauro" Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who then promptly declared "Jiu-jitsu does work."
    • Alistair Overeem showed no respect to "Bigfoot" Silva in the weeks leading up to or during their fight. During the fight, he repeatedly dropped his hands, chin up, without regard for Silva's striking. He ended up on the receiving end of a shocking TKO in the third round after arguably winning the previous two.
    • At that height of his record-setting championship run, Anderson Silva repeatedly clowned title contender Chris Weidman by dropping his hands and presenting his chin. When Weidman connected with a glancing blow, Silva theatrically mimed being hurt. Weidman responded with more punches, landing flush on Silva's chin and ending the middleweight champ's record-breaking win streak. He would return and take the rematch seriously, but suffered a horrific injury on a routine kick after which he has not returned to his previous heights.
    • The UFC decided to only air a single fight on the card of their network television debut: the title fight between Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez. Velasquez was knocked out in 64 seconds, making the entire hour devoted to 1 minute of fighting.
    • UFC Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold showed no respect for the punching power of short-notice opponent Michael Bisping (whom he'd defeated by submission in a prior bout), and continually approached Bisping without tucking his chin or moving his head. After a few minutes in which Rockhold showcased his superior kickboxing, Bisping got the timing right and nailed Rockhold with a perfect overhand left which put the champion on the canvas. Bisping swarmed the dazed Rockhold, dropping him again, and then knocking him completely out with a vicious right against the cage just as the referee moved in to stop the fight.
    • The UFC gave subtitles to most of their early cards. "UFC 76: Knockout" happened to contain no knockouts whatsoever.
  • When England started to do surprisingly well during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a number of fans went so far as to get tattoos that said "it's coming home." England then lost to Croatia.
    • In 2021, they went one step further and made it to the final of Euro 2020note . Having clearly not learnt anything from the above, one fan had "England Euro 2020 winners" tattooed on him in the run-up to the final, saying, "I haven't jinxed it, I've made it come home". England lost the final to Italy.
  • During the 2012 London Olympics, gymnastics commentator Tim Daggett went on at length about how McKayla Maroney was practically guaranteed to win gold on vault; during the team final, he outright said that he expected Maroney to be "Olympic champion [on vault] without any question." We all know how well that worked out.
  • In the early years of the 21st Century, Sky Sports’ coverage of football matches included a fan from each side providing commentary. One of these matches was the 2002 FA Cup Final, between Arsenal and Chelsea. After Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour received the ball, Chelsea’s commentator said, “It’s alright, it’s only Ray Parlour”... a few seconds before scoring the opener in said match.
  • In the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, American Simone Biles - arguably the greatest gymnast who ever lived - was built up in the media as the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) prior to the games who would perform big. She even planned to reveal a new difficult move that no one else can do. They even had a special leotard outfit made for her, which had a GOAT image on it. During the games, the pressure of being the GOAT turned out to be overwhelming for her and she performed mediocre for the first time in her career, by her standards. And because Biles does very difficult and dangerous gymnastics, she pulled out of the team competition in the middle of the event, and later pulled out of the individual events - although she would later relent and compete in the beam, winning bronze - ending her all-around Tokyo Olympic run, claiming mental health issues and fear of serious injury as the reasons. As a result, the USA Women's Gymnastic Team took silver instead of gold they were expected to win.
  • In the 2021 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Philadelphia 76ers had a major lead on the Atlanta Hawks at halftime, being up 62-40. Their update tweet was captioned with, “is this when we’re supposed to feel tired?”, possibly a jab at all the people that have chastised them when they let blowouts become close games. Sure enough, despite the lead peaking at 70-44, the Sixers would lose the game, 106-109, mostly in part to Joel Embiid - who most likely would’ve won league MVP had he not missed time right after the All-Star Break - and Seth Curry being the only players on the team to score any field goals in the entire second half. Sure enough, said tweet was ripped and mocked heavily afterwards. Philly would go on to lose the series in seven games.
  • After being appointed manager of the Dutch national football team, Louis van Gaal said that his contract lasted until 2006, "so I can win The World Cup not once but twice". They failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup and he resigned in January 2002.note 
  • Before a decisive winner-goes-to-final game against the Netherlands at the 1974 World Cup, Brazilian coach Zagallo boasted "we will make juice out of the Clockwork Orange", claiming that in spite of the adversary's good team, their lack of tradition made him not worry about it, and so he would just think of the final with Germany. Which was contested by the Dutch after a 2-0 win.
  • After coming back from a 3-0 loss with a 5-0 second leg win in the 2013/14 Europa League Quarterfinals, Valencia lose 2-0 to Sevilla in the first leg of the semis. In the second leg, they pull it off again, coming back to 3-0. Come the 93rd minute, former Valencia player Albelda comments on the radio how it was a done deal by then and how he never saw their comeback in danger, since Sevilla clearly weren't going to score the away goal that would put them through in the few remaining seconds. Guess what happened a few seconds later.
  • In the run-up to the 1888 FA Cup Final, Preston North End were so sure of winning that they asked if they could have their pictures taken with the trophy before the match. They were turned down, with the FA President saying, "Hadn't you better win it first?" They were unable to have their pictures taken with it afterwards, as West Bromwich Albion won the match.
  • On the day of what was effectively the 1950 FIFA World Cup Finalnote , a Brazilian newspaper printed a picture of the national team with the caption "These are the world champions". Brazil, who only needed a draw to confirm it, were beaten 2-1 by Uruguay.
  • In the 2022 World Cup, England and Wales were drawn into the same group. Wales striker Kieffer Moore said "he [couldn't] wait to knock England out". Wales were knocked out at the group stage whilst France took care of England in the quarterfinals.
  • The 2022-23 UEFA Europa League knockout rounds play-off sees FC Barcelona facing Manchester United. The first tie at Camp Nou ended in a 2-2 draw. A few hours before the second tie begun, FC Barcelona's PR team, again, made a mistake of tempting fate by saying that their team will conquer the Theatre of Dreams.note  The second tie ended with Manchester United winning 2-1, and FC Barcelona were eliminated from the tournament as a result.
  • Before the 2023 NBA playoffs, forward Dillon Brooks of the two-seed Memphis Grizzlies openly asked for a first-round matchup against the LeBron James-led Los Angeles Lakers, which at the time was fighting tooth-and-nail for a playoff spot. He would get his wish, and after the LA lost Game 2 to Memphis, Brooks decided to call LeBron "old" and said he wouldn't give anyone respect until they drop 40 points on him. The Grizzlies would proceed to lose by 40 to the Lakers in the sixth and final game of the series.
  • On late May 2021, several days before the Champions League Final 2021 between Manchester City and Chelsea began, Raheem Sterling, one of Manchester City key players made a statement that he was sure his team reached the final because they were strong, and the only thing that could stop his team from winning the cup were themselves. Manchester City's head coach Josep Guardiola ended up overthinking his tactics and team line-up where his team had to play without a holding midfielder and a target striker. Manchester City lost the final 0-1 with Sterling having a bad game and had to be subbed off in 77th minute. Fast forward two years later, Manchester City reached the final again in 2023, this time Guardiola did not overthink his tactic and the team won the cup by beating Internazionale 1-0. Sterling's words were proven right. Unfortunately, Manchester City won it without him, who moved to Chelsea in July 2022.
  • On August 2008, Abu Dhabi United Group owned by Sheikh Mansour purchased Manchester City. which many people believed to be the one thing that kickstarted the club's spending spree in the transfer market. About one year later, Sir Alex Ferguson, a head coach from rival club Manchester United said that Manchester City would not become a top club in his lifetime. Since Ferguson's retirement in the summer of 2013, Manchester City had better domestic league rankings than Manchester United for ten seasons in a row, winning six Premier League titles, and most importantly the Treble in the 2022-23 seasons.note  What makes this painful is that Manchester City had a below average season in the 2015-16 season when they lost to a struggling Liverpool both home and away, and despite that Manchester City still had better ranking than Manchester United on the league table.
  • On the 2016 FA Cup Final between Crystal Palace and Manchester United, Crystal Palace's Jason Puncheon scored a goal on 78th minute (that seemingly offside, but the referee declared the goal as legal) which put his team upfront. Crystal Palace's head coach back then Alan Pardew then celebrated the goal excessively by doing some hilarious dance. Not long after, Manchester United's Wayne Rooney dribbled past four Palace players and passed the ball to Fellaini, who then cushioned Juan Mata to score an equalizing goal in 81st minute. The match then went into Extra Time, where Manchester United scored the winning goal in 110th minute through their substitute midfielder Jesse Lingard. Alan Pardew and Palace's misfortune did not stop there, as their subpar performance was carried on to the 2016-17 season. Alan Pardew was eventually fired, and his excessive dance in the 2016 FA Cup final, which was unfortunately caught on the camera and broadcasted live to everyone who watched the game since then became a source of mockery.
  • In the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League in 2023/24, Faroese team KÍ were drawn with Ferencváros of Hungary. The latter tweeted "The Swedish champions await us in the next round...because it is certain we are going through!" The Faroese team won 3-0 on aggregate. In the next round, they drew the first leg against Swedish champions Häcken, who, having not learnt anything, posted online "Now we will secure the victory at home next week". The Faroese knocked out the Swedes on penalties after a 3-3 draw.
  • In May 2023, rugby magazine Rugby World's front cover ran with the headline "Why Ireland will win the World Cup", after they won the Six Nations championship, winning the Grand Slamnote  to boot. It seems somebody forgot to tell both New Zealand, the team that knocked Ireland out, and South Africa, the team that actually won it.


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