Megan Rapinoe cost the United States Women’s National Team its season when she missed a penalty kick late in the team’s World Cup round-of-sixteen match against Sweden. Her kick overshot the goal entirely, something soccer fans tell me is rare for players at the professional level.
Mistakes like that often linger with athletes for years, sometimes decades. Jackie Smith, the Hall of Fame Dallas Cowboys tight end who dropped a would-be touchdown in Super Bowl XIII, was reportedly haunted by the gaffe into his eighties. Rick Ankiel, the pitching phenom who suddenly and humiliatingly lost the ability to throw a baseball in the 2000 National League Divisional Series, pounded vodka and would throw baseballs against a backyard cinder-block wall for hours before ultimately resurrecting his career as an outfielder. Bill Buckner, the star first-baseman whose infamous error cost the Red Sox Game six of the 1986 World Series, seriously considered declining the team’s invitation to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park more than two decades after the game.
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