The FG Curse

[Calcountry]

After last years come from behind win by the Red Sox to take out the Spankees, it seemed as if their dreaded curse was over leaving only the Cubs and perhaps the White Sox to piss and moan about a curse.

After the passing of Hank Stram, I figured they might have a lot of stuff on the ESPN Classic channel, so I surf through the DirecTV guide on that and it turned up the game that started it all for me. The Christmas day, 1971 contest known as "The Longest Game" v the Miami Dolphins. I think the Dolphins were +2 on turnovers and despite that the Chiefs had a lead in the fourth quarter. Despite giving up a late TD, they still were in Chip shot range to win it in Regulation. This leads up to a supposition about the real curse, the one that is on our field goal kickers in the playoffs.

At the time, future hall of fame field goal kicker Jan Stenerud misses a chip shot earlier in the game, then shanks one at the end of regulation, then gets another sub 40 yard attempt blocked in overtime! Wait, there is more. Nick Lowery blows one against the same Dolphins a couple of decades later. He who shall remain nameless blew it HARD against the Colts. Then Mr. Reliable, Morten Andersen has his best game of his Career v Colts a couple of years back. Which leads me to this conclusion: There is a curse against our place kickers in the playoffs. There can be no other logical conclusion.