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Peyton Manning finally gets his shot at the Super Bowl this week — you may have heard something about that — and it's only fitting that he went through Tom Brady and the Patriots to get there.
Brady won three Super Bowls in his first four years — beating Manning and the Colts in the playoffs twice — and quickly gained a reputation as one of the greatest clutch quarterbacks in the history of the game.
Manning, despite putting up otherworldly numbers, has been cast as the exact opposite — a brilliant player who would never win the big one.
On Sunday, that could change right quick. And if Manning pulls this off, he won't be the only superstar to suffer at the hands of one particular opponent, only to rectify that bitter history.
What is it that's so satisfying about perennial losers finally getting the best of an archenemy? While surely we were wowed by Brady's precocious achievements, even Manning detractors have to secretly hope the proverbial Charlie Brown will kick Lucy's proverbial football, right?
Not convinced? Consider the following catalog of bitter sports disappointments, and just try not to feel all warm at their eventual happy endings.
BASKETBALL: Wilt Chamberlain vs. Bill Russell
Perhaps no player in the history of sports was as tortured by a single opponent as Chamblerain was by Russell. Russell won 11 championships in 13 years with the Boston Celtics, including eight in a row. By the time Chamberlain came into the NBA in 1959, Russell already had two rings and would spend the next 10 years foiling "The Stilt" over and over again. The Celtics beat Chamberlain twice in the NBA finals — once when he was with the San Francisco Warriors and once when he was with the L.A. Lakers. Boston also beat Chamberlain five times in the Eastern Conference playoffs when he was with the Philadelphia Warriors and later the Philadelphia 76ers.
Chamberlain didn't win his first NBA title until 1967, and the 76ers beat the Celtics to get to the finals. But the next year, the Celtics beat the 76ers in the playoffs again.
In 1968-69, Chamberlain was traded to the Lakers and Russell bested him one more time as the Celtics won a championship in Russell's final season.
To his credit, Chamberlain won one more championship in 1972 before retiring in 1974.
BASEBALL: Roy Campanella vs. Yogi Berra
In Campanella's 10 seasons with the Brookyln Dodgers, he made it to the World Series five times. All five were against Berra and the Yankees — and the Dodgers lost four of them.
Campanella got the best of Berra and the Yankees on their third try, in 1955, when Campanella was named National League MVP and hit two home runs in the Fall Classic.
Berra's Yankees won the World Series six times in his first eight years before that loss to the Dodgers.
The Yankees beat the Dodgers again in 1956, with Berra hitting .360 with three home runs and 10 RBI. Campanella played one more year before retiring with a single World Series title. Berra would end up playing on 10 teams that won the World Series.
HOCKEY: Raymond Bourque vs. Chris Chelios
Bourque was a legendary figure for the Boston Bruins for 21 years, but never won a Stanley Cup in Boston. Chelios won a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1986 — beating Bourque and the Bruins in the playoffs — and played on Montreal teams that beat the Bruins in the playoffs five times in his seven years in Montreal.
In an attempt to win a championship before he retired, Bourque asked for a trade from the Bruins and was shipped to the Colorado Avalanche in 2000. The next year in his new home, Bourque finally won it all.
(Chelios would go on to win another Cup in 2002 with the Detroit Red Wings.)
NASCAR: Dale Earnhardt vs. Jeff Gordon
Earnhardt was one of the most dominant drivers in NASCAR history, winning seven series titles and 76 races. But it took him 20 tries to win the Daytona 500, including four times when he was leading with less than 10 laps to go — but something went wrong, costing him the win.
Gordon, on the other hand, won the 500 at the age of 25 in 1997. And did so by passing Earnhardt for second with 10 laps to go on a controversial move that led to a crash that took Earnhardt out of contention.
The next year, Gordon was running third late in the race when he dropped a cylinder. Earnhardt finally was able to grab the big one, leading to one of the most iconic images in NASCAR history — crew members from every team on pit road lined up to congratulate him.
Gordon won the 500 in 1999 and again in 2005. Earnhardt was killed in the 2001 Daytona 500 when a last-lap crash sent him headfirst into the wall.
GOLF: Phil Mickelson vs. Tiger Woods
Mickelson and Woods are pretty much exact opposites. Woods is the cold-blooded, emotionless killer on the golf course, while Mickelson is the slightly frumpy gunslinger who probably cost himself at least a couple major titles by doing something reckless.
And, of course, it took Mickelson 14 years to win his first major, while Woods won 12 majors in his first 11 years on tour. Long saddled with the title of "Best player never to win a major", Mickelson finally broke through in 2004 when he won the Masters.
By that time, Woods had already won eight majors, including three Masters titles.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Bobby Bowden vs. Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson
From 1987 to 2000, Bobby Bowden's Florida State teams never finished lower than fifth in the final AP poll, won 11 of 14 bowl games and won two national championships.
But in 1987, Johnson and the Miami Hurricanes beat Florida State and went on to win the national championship, starting a torturous trend for Bowden.
Johnson left in 1988, but Erickson took over in 1989 — and the beatings continued for FSU. From 1987 to 1994, when Erickson left, the Hurricanes went 6-2 against Bowden and won championships in '87, '89 and '91. In both 1987 and 1992, Florida State finished second in the final AP poll with its only loss coming to Miami.
Bowden finally broke through in 1993, beating Miami 28-10 and winning his first national championship. But even that wasn't easy, as the 12-1 Seminoles finished ahead of 11-1 Notre Dame — which beat Florida State during the regular season.
Finally, in 1999, Bowden silenced the critics by running the table for the first time and winning a national championship nobody could question.
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asap contributor Casey Laughman's nemesis? Editors' word-count limits.
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