What’s the greatest comeback of all time? Well, comeback can be defined a couple different ways. When a team is down by a ton of points and comes back to win the game, when a team starts off the season horribly and turns it around, when a team is down big in a playoff series and comes back to win… those are a few. How about when a player comes back from a rough season, an injury, or even retirement… they have the comeback player of the year awards for those guys. What comes to your mind?
The first thing not surprisingly when I think of comeback time is when MJ returned to the game of basketball; always have MJ on the brain. It was a shock when he retired; it was a really sad day in Chicago sports. Hey, he did give us one of the best decades in our sports life, and three straight titles before saying goodbye; we’d always appreciate him. Yet, when there were rumblings of him coming back… the excitement bubbled. No way, really?!?! Yes, really. Jordan came back late in the 94-95 season; his first game was at Indiana against the Pacers. It was on the weekend, and I was working; I was this close to calling in sick. I didn’t, but the fact that we was back had the city buzzing. There was the double nickel, there was the game winner in Atlanta, before the ECF loss to the Magic, which proved that even MJ wasn’t superman; can’t just drop back into the NBA after a year and a half off, play for a month, and win it all. Knowing MJ, he went back to the grind that offseason, and when he and the Bulls returned, with some guy named Dennis Rodman, the next season, it was all business… 72-10 business and the start of another three peat. Yeah, that comeback was pretty memorable.
Next, I think of the Buffalo Bills Houston Oilers playoff game from back in the day. I just happened to be watching that game. It was during the Bills run of 4 Super Bowl appearances with zero titles; man, how painful does that have to be? The Bills were awesome during that stretch; I liked their team. Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed… liked Cornelius Bennett and Bruce Smith on their defense. It was a likeable team and for every Super Bowl loss they turned in, I rooted for them more; this is part of the reason I wouldn’t mind seeing the Bills win a Super Bowl today, that is, if the Bears aren’t involved. Anyways, I loved the Oilers too… talk about the greatest show on turf. With Warren Moon chucking the ball around the field, and Ernest Givens, Haywood Jeffries, Drew Hill… I’m doing this all of the top, so don’t mind if I get a name wrong or miss somebody. The Oilers came out in that game in Buffalo and were crushing the Bills, who were playing with their backup QB Frank Reich. They had to be down by like 30 points; it was over… until it wasn’t. The Bills came storming back, winning an absolute instant classic of a game. This one sticks out in my head.
OK, maybe we keep up with this over the next couple weeks of posts, as I make my own personal comeback in probably my longest drought in this here website’s history. Let’s go!!!
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