Guten Tag, drones.

I just remembered about Monday and Mock Drafts and such while sitting in front of my computer in stunned silence as the UConn Hockey Team Made Up As Individuals Identifying As Male lost in OT of the NCAA play-offs, with a chance to go to their very first Frozen Four, (is there a cooler name in play-offs?  I think not), in what was a thrilling and emotional game, if not one that I would say was high is technical proficiency.

The thing about college hockey is that, with few exceptions, most of the really good 18-22-year-old players are already playing at some level of professional hockey.  NIL may start to change that at the bigger schools, but for now you have to sit through a lot of sloppy puck control, missed passes, squandered shot opportunities, and general not-goodness.  That said, hockey is an insanely emotional game, and watching your alma mater go toe-to-toe with a much more established program, (after defeating a former NCAA champion in the first round), is still thrilling, until they lose in an OT they were dominating, in which case it’s a real kick in the nuts.

Which brings us to this week’s topic:

Devastating Losses.

Yep, this week we take those heart-breaking defeats suffered by your favorite teams.  Please confine your picks to college and/or professional sports.  No one wants to hear about your high school falling just short in the State quarter-finals, and really no one wants to hear about your high school girlfriend (who we wouldn’t know), because her barrel never came up after going over Niagara Falls.

With the first pick I will Dallas’s loss in The Catch Game.

A young Horatio Cornblower learned a lot that day in 1981, including that the Cowboys weren’t always going to win, that Danny White probably wasn’t the answer to “What do we do now that Roger Staubach is gone,” and how to hate the 49ers with the white hot fury of a thousand Suns.

Dwight Clark died at 61 from ALS.  Even I do not hate Clark or the 49ers that much.

The rest of you are on the clock.