There is a “blew a 3-1 lead” club forming in sports — sort of.
After his team blew a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl, Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn received a text from Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, whose team blew a 3-1 lead in the 2016 NBA Finals. Later, at the NFL owners meetings, he spoke to Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona, whose team also blew a 3-1 lead in the World Series.
Quinn also spoke to San Antonio Spurs general manager R.C. Buford and Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, both of whom have suffered their own devastating championship losses.
“It was more like, ‘Hey, man, it’s tough,'” Quinn said Wednesday, via John Keim of ESPN. “But this is what we signed up for. As a real competitor, that’s the attitude you can take, to say this is the world we live in, embrace it.
“When you have the disappointment at the end, you’re not over it, you’re past it, but it’s OK to let it fuel you where you can to go. That’s where I’m at.”
Quinn said the conversations with his fellow coaches and executives are about figuring out how to move on from such a painful defeat — and help the players move on as well.
“When it ends with a loss, it’s hard,” Quinn said. “[It’s] how you handle your team, how you handle the emotions of that.
“I wanted to make sure when I get a chance, whether it’s our sport other sports … to share and learn and gain perspective on how you handle a team and how you handle the players, how you handle the relationship between the owner, GM and head coach or manager. Those are topics that come up.”
There’s no easy way to move past a loss like that. You have to deal with the jokes, the memes, and the thoughts of what could have been. Seeking advice from Kerr and Francona, who have had to deal with their own bad losses, is probably smart.
