PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Most HEARTBREAKING Moments Valley Sports Has EVER Seen...

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

From the 2021 NBA Finals that saw the Phoenix Suns blow a 2-0 lead, to the entire collapse of the Arizona Coyotes franchise, Arizona Sports teams in the valley have had a ROUGH run of it. Erik Ruby is joined by Craig Morgan to dive into the greatest collapses in the history of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona State Sun Devils, Arizona Coyotes and the Phoenix Suns. An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Indeed: listeners of this show will get a $75 SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity. Terms and conditions apply.  Need to hire? You need Indeed. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items.Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, I don't really want to have this conversation. I feel like it's needed, and that's why I called Craig Morgan. It's another edition of Southwest Bias. Get those stuff out of here. It's Southwest Bias. Coming to you live from Studio K, presented by Circle K, join that inner circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions do apply at participating locations.

Visit CircleK.com for details. I just want to do a mental health check with you, Craig, because you, Espo, Jesse Freeman, collaborated on a very well-written. I struggle to say great article because of how much it pulls on the heartstrings over on go-Ph-next.com, recapping the worst collapses in ASU, Cardinals, coyotes, deep acts, and Sun's history. Valley Sports. You're welcome Wildcats fans, the facts that you don't have to go when we love this.

Yeah, we know that you sometimes suffer or not. But here's the truth, right? Like Wildcat basketball, they got a lot of good things to, you know, look back upon, right? I mean, I know they haven't won a national championship in a while or got into a final four, but there's some good seasons down there. It's not like a good basketball teams. It's not like ASU basketball. Okay.

Let's just put that out there. Greg, we are already going to the gutter. We don't need to dig any deeper, okay? Listen, man, this is the world that I lived in for a quarter century covering the coyote. So this is, this is old hat to me, honestly, but for the rest of you, yeah, we're calling this episode. Hello, Darkness, the Valley's old friend. No, seriously, though, like, I know a lot of Valley sports fans. They're hardened at this point.

So you're probably watching or listening to this, which if you're watching, give a thumbs up, subscribe to PH&X Sports. If you're listening, thank you. Make sure you rate five stars and subscribe and whatever feed that you're hearing this is probably going to go in a lot of them. Considering a lot of teams have had misery in their franchise history, let's save the coyotes for last. We'll get to an old friend last.

Let's start with the team, which is the reason why we're going to be. we're even doing this whole dang thing, Craig. That's the Arizona Diamondbacks. We'll save this year for last. Let's go in chronological order. August and September of 2008, the Diamondbacks, they were playing real well. They had a great pitching staff.

They had a four and a half game lead on the division. Leading the Dodgers. Diamondbacks go 0 and 5 against the Dodgers in their next 10 days. Their division lead evaporated by the early September day of September 5th. It was never recovered. Craig, what do you remember about the 2008 collapse? I remember it. It felt a lot like the 2018 collapse, which we're going to get to next,

and which Jesse really captured well, I thought, in his subhead. The first one for September 2008 was Dodgers catch fire, eliminate debacks. And then in 2018, August September, Dodgers catch fire, eliminate debacks part two. Ten years later, it's the follow-up. Yes, exactly. Come on. That's what it was. I can't say specifically what I have.

remember about 2008, but I remember the collapse. The more recent ones are the ones that stick in my memory in 2018. Obviously, we got some feels after that. They went to a World Series unexpectedly. But it's worse, I think, when the Diamond Bies collapsed to the Dodgers. Of all teams, they're such a hatred for the Valley. Let's be honest. I think the public enemy number one.

Yeah, there's a little bit of an inferiority complex. Let's put it out there. Let's just go ahead and say it. We're already talking about the bad parts, man. But when it's the Dodgers of all teams, yeah. Oh, congratulations that you won, you know, with your whatever payroll, whatever it was at that point, far more than most teams get to spend. Don't get me started on Major League Baseball's lack of a salary cap and the inequity that it creates on the field.

But yeah, when it's the Dodgers, it really stinks. Yeah, and it also stings when you're 15 games over 500 if we're moving to 2018. Let's just, let's say it's going to be between 2018 and 2024 for which team was, which is the worst collapse for the Diamondbacks? 71 and 56 on August 22nd. By the end of the season, you're just two games above 500. You lost 24 of your final 35 games. And of course, the Dodgers end up in first place in the NL West.

What is it about the Diamondbacks about being one of the best teams in baseball and then just somehow completely forgetting how to play baseball by the end of the season? I think it's in their Valley DNA. It's in their Valley DNA. And of course, that's what happened this year. Obviously, you Diamondbacks fans, you know all too well. And even in the poll that PH&X dimebacks put out a whopping 77.7% of you voted for this season's, the Diamondbacks fumbling a seven-game lead in the wildcard race. I believe they had over a 90% chance of making the playoffs.

A 96.8% chance prediction of making the playoffs at a certain point in the season, holding the top wildcard spot, a seven-game lead. And it all comes down to it, not even being in your own hands, Craig. You're watching a Braves-Mets doubleheader where they end up both celebrating with each other. After splitting that series and both of them making the NL wild card, this one stung. Yeah, that's why this one rises to the top for me, Eric, because, well, first off, they're coming off a World Series appearance, as we just talked about. They just spent so much money. They spent a ton of money to get better. Some of that didn't work out as Ken Kendrick laid out very clearly.

You really had a feeling this season might be special for the Diamondbacks. They were building something. Tori Lovell looked like he had everything working. and have it collapse like this. And then like you just said, it's such a classic valley thing to not even be in control of it. And you can make the argument, of course, if they had won more games, they would have been in control. But to sit there and have to watch on the final day of the season, not even take the field and have a hand in it and then have this crazy format where each team in that doubleheader knows, oh, he needs a split. What incentive was there for the team that won the first game to go hard in game two?

It should be a format that should be changed. It's a bad format, but it makes sense that it victimized. As I mentioned in the story, it makes sense that it victimized the valley, just like the old lottery format victimized the coyotes when Edmond jumped up and got Connor McDavid. And oh, by the way, they changed the rule after that. Sorry, I know where we're saving the coyotes, but let it out. I got to it. No, let it out. It's okay.

Listen, the thing with this Diamondback season is it is the Diamondbacks fall, right? You can point at everything else. You can point at all the collapse. So you can point the weather because the weather is the only reason why there was a doubleheader on this day in the first place. The MLB didn't plan for this to happen, right? That makes you wonder? The weather intervened. The weather.

The weather. The Diamondbacks cannot. They said they cannot make the playoffs. But the Diamondbacks really got in their own way. And you think back to multiple points in the season where they just had terrible stretches. I believe it was a July stretch where Paul Seawald blew about two or three consecutive saves. And again, you win one of those games. You are in the playoffs. It is that fan of the Martin.

Yeah. thin of a margin. You had an A2 lead over the Braves in a game, but the Braves ended up coming back and winning. And I think what makes it sting the most is because Diamondbacks fans were riding on a high, again, not just coming off of the World Series, but the fact that a relatively cheap ownership decided to spend not just some money, but a lot of money put together what was presumed to be one of the best starting rotations in baseball, right? And then you have a Cattel Marte near MVP-style season. Of course, he gets injured at the end, which kind of stops his run, but he still played like one.

Corbyn Carroll bounces back. Christian Walker has an incredible season. You really had so many good parts. They had the best offense in all of baseball. And they missed the playoffs. I think that's clearly number one. Let's move on to the Suns. There's always next year.

Yeah. Yeah, we'll see if they continue to spend money. Let's go chronologically with the Sun. Start with blowing a 3-1 lead in the 1995 conference semifinals against the Rockets. Now, this is the one that got the least amount of votes under the three options on the PH&X Sun's Twitter poll. but I do think this one does warrant a lot of consideration, considering the fact that a non-Michael Jordan led East

was waiting for you on the other side of this conference semifinal. Sons blew a 3-1 lead against the Rockets, who ended up, of course, going on and winning a championship that year. What comes to mind when I rip that Band-Aid off? Well, first off, that they blew a 3-1 series lead against this team. But yeah, Jordan had retired after the Bulls won their third straight title in 93. There was this opening.

There was this void that somebody needed to fill. And of course, Akim Olajuwon was one of the legendary players of the NBA. But I thought the Rockets were a flawed team. And I thought the Sons, if they came back with the sort of effort that they came back with or came with when Charles first arrived here in 92, 93, they were the favorite. They should have won it. You can talk to people on the inside. And I think the reason this probably finished lower is because it happened so long ago. A lot of people don't remember it.

But if you talk to people who were around for it, this one still may be number one in their minds. I don't think Charles committed the same way. And I think a lot of people on the inside will tell you he did not commit to the same sort of training that he did that first season when he was so driven and so convinced that they were going to win the title.

Even when they fell down to the Bulls early on in that series, we just didn't see the same Charles Barkley. And this two-year gap where Jordan retired, where there was opportunity, the Rockets rose up and took it both seasons. And the problem was, again, you were up 3-1. You had a double-digit lead at halftime, right?

Barclay has 23 rebounds in game 7. KJ has 46 points. But it all comes down to freaking Mario Ellie. And the kiss of death. So we'll keep that in consideration. I do think it definitely deserves more than 8.2%. One thing we should mention, Danny Manning was out too. And that's the thing.

You have the best record in the league. In 93 people are like, oh, if Cedric Sabalos had been healthy, they would have beat the Bulls. And I just laugh at that. No, no, you would have. you weren't beating Michael Jordan. But if Danny Manning had played, they might have gotten past the rocket.

So just another thing to think about. Yeah, it hurts. It's something that you can't control. Yeah. Something where I remember watching and feeling completely out of control was game seven of the 2022 Western Conference semifinals where the Mavericks absolutely routed the suns on the road in footprint center, 123 to 90. This was the Suns team that won, of course, the most games in franchise history at 64,

the power of friendship, the power of continuity, the power of internal. development. That game's dumb, Craig. Not only did it stinks. Like, where was the compete level? Right. And there's theories. There are theories to what's going on with the team and everything. Chemistry, all that. But not even just get some. Some say health. But at the end of the day, there was zero effort. They were dead to rights at half time. I don't care what the situation is. I need to see fight from a team in game seven in that situation. You're playing. And they didn't show up. And that's really distressing. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm going to be.

honest with you, we could dive into that one, but I think the easiest thing to sum it up is they didn't show up. The Mavericks did, and that is now a stain on their record. And it is a big stain in the now rivalry between Luca Donchich and the Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns. I think the next one, though, it takes the cake just simply because of the stakes that come along with it. The 2021 NBA Finals, the Sons were up to 1-20 over the Bucks. And of course, Janis, Drew Holiday. Mike Boodenholzer now current Sunset coach are able to storm back and take the win, not even in seven games. They take it in six. I do remember, I don't know why I was so confident considering Valley Sports History, but I remember thinking the Sun's had this one wrapped up. Yeah, you go up

2-0 in a series. You should be able to win the series. You're talking about the other team needing to win four of the next five, not let alone just sweeping the next four, which you don't expect to happen. And listen, he did play like a Greek God, right? Yeah, Janus was unbelievable in that series. But you can't pull a 2-0 series lead in the final. It was this close. It was this close. This franchise, as far as NBA franchise goes, go, I think more than any other, how do they not have a title at this point? This has been such a consistently good franchise.

Top five winning percentage in NBA history. How do they not have a title by now? They've had some crazy occurrences along the way. They've run into tough opponents like the Michael Jordan led Bowls. But at this point, the Sun should have a title. And this was probably their best shot. You go up to O in a series. You got to close it out.

It always feels like something gets in their way, but this is one of the few times where it actually just felt like, yes, there were health problems. I mean, Abdel Nader got finals minutes. Of course, they were definitely struggling on the health side of things. But at that point in the season, everyone is. Everybody is. Yep. Right. Out of all of their kind of misery, game seven, you can point to, you know, there are theories of the team had COVID, whatever. In the 3-1 lead to Houston, it's like, that team is just better than you. Yonis played better. Drew Holiday played better. Middleton played better. Boothin'Holes are coached better. And it stung because, again, you were up to zero. Devin Booker had an incredible finals run, incredible finals performance. And you never do know if the Sons are going to get back there. That's how fickle it is. So now we've got Dynabacks this year's collapse.

Sons, the 2021 finals collapse. Let's move over to the Cardinals. Okay. Steelers Cardinals, 2008. Screwed or not screwed, Craig? You know, I, if this is hard, to say to Valley fans, but I've watched a lot of replays. He was in bounds.

He was in bounds. My heart stopped just for a second there. And I know Doug Tamara's going to watch this in a great. Oh, Doug is going to be calling you and saying, thank you, Craig. Thank you for finally admitting the truth. Listen, it was a very close call. But the thing that stands out to me in this game, aside from Harrison's return right before half time, which Johnny Minerbaugh went off on, as the reason he hates Bruce

Springsteen, you need to go watch that clip on YouTube if you haven't already. the thing that jumped out of me, I had just started covering the Cardinals at the start of that playoff run and nobody saw it coming. They're nine and seven. Worst team in the playoffs. That's what everyone was saying.

And like in the worst playoff team in NFL history, they were six and oh in the division and nine and seven overall. So they went three and seven against the rest of the NFL and the NFC West was god awful at that point. So everybody's like,

there's no chance this team is doing anything. They got to get on this run. And then the Kurt Warner Titi passed to Larry. Fitzgerald where he's looking up at the scoreboard while he's running into the end zone to see where the pursuit is. That should have been an iconic moment. It still is in Valley history, but it's not it is like it is iconic. Yeah. But it's iconic in the sense of oh well that could have been not. Yeah. That could have been unbelievable. Yeah. Remember that?

Remember that? And we haven't started that yet, have we? We need to start that. Yeah. You don't know what we're talking about. You will at some point. The thing with this one, I do look ahead and I obviously you know being on the younger side of things I look at the next two options that we're choosing from and it's hard for me to remember this Super Bowl against the Steelers as clearly as it is the 2014 season and 2021 season that we'll get into but purely from a stakes perspective this is the biggest one yeah but like you said this team had no expectations and even have a lead in the Super Bowl with something that if you go to the beginning of that season for Cardinals fans you said hey you're going to have you don't you don't have a guarantee to you what's going to happen. Right. But you're going to have a lead in the Super Bowl. You take that season 100 times out of 100. It's on the opposite end when a team plays really well, and then they collapse.

And we'll get to 2021 in a second, but first, let's stop at 2014. Carson Palmer tears his ACL. Bruce Ariens, they're rolling. Carson Palmer, career rehabilitated. Everything was real nice for the Red Sea until it wasn't. I really thought that team had an opportunity to win a Super Bowl. Yeah. They had the swagger.

They had the defense. They had the playmakers. Carson Palmer was amazing that season. And Bruce just infused this confidence in the team. I hadn't seen it. Obviously, I haven't covered the Cardinals forever, but we know the Cardinals history. Bruce infused a confidence in that group. They had a swagger, and it really felt like this could be a special season.

And then on a completely innocuous play, he just steps wrong. He said the turf gave way, blows out his ACL, and you end up. with Drew Stanton and then eventually Ryan Linley in the playoffs. And it's still almost one, as Bruce pointed out to me, with Ryan Linley. But Carson was so good that season and I remember I was in the press room when

he was walking out, he was going to leave but then he did a detour and walked into the newsroom, held an impromptu news conference to talk to us. It was such a class act and you could just while he was trying to... Yeah, he was trying to put a stiff upper lip on, but you could tell

he knew that you don't get opportunities like this very long. He knew what was lost. It was just so hard to watch. And I had so much respect for him showing up in that moment to talk to us in spite of just this agony. He admitted he was crying. He was crying in the aftermath of that.

And of course, Cardinals fans were too after that playoff performance. Well, right. The reason why this is a very devastating moment, but to me, I don't always, I don't equate injuries to collapses, right? So Carson Palmer tearing is ACL. If Carson Palmer is able to play that game, again, you almost run with one with Ryan Lindley. You could argue that if Drew Staten played that game, that you win that game against Carolina. I can't put that on the whole team, though.

What I can put on the whole team, what I can put on the coaching staff through and through front to back is the 2021 season. Now, I was covering the Cardinals for this season. I do remember all of this very vividly starting 7 and 0, starting 10 and 2. Kyler Murray, this is before the, oh, all he does is play Call of Duty, Nary. started, oh, this is before the homework clause. This is before all the extension talk. This is before Cliff Kingsbury's absolute demise. Obviously, injuries derailed this season.

But you end after starting against 7-0, 10-2, with one of the most embarrassing playoff performances I have ever seen in my entire life against a Los Angeles Rams, your division rival. This is, to me, the one that's the rawest and most real because I experienced it in obviously years that I remember better. And that's what our poll says as well. But the stakes weren't as high.

Where do you stand on 2021 versus the Super Bowl? I'm taking the Super Bowl. I think in our polls there's a lot of recency bias. Yeah, that's very fair. But you're this close to winning a Super Bowl. You're this close to winning a title. I'm sorry. It's hard to get past that magnitude.

Okay. And again, Ken Wisenhunt said at the time, we knew we left him too much time on the clock. He knew what Ben Roslisberger was capable of. But on the flip side, you know, you've got one drive to win it. Yeah. Hey, play some defense. Make a play.

Make a play and win the Super Bowl. And it's a game of inches too. I mean, it really comes, maybe centimeters, right? It really comes down to just a few centimeters. The reason why they lost the game. Okay, so we'll stick with the Super Bowl for the Cardinals. We have the Super Bowl for the Cardinals, the finals for the Sons. That just stings to all say.

And of course, this year the Diamondbacks blowing their wild card lead. Let's go with the loss team before we hit a break. And that is ASU. Craig, I'll let you start. Where do you want to start with ASU? Because guess what? There's a lot to choose from. Yeah, there's a lot.

And this was really tough to whittle down. I got a lot of suggestions for this one. And I'm happy to say that I wasn't around for this first one. Okay, good. Because you probably assumed I was, didn't you? No, I did. Okay. Thank you for that.

The 1981 NCAA tournament second round. Kansas beats Arizona State after ASU got a buy. It was a number two seed when you look at that roster. Three NBA first round picks. Five. Fat Leber by. Aaron Scott and Alton Lister. And then two second round picks.

This was a team that was stacked. That was probably legendary coaches, Ned Wolk's best team that he ever fielded for the Sundevils. And yet they go out in the second round and it wasn't particularly close. They got hammered by Kansas. That's a tough one. I think when I talked to the old timers, they still remember that one as one that really stung because they thought that team

with the obvious talent it had and great guard play, which is always so key in the NCAA tournament. They bow out without even much of a. fight. That many NBA players is insane. And not just players that made to the NBA, but players that actually did see a good amount of success. Yeah, you've heard of those guys. Yeah, you've heard of those guys. And some people might be like Alton Lister, it's like, for those of you who aren't familiar with that era of basketball, you probably don't know who Alton Lister is. But he wasn't just some dude who had, who had five games in the NBA and then left. He was around for a little bit. Now, obviously

this one is the last one in our poll just because I think time-wise, of course, like you mentioned recency bias, but I think another thing that goes along in all of this is, Mark, Mark, Madness, the NCAA tournament, it's so fickle. You see so many upsets. Again, probably could have included about five for Arizona basketball if they were included in this one. It's a little tougher to say, oh, you know, like there's, it's, it's the collapse. But to get blown out.

To get blown out is tough. To get blown out is tough. You got fat, I mean, you talked about Alistair. Fat Lever was an all star. Byron Scott played alongside Magic Johnson and was winning NBA titles. Yeah, it was one of the best players on that team winning the NBA titles. Yeah. Fat Lever was the most underrated Mr. Triple Double.

that the NBA's ever seen. I just don't think that that holds a candle to the Rose Bowl. Yeah, that's... I mean, just saying it, right? Just saying it. Yeah. And when you look at the stars on that team, Jake Plummer had just a ridiculous here.

He was a Heisman trophy finalist always seemed to find a way to will this team to victory. And I'm not saying it was only Jake because they had a phenomenal defense. They shut out Nebraska. The two-time defending champs were on, I think it was a 26th winning streak. shut them out 19-0. And that was their, basically the wake-up call for the rest of the nation. Hey, ASU is going to be a force to be reckoned with. And they were.

They had some unbelievable victories over the Southern California schools, which, again, as we stated earlier, they always like beating. Phoenix always likes beating L.A. Then you get to the Rose Bowl. And it, again, to add, to stick a little knife in, who's the quarterback for Ohio State? He's not just some guy from Ohio or any other state. No, no, no. He played at Mesa Mountain View, was winning state championships there, and then he ends up at Ohio State. You get a lead again because of Jake, the scramble, the snake.

He eluded guys and got into the end zone and you're thinking, my God, they're going to win a national championship. They're undefeated. Two PIs. And we can talk about whether those PIs were legit, but then a blown coverage on future Cardinal, David Boston for the game winning touchdown. 19 seconds. Come on. 19 seconds left, right? Again, at the end of the game, you have a lead.

Yeah. Obviously, you can point to refs for a lot of things and people do. And you can argue if they're PIs or not, even to be in that position where, hey, you've got two PIs, you still lost because of blown coverage. And a red shirt freshman, that's a tough spot to be in with the Roseville on the line with the lead. That's a tough spot. And that's a moment that, you know, ASU football has failed to put themselves back in that position that close to winning something that important since then. That, to me, it's very clearly the winner. Winner, geez.

The biggest loser are pulling P.HNX, Sundevils, but let's also consider the end of the Dennis Erickson era in 2011. To also throw in there. Because they were right in high, baby. That was one of the most bizarre seasons I've ever covered in any sport. What do you remember? I just remember so hot they were early on, and it looked like they were putting everything together. Brock Osweiler was setting school records. Fontes Perfect had that unbelievable game on prime.

time against USC at Sun Devil Stadium where he just owned Mac Barkley. That was that was shaping up to be a really special season. I don't think they were a national championship contender that season, but they were a force in the pack. And then you think they could have won the pack? Yeah. Well, yeah, maybe if they had a kicker for starters. But everything seemed to collapse at the same time.

There was weird stuff happening internally on that team. But I was at the Roseville for that UCLA game when they were. they gave up the third and 29 play what are you doing how do you give that up just put the game away right there shut ucLA down ucLA scores but brock osweiler still puts them in position for the game winning field goal i'm just going to say this because i've never said it publicly but i'm on the field with dug holler who was covered in the game for the republic at the time and alice garrut had already missed two kicks in that game Doug looks at me and says is he going to make it and i said not a chance And then when you heard the sound of the kick, it just sounded sick from the start.

It was short. It was wide right. It had no chance. And everything just collapsed. From there they didn't win again. They had the crazy Las Vegas bowl where like guys were out partying the night before the bowl game, including I think the coaching staff. And then the Dennis Erickson era was over. But there's no comparison between that season and the Rose Bowl, even though it still suck.

It was a crazy collapse to witness. Right. Again, when you're talking about national championship this close, and then it gets ripped away, yeah, that's number one for me. All right. Coyotes, I'm just going to, I'm going to keep this relatively quick. Is there any chance the 1999 Western Conference quarter finals of the 2019-2020 season even comes close to 23-24 with the Coyote's franchise collapses within itself and relocates to Salt Lake City? No. Is there any argument?

No. Okay. For this one, I mean, the poll is correct. So, yeah, it was overwhelming. That one is 82% with Coyotechates. I think the other ones were just fat fingers. They accidentally clicked the other ones. Yeah.

I don't know how you can genuinely take any singular loss or any season collapse and put it with the collapse of a franchise. And what we're going to do on the other side of this break is talk about if any of the games that we had just talked about in detail, come close to the coyotes relocating. Because unfortunately, we're talking about so many Arizona sports teams hitting the floor, but you want your floors to be a lot cleaner than the ones that we are talking about. And that's why you want to call Empire today. The words easy, quick, and convenient are an easy, quick, and convenient way to talk about Empire today.

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It's huge. It's everything. I care about my flooring. and they have unbelievable options. We've talked about this. We have some in our own studio. We do have some in our studio. It's held up great.

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you can also save $350 to $350 off. When you use the promo code, PH&X, some restrictions do apply. Cempiretoday.com slash pH and X for detailed. It's been a rugged road for a lot of these Valley sports teams. But I'm going to spend that to a positive way because our friends over at Rugged Road just have fantastic coolers. They're all about creating innovative and durable outdoor gear for adventures who demand the best.

What if I told you you could put ice and your drinks and maybe some foods you want to keep cool for a Saturday game for ASU? And you could leave that cooler and all that stuff in there until the next Saturday, or in this case it'd be Friday against Utah, and all those contents would still be cool. You got to love that. I was afraid you were going to talk about me being an outdoorsman, which I'm not. No, you won't see me cap it. But you know what I think I could use it for?

You know, Halloween's around the corner. You do like to host a good get-together. Well, Halloween's around the corner. You know, sometimes you like to do the trick-or-treating out in your driveway. It's a little hot in Arizona in case you haven't noticed the temperatures haven't dropped yet. I can have that cooler right next to me and keep my refreshments. Yeah, yeah. Might even keep the candy in there so the chocolate doesn't melt.

Ooh, that's actually a really good idea. I mean, Rugger Road's perfect if you're having a tailgate, if you're just having a party, some great design features of them floatability. You can put it in a pool. It's going to stay upright, lightweight, durable, designed to last. Again, keeps everything cold for seven or more days. get ready for your summer adventures in summers 24-7 here in Arizona with rugged road coolers. Head to rugged road outdoors.com.

Use code pH and X for 10% off your order. Lightweight, durable, always floating upright, perfect on land or in water. So leave that old heavy cooler at home. Get yourself a better cooler for a new season. Rugged Road, your ultimate outdoor campaign. Let's go one by one with our winners and we're doing it like a heavyweight fight. We're going to wank them? It's coyotes relocating versus all of the other competitors.

Let's go in the same order that we talked about it. Diamondbacks this season seven game wildcard collapses. Is there any argument that that's even close? No. No. Not with losing a team. And listen, I'm just going to say this right now. If we're ranking these and I don't mind ranking them.

We can. I know it's fresh in everyone's mind and I know it's really painful. That diamond backs collapsed to me, that drops all the way to the bottom. That's dead last. It's fifth on this list of the top ones. Okay. Okay. So then let's go to, I don't know if this would be your next one.

Let's just go to ASU. Let's go to ASU. Rose Bowl. is that I'm assuming that's higher than Diamondbacks it's higher than Diamondbacks so here's a spoiler alert Coyotes is going to win we're figuring out the rankings underneath but just to paint the picture

is it even remotely close I don't think when you lose your team we don't have an in angel franchise to kick around or talk about anymore it's kind of hard to top that what was interesting to me Eric is how you rank the next three because the Cardinals lost at the end of the Super Bowl

ASU lost at the end of the Rose Bowl and the Sons had a 2-0 lead in the NBA finals. How do you rank those? I don't even know the answer. Is it a three-way time? I think it comes down to personally what are you more invested in. That's fair.

Whichever your team you're a fan of the most. I think also it comes to like what's closer? Well, the Sons were up 2-0. Both of these football games were coming down to the last few minutes. Yeah. Right? The Sons eventually were down in the series and lost 4-2.

It didn't even go to Game 7. that is a big collapse. It is. But does it sting the most? I think I would probably put the suns and I, the sons are my team. Suns are my team. That's what I care about the most. So like personal pain, that's probably one, but taking like an objective point of view,

blowing a series lead versus collapsing in the final minutes when you could taste the championship for the Rose Bowl right there. So stick them for. So we'll put suns. So then we go Cardinals and we go ASU. Cardinals second, ASU third. Here's the tough flip because. I don't know, because they're both last second wins. I guess, I guess ASU is technically a little closer to the end, right?

Yeah, yeah, I guess. I mean, they both are right there. They both literally come down to the last second. Yeah, I don't know how you rank those two. I think you're right. It's whichever team you're more invested in. I mean, the Super Bowl is kind of a big deal. It's, it is the American sports.

It's the American fast. If you want to maybe give like, for ASU, you know, they did have that season where they almost won the national championship. and they didn't. But this wasn't a national championship like, hey. And it wasn't guaranteed, right? We would have to wait for the poll. So maybe that's the reason.

We slide ASU to three. Because for a Super Bowl winner, you, again, you overcome this thought of, hey, you're not even supposed to be in the playoffs. Then you're up. You have a lead over the Steelers. Yeah, you gave them time, but you had every opportunity in the world to get a stop.

And then you have one of the more controversial plays and Valley Sports history to stick the nail right in the coffin. Yeah. Okay. And then, of course, number one is the coyotes collapsing. Are you crying yet? Well, through your tears, make sure you hit that like button, even if you disliked this topic. Hit the like button for Craig Morgan and catch all this fantastic work over at go phx.com,

including the written version of what we just dissected here on video and on audio. Of course, Craig, also for you ASU fans, especially you ASU hockey fans, did a little get-to-know 10 things you need to know about this ASU hockey team as they embark on what will be an extremely exciting season. and the best conference in college hockey. It should be a really good time. Make sure you check out all this fantastic work. Of course, he's covering the Cardinals for P.H and X Cardinals. You can follow them at P.HNX underscore Cardinals. On Twitter, you're Craig J. Morgan?

Is that a S? S. It's right. Somebody has a middle initial J. I'm sorry for messing that up. But now you know, Craig S. Morgan out on Twitter. Make sure you give him a follow as he covers the Cardinals and absolutely everything going on in the Valley. Of course, you can catch me on P.

P.NX.X.S. Devils five days a week. We have a post game against Kansas coming up on Saturday. You can follow that at P H&X underscore Sundevils. If you need Sunnows, Wildcats, Cardinals, hockey content. You can find all of that right here on PHNX Sports by subscribing. Hang that like button. You can even turn notifications on if you feel so inclined. You're going to follow me at E R-I-K-R-U-B-Y.

And we will be back next week for, I'm crossing my fingers, a way happier edition of Southwest bias because episode number one this week was about the Cardinals' loss of the commanders and episode number two. I love talking to you, Craig. We just went 30 minutes on pure misery. So hopefully next week, it's a lot happier on Southwest Bias. Get that stuff out of here.

It's Southwest Bias.