2000 Sugar Bowl, Vick and Virginia Tech > FSU for the championship.

For the Saints, despite some of the more obvious/hilarious embarrassments, my choice is a more subtle one: September 26, 2010. Saints lose 27-24 in OT to the Falcons after Garrett Hartley honks a 29-yard FG in extra time. Falcons finish 13-3 and get the #1 seed; Saints finish 11-5 and travel to 7-9 Seattle and lose in the first round.

If the Saints win that, they win the division from Atlanta by virtue of sweeping them. They get HFA throughout the playoffs and a legit shot at defending their Super Bowl. Beast Mode never happens. (Or it happens to the Falcons: Bonus.)

I would have also liked it if the Dome Patrol Saints had won even one playoff game, but on balance I'd rather a real shot at another Super Bowl.

In college, Rice football beating Mississippi State in the Liberty Bowl would have been the biggest win in school history, as well as a massive, massive turnaround from what actually happened. Also I was there and would have gone ape **** on Beale Street that night.

So you are just assuming the last 3 mos of the season stays exactly the same? Seems beyond the scope of the thread.

Why wouldn't it? We're changing the result of exactly one game.

Tribe wins game 7 of 1997 WS

Why not just change the result of the Seahawk game? I mean at least that way you guarantee one playoff win instead of a 1st round loss at home?

ugh

Curb Your Enthusiasm, tho

First-round bye. Assuming the GB-PHI wild card result remained the same, we'd host the Packers in the divisional, instead of going on the road to play the Bears.

Even the power of this thread would not be able to undo beast quake.

Butterfly effect tho

The people that are changing draft picks from Alex Smith to Rodgers are doing so thinking it changes future outcomes as well.

I understand the butterfly effect, but looking over the season I couldn't find a reason to believe any specific game would change as a result.

well if you only change the one game then you could never make the Super Bowl because you didn't win those games irl. Just change the Super Bowl that year to winning it instead of beating the Falcons.

Just say Dale wins the Daytona 500 that year or whatever event that was. I think we could safely deduce that he doesn't die and win the event. Though he could of course cross the finish line in relatively the same fashion, smashing into the wall and dying still.

I think the whole season would have to be resimulated.

But, maybe the Falcons, now having a 1 seed to play for in week 16, swing that game to a close win over the Saints.

Good choice, right? Changes the narrative for a whole city.

ugh

thinking about the circumstances of that game hurts my chest

Right. But I was only allowed to choose one devastating Vikings loss

Eric Gregg and Livan Hernandez are caught sucking each other off before game 5 of the 1997 NLCS and Gregg is forced to recuse himself.

Twelve other gay MLBers come out as gay to calm the backlash against Livan.

Lol'd