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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"It was an opponent Nanoha-chan wouldn't have had any problem protecting her allies from or defeating if she had been her usual self. But the strain of overexerting herself made Nanoha-chan less capable, and her body slowed down at a crucial moment. The result... was [[Game-Breaking Injury|this]]."''
|'''Shamal''', ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS]]''}}
A type of fandom-based [[Author's Saving Throw]], this is the specific rationalization that a character suffering from [[The Worf Effect]] or a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] did so only because something (artificially) undermined their performance. The insinuation, of course, is that it probably wouldn't have happened this way under "normal" circumstances.
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A type of [[Drama-Preserving Handicap]]. Compare [[Actually a Doombot]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', Ichigo's poor performance in his battles against Ulquiorra and Yammy, as well as his first battle against Grimmjow, is attributed to his difficulty suppressing his inner hollow. {{spoiler|When he does manage to control his inner hollow, he is still unable to defeat Grimmjow the second time, and loses to Ulquiorra the first time he fights him in Las Noches.}}
** In the Arrancar arc, Hitsugaya, Rangiku and Renji are losing to their Arrancar enemies, but then they get permission to release their [[Power Limiter]]s, and easily defeat their foes. Being limited to 1/5 of one's power is a pretty crippling handicap.
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* In the anime ''[[Berserk]]'', Casca actually loses and needs rescuing from her first battle with Adon Corbowitz. While tending to her Guts notes blood between her thighs and comments to himself how it must be hard for a woman mercenary. The next time she and Adon meet, the beatdown goes the other way.
** It's also a [[Chekhov's Gun]], as she's seen being 'out of it' earlier. Furthermore, as in case the viewer doesn't get it, Adon says, when being beat down: "YOU HAD PMS!?"
* ''[[One Piece
** Earlier in the manga, Sanji was wounded by Pearl and nearly lost to Gin.
** In the Skypiea arc, Luffy, Zoro and Sanji are unable to fight well against Wiper because they have not adapted to Skypiea's higher elevation and thinner atmosphere. Luffy manages to get over this by the time he fights the White Berets, and throughout the rest of the arc, there is no suggestion that the characters are fighting at anything less than their full potential.
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** This was the primary reason Franky was struggling against Fukurou, despite having previously overpowered Blueno; As he was lacking in Cola, his attacks were decreased in effectiveness and power. Once he got his cola back...
** Seriously, many of Zoro's battles had him at some sort of disadvantage or not at his full potential. In the battle with Cabaji, he was already injured from Buggy's earlier attack. When fighting Hachi, he was still recovering from his wounds from his fight with Mihawk and had a fever on top of that. He had difficulty with Mr 1 since Mr 1's body can become steel, something Zoro couldn't cut at the time. During the Davy Jones game, he wasn't able to use his swords due to the rules. He only had two swords with him during the fight against Ryuuma. And against Oz, he was still getting used to his new sword Shunsui. With Kuma, he had taken damage from Ryuuma and Oz over the night. With the Flying Fish Riders and with the Pacifista, he was hampered down from his injuries from Thriller Park, along with Luffy's pain that was transferred to him.
* One scene in Episode 52 of the ''[[Naruto
** In the manga, Naruto was still suffering from his [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Four-Tailed Form]]'s side effects. He was, at best, half power when he finally encountered Sasuke (even Orochimaru commented when they fought again, Naruto wasn't doing nearly as well before). Sakura, likewise was still suffering from the poisonous wound that she had gotten from the [[KN 4]]'s tail swipe. Only Yamato and Sai were at full strength.
** Before the [[Time Skip]], during the Chunnin exam tournament, Jiraiya notices the chakra-blocking seal that Orochimaru had placed over Naruto's Kyubi-containing belly-button seal, and realizes it prevented Naruto from channeling properly. Once he removed it, Naruto was able to instantly master the water-walking technique he had been struggling with before. And it might also explain Naruto's rather lackluster performance against Kiba—Naruto previously never needed any distractions or significant pauses in a fight to create Shadow Clones. Of course, Naruto himself never seemed to notice his own difficulties...
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** And Chapter 485 seems to be setting this up for the fight between {{spoiler|Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto has likely just been inflicted with a life-threatening poison just before he starts fighting Sasuke.}} In this case it's less Worf Had the Flu and more like leveling the playing field, as {{spoiler|Sasuke is completely exhausted.}} It still counts since {{spoiler|Naruto would likely [[Curb Stomp Battle|completely crush]] Sasuke in both a fair fight and with only Sasuke being exhausted with no handicap for Naruto, but in this situation, the outcome is thrown up in the air. Subverted because, regardless of who is handicapped and how, it's clear that the villains are going to escape to fight another day.}}
** And going back allllll the way, Naruto's crappy abilities with chakra control are implied to be due to the Kyuubi's chakra inside him. Once he started getting his jutsu under control, he was learning jounin level skills (albeit in a wasteful manner—thank the Sage of Six Paths that he's got enough chakra to burn) and a technique that requires a practically impossible level of chakra control.
* ''[[Dragonball Z]]'':
** Goku's heart virus thing while fighting Android 19 in This is actually taken to the extent of an [[Alternate Universe]], where without the aid of [[Future Badass|Trunks]], Goku died from the virus, [[Bad Future|and well...]] While Android 19 was indeed programed with the intent to counter Goku's fighting style, it was made clear he would ''never'' have stood a chance had Goku been at full health. Made clearer when, after defeating Goku, he gets cocky and [[Bullying a Dragon| tries to take on Vegeta]]. Seeing as Vegeta does ''not'' have any illness, uses a completely different fighting style, and has undergone ''three years'' of [[Training From Hell]] to prepare for this very day, it's [[Curb Stomp Battle| easy to predict how it goes for 19]].
** Also happens much earlier when the series when Goku is defeated by Yamcha because he is extremely hungry.
** Also happens when Goku loses to King Piccolo's minion Tambourine, but only because Goku was exhausted from fighting in the Tenckaichi Budokai. Tambourine is confident he can win again in the rematch, but things don't go so well for him.
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** Shishio is actually concerned about whether or not this is fair, but Kenshin reminds him that it counteracts his own handicap, his lack of sweat glands which eventually {{spoiler|set him on fire and burn him up from within}}. Shishio also plays with the trope, since it's implied that the extra heat energy his body produces makes him stronger somehow and he can literally kill someone by touching them long enough. Oddly enough, he doesn't use this as a weapon.
* ''[[Medaka Box]]'': [[Badass Normal|Zenkichi's]] victory against Munakata is slightly downplayed, as despite his abnormal desire to kill, {{spoiler|he was actually actively suppressing it}}.
* ''[[Soul Eater
* In ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'', when Athrun brought up how Shinn had defeated Kira, Kira admitted to being "distracted" because he was "unsure" if he should be fighting ZAFT or not.
* Inverted in ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'' where Gon (the main character) barely beat Shizuku in a right handed arm wrestling match. Then when Shizuku goes back to her friends we learn that Shizuku is left handed.
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* In the big [[The DCU|DC]] vs [[Marvel Universe]] crossover, one fight that attracted particular opprobrium from fans was [[Lobo]]—a character who can go toe-to-toe with [[Superman]] and at the time [[From a Single Cell|could regenerate from a single drop of blood]]—losing to [[Wolverine]] (who at the time didn't even have his adamantium skeleton, though his healing factor ''was'' significantly boosted as a result). This was explicitly down to [[Popularity Power]]—the results were voted on by fans—but the match-up was so uneven the writers had to have Wolverine's victory take place off-panel. A little while later Lobo mentioned that he'd actually been bribed by "some bald guy" (presumably Professor X) to take a dive in the fight.
* One of the more famous events in the history of the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] is the battle for leadership of the team between Cyclops and [[Storm]] - who at the time had no powers. Storm won by stealing Cyclops' [[Power Incontinence|visor]]. Without the control of the visor, any attempt to continue fighting would've run the risk of killing Storm (or any of the audience), so he gave up. Several years later, Cyclops' ex-wife Madelyne Pryor announced that she'd used her psychic powers to ''make'' Cyclops lose. This is a relatively easy [[Retcon]] since Cyclops spent much of the fight distracted by a major argument he and Madelyne had just been having, so to say he didn't exactly have his mind on the battle was very easy to change into a result of Madelyne's direct influence.
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* Rachel Grey aka Marvel Girl of the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] was the host of the Phoenix Force for a long while. Her relatively weaker power compared to her mother's stint as the Phoenix's host was due to Rachel actively suppressing the Phoenix's power. She mentioned at one point that she only allowed the Phoenix to use at most ''one percent'' of its power.
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
* It's ironic this trope is called Worf Had The Flu, considering how often it happens to the Starship ''Enterprise'' itself. For instance, in ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|The Wrath of Khan]]'', the rather puny-looking ''Reliant'' sneak attacks the ''Enterprise'' and leaves the ship hobbling along for the rest of the movie, thus prolonging a confrontation that, under normal circumstances, would've resulted in the ''Enterprise'' mopping floors with the ''Reliant'' within about two minutes. Most of the crew being cadets didn't help, and Khan was [[Genre Savvy]] enough to have studied the Enterprise in detail.
** This is also used to explain why a jury-rigged ''Enterprise'' in the following movie ''[[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|The Search for Spock]]'' goes down with one hit from an old clunker Bird-Of-Prey.
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* ''[[Predators]]'' does this when {{spoiler|a predator from the old films faces a predator from this movie. The classic Predator has been tied up for a while and has poorly maintained equipment allowing for leeway when the new predator wins the fight, but even with this, he still puts up a hell of a fight.}}
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* In the fourth ''[[Riverworld]]'' novel ''The Magic Labyrinth'', master swordsmen Cyrano de Bergerac and [[Richard Burton (author)|Sir Richard Burton]] take time out of a running battle to fight a (rematch) duel. Both are itching to see who's better, but they're both weary from battle, both slightly wounded, and have both been drinking to boot, ''and'' they're on a rapidly sinking ship (they ''really'' wanted this rematch). In the end, Burton draws first blood, and offers to help Cyrano to his feet... only for Cyrano to be shot by one of Burton's companions, who had no idea the duel was a gentlemanly one. Burton later (and during the fight too) wonders what the fight would have been like had they both been at their peak condition.▼
▲== Literature ==
▲* In the fourth ''[[Riverworld]]'' novel ''The Magic Labyrinth'', master swordsmen Cyrano de Bergerac and Sir Richard Burton take time out of a running battle to fight a (rematch) duel. Both are itching to see who's better, but they're both weary from battle, both slightly wounded, and have both been drinking to boot, ''and'' they're on a rapidly sinking ship (they ''really'' wanted this rematch). In the end, Burton draws first blood, and offers to help Cyrano to his feet... only for Cyrano to be shot by one of Burton's companions, who had no idea the duel was a gentlemanly one. Burton later (and during the fight too) wonders what the fight would have been like had they both been at their peak condition.
* In ''[[Inheritance Cycle|Brisingr]]'', Paolini has made certain that Eragon has not had time to recuperate to his full strength since achieving his super-human power.
** A more straight example would be at the end of ''Eldest'', when {{spoiler|Murtagh defeats Eragon while the latter is exhausted from battle.}} However, this was subverted when Eragon {{spoiler|fought Murtagh for the second time. He was fully rested, at full power, and had thirteen elves assisting him, but still only managed to drive Murtagh off.}}
* In ''[[
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==▼
* The trope naming incident occurred in an episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' but wasn't an example of this trope. Worf, the badass [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]], keels over in the middle of his shift right at the end of the episode's opening teaser. In this case, it was a [[Pseudo Crisis]]; the show comes back from commercial-break with Worf already all better after a simple inoculation in sickbay, being lectured by the doctor about he should have been vaccinated when he was a kid.▼
▲== Live-Action TV ==
▲* The trope naming incident occurred in an episode of [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]] but wasn't an example of this trope. Worf, the badass [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]], keels over in the middle of his shift right at the end of the episode's opening teaser. In this case, it was a [[Pseudo Crisis]]; the show comes back from commercial-break with Worf already all better after a simple inoculation in sickbay, being lectured by the doctor about he should have been vaccinated when he was a kid.
* Episode six of ''[[Dollhouse]]'' features this canonically on ''both sides'': when Ballard and Echo fight, on the surface it seems like it might be an even match that could go either way. Echo with her programming is probably the better technical fighter, but Ballard is very big, built like a brick house, and so tough he can take out four gun-wielding thugs with a plank ''after'' he's been shot—plus, he's a trained fighter, so all of ''his'' experience is real. However, he ''had'' been shot mere days ago, and was not looking to actually hurt Echo, as she's his best link to the case. Cue him fighting defensively and eventually getting worn down. On the flip side, Echo was also fighting in order to frame Ballard for shooting a cop, not to actually win, so while she wasn't fighting to win either, her goals were served by simply getting him to the right place at the right time and disappearing.
* Spike's attempted rape of [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] in "Seeing Red" only got as far as it did because a run-of-the-mill vampire had got a lucky shot in earlier (as she was staking him, no less). Both injuries carry over into Buffy's fight with a superpowered Warren - even with super-strength and near-invulnerability, he can tell she's off her game.
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* An inversion takes place in ''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]]'', where the Heavenly Saint Lunagel is defeated in battle by Wolzard partly because she went on her own, but mostly because he'd spent the past four episodes doing nothing but powering up.
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* After coming to WWE, [[The Big Show]] was rather horribly misused, ending up as a lower midcarder holding the Hardcore Title. About this time, [[Brock Lesnar]] had pretty much obliterated his way to the World Title. Deciding to make Show the next challenger for the belt, WWE bookers just cooked something or other up about "don't wake the sleeping giant", basically saying that the reason Show had been so low on the cards was that he hadn't been trying very hard to do otherwise.
** May have been a [[Real Life]] dig at Paul Wight, who had been "fat-camped" down to farm territory OVW in the past for perceived shortfalls in dedication (and diet).
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Used as an excuse so many times, especially when it's a massive upset or a loss that is much more lopsided than anticipated. It may or may not involve home court/field/ice advantage and it frequently involves injury and/or fatigue.▼
* When [insert your favorite team in [insert sport here] here] loses a game.▼
* The New Zealand Rugby team was suffering from food poisoning at the final of the 1995 World Cup, to the point where they can be seen throwing up on the sidelines.▼
* A legend has Auburn University cadets greasing the rails before an opposing football team from Georgia Tech arrived, causing their train to slide past the station, and forcing the team to tire itself out walking back to the stadium.▼
* Averted in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, to this day thought of as "The Flu Game". According to The Other Wiki, [[Michael Jordan]] woke up the day before the game nauseated and sweating profusely. He was diagnosed with food poisoning. He barely had the strength to get up out of bed, and the Bulls trainers told him there was no way he could play in Game 5. The Bulls would be at a distinct disadvantage without their leader, because the Jazz had just won two straight games to even the series, and whoever won Game 5 would be one win away from the championship. But he rose out of bed three hours before tip-off, determined to play. And after a listless first quarter in which the Jazz ran off to a 16-point lead, Michael led the team back to a 90-88 victory, finishing with 38 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block. And then his teammate Scottie Pippen [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|helped carry him off the court]].▼
* Nearly every losing sports team ever. It can't ''always'' be the referees' fault.▼
** In college football, a famous recent example would Colt McCoy at his last Rose Bowl Game. The momentum of the entire game reversed suddenly - all because McCoy got tackled by a nearly 400-pound man early in the game, taking him out of the game. It wasn't even an especially brutul hit, but the physics somehow left his arm with no sensation whatsoever. He didn't feel any pain and his arm hadn't suffered serious injury, but he couldn't feel the football contacting his palm and fingers and thus couldn't make accurate throws. Truly a bizarre moment in sports as a QB had never before been knocked out of an entire Super Bowl or BCS Title game before, much less on such an unusual injury.▼
** Two recent NBA examples: The Spurs in 2000 and the Celtics in 2009 were defending champions but late in the year lost their best player (Tim Duncan for the Spurs, Kevin Garnett for the Celtics) for the entire playoffs and suffered an early playoff exit to an otherwise inferior team.▼
** Oddly enough, at least in the US, defeats are always blamed on this while victories are credited to divine intervention. The reverse is almost never the case.▼
* This happens at the start of some ''[[Metroid]]'' sequels. Samus loses all of her equipment or has something happen, to justify the player having to collect what Samus had at the start of the game. Also, in ''[[Metroid Zero Mission]]'' there is a sequence at the end which embodies this trope. {{spoiler|Samus only has her emergency stun pistol and no equipment.}}
* In ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' there is a sequence where your party has all of their money and equipment taken from them. Unless you have {{spoiler|Ayla}} in your party, this sequence becomes a stealth mission.
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* In ''[[Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe]]'' the effect that causes the two universes to merge also evens out the power levels of the characters. Or else Liu Kang fighting Superman hand-to-hand would just be silly.
* Archer is possibly the most powerful character in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', but he is handicapped somehow in almost every fight he takes part in.
** '''''Fate'' route:''' At the start of the route Archer is [[Game-Breaking Injury|surprised and grievously wounded by Saber]], who he didn't particularly want to fight. He is then sent against Berserker, who can [[Won't Work On Me|ignore]] everything but his most exhausting attacks.
** '''''Unlimited Blade Works'' route:''' Archer spends most of his time trying to [[The Chessmaster|manipulate events]] rather than fighting (on the two occasions he ''does'' fight, his enemy runs away after one attack). After this, he is cut off from his source of mana and his power fades until he's only keeping his body together through sheer willpower.
** '''''Heaven's Feel'' route:''' Archer is wounded by Saber as in the Fate route, then is forced to fight in poor conditions and exposed to attacks which ignore his usual defences.
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* In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', this is the only reason why Cerberus agent Kai Leng is able to defeat {{spoiler|Thane Krios, one of the best assassins in the galaxy, in hand-to-hand combat (Thane's specialty)}}. He puts up an impressive fight, but {{spoiler|being at the end of one's life due to terminal illness}} tends to leave someone not quite at their best.
** {{spoiler|Thane}}, however, get's the last laugh, as Kai's main mission was to assasinate someone else, which had failed because, as {{spoiler|Thane puts it, "he let a terminally ill drell stop him from completing his mark"}}
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', Franz Scortchmaw, the Great Dragon of Mechanicsburg ("…you may have seen him on the town's arms"), the First And Most Dread of Dragons, was mostly sleeping for the last few decades. He was more than capable of defeating inferior monsters and vehicles of the invading forces, but when he met another dragon, it quickly became a [[Curb Stomp Battle]]. When the other guy was about to finish him off, Agatha have remembered some things about Heterodyne designs, figured there's nothing to lose, and shot him with [[Lightning Gun|Gil's lightning stick]]. It turns out she guessed right, so after that it was a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] again, but this time with Franz beating up the invader.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* A version of this occurs in "Have Yourself a Monkey Little Christmas" in the [[Whateley Universe]]. Chaka is put in significant danger during a fight because she'd just had her ''hips broken and reset''! This is also a [[Chekhov's Gun]], as the need was stated around her first appearance! {{spoiler|She does in fact win the fight, thanks to Chou's healing abilities.}}
** Yet again, Fey's infamous fight against Mule is revealed to include a good bit of Flu. Fey fought her in an arena where she couldn't draw upon her powers. In fact, she was put in there ''specifically because'' the administration heard her say "But I can't do a fight in there! The Ley Lines are so tangled that I'll hardly be able to do anything!" Furthermore, her foe can absorb her magical abilities. What follows is a rather fun run-and-gun.
* In the second-to-last episode of ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'': ''Revelation'', it's revealed that Tex is destined to always fail at the last moment, because {{spoiler|she's based on the memory of the Director's lost love who died in combat, and the trauma of her death is an integral part of how the Director remembers her.}} This explains how, throughout the series, Tex always managed to get captured, killed, or knocked-out at a critical moment despite being the strongest character in the series.
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* [[Word of God]] has this as something that came into play during the formation of the Book One ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' finale: Giving Zuko injuries from both his ship exploding, and some sort of cold-based sickness from his near drowning experience in icy water (not to mention powering up Katara with what is noted to be an ''especially'' water-bending-favoring full moon), made it much more likely for Zuko to initially struggle to victory against her (winning once the sun comes out), then losing his rematch under the light of the full moon. Furthermore, when the sun does rise, Zuko one-hit-KO's Katara. During the third round, it was night again, they were in a freakin' snow storm (plenty of water to bend) and Zuko was half-frozen to death. The next time Zuko and Katara had a real fight he more than holds his own against her.
** Similarly, Zuko is similarly handicapped by being unable to use any of his Firebending in his fight-to-a-draw against Jet in season Two. Doing so would have exposed his identity, especially after an earlier incident in the season where he'd shown his firebending in a fight to defend a town and was then [[What the Hell, Townspeople?|immediately thrown out of said town]], causing him to hold back with Jet.
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** Season 4's finale provides even more context on this and another explanation. Judging by the size of the craters left behind in the struggle between Alicorn Twilight and Tirek,<ref>As in, 'you could have fit the entire town of Ponyville into one of those holes and had room enough left over for Canterlot Castle.'</ref> if Celestia had unleashed her full offense during this episode she'd have killed everypony else in the room. She not only had to face an opponent temporarily juiced-up on almost-alicorn levels of power, she had to do it with one hoof behind her back ''and'' struggling to keep the collateral splash of the battle from harming the completely unprotected civilians standing less than twenty feet away. In light of all that, its amazing Celestia managed even the showing she did.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* The suggestion is often made that the French lost the battle of Waterloo only because Napoleon was ill with piles (or some other complaint).
** Maybe, although some people think the flanking manoeuvre by the Prussians played a big role as well.
** There's a [[Voltaire]] short story called ''Lord Chesterfield's Ears'' that's based on this sort of idea.
** The Battle of Borodino, the turning point toward a Russian repulsion of Napoleon's invasion, was lost (according to some historians) because "Napoleon had a cold." [[War and Peace|Leo Tolstoy]] says of this that that means "the adjutant who forgot to give Napoleon his waterproof boots [two days earlier] was the savior of Russia."
▲* Used as an excuse so many times, especially when it's a massive upset or a loss that is much more lopsided than anticipated. It may or may not involve home court/field/ice advantage and it frequently involves injury and/or fatigue.
▲* When [insert your favorite team in [insert sport here] here] loses a game.
▲* The New Zealand Rugby team was suffering from food poisoning at the final of the 1995 World Cup, to the point where they can be seen throwing up on the sidelines.
▲* A legend has Auburn University cadets greasing the rails before an opposing football team from Georgia Tech arrived, causing their train to slide past the station, and forcing the team to tire itself out walking back to the stadium.
▲* Averted in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, to this day thought of as "The Flu Game". According to The Other Wiki, [[Michael Jordan]] woke up the day before the game nauseated and sweating profusely. He was diagnosed with food poisoning. He barely had the strength to get up out of bed, and the Bulls trainers told him there was no way he could play in Game 5. The Bulls would be at a distinct disadvantage without their leader, because the Jazz had just won two straight games to even the series, and whoever won Game 5 would be one win away from the championship. But he rose out of bed three hours before tip-off, determined to play. And after a listless first quarter in which the Jazz ran off to a 16-point lead, Michael led the team back to a 90-88 victory, finishing with 38 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block. And then his teammate Scottie Pippen [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|helped carry him off the court]].
▲* Nearly every losing sports team ever. It can't ''always'' be the referees' fault.
▲** In college football, a famous recent example would Colt McCoy at his last Rose Bowl Game. The momentum of the entire game reversed suddenly - all because McCoy got tackled by a nearly 400-pound man early in the game, taking him out of the game. It wasn't even an especially brutul hit, but the physics somehow left his arm with no sensation whatsoever. He didn't feel any pain and his arm hadn't suffered serious injury, but he couldn't feel the football contacting his palm and fingers and thus couldn't make accurate throws. Truly a bizarre moment in sports as a QB had never before been knocked out of an entire Super Bowl or BCS Title game before, much less on such an unusual injury.
▲** Two recent NBA examples: The Spurs in 2000 and the Celtics in 2009 were defending champions but late in the year lost their best player (Tim Duncan for the Spurs, Kevin Garnett for the Celtics) for the entire playoffs and suffered an early playoff exit to an otherwise inferior team.
▲** Oddly enough, at least in the US, defeats are always blamed on this while victories are credited to divine intervention. The reverse is almost never the case.
{{reflist}}
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