Say What? The Five Worst Guarantees in Sports History

Sports guarantees are cliche. We get it. You're confident in your team and you want the world to know it. Stop. It's getting silly.

Today, it's Cavs guard Mo Williams who is guaranteeing that the Cavaliers will win the Eastern Conference finals:

"Guarantee we're going to win the series? Yeah, yeah. ... We are down 2-1. But there is nobody on this team and definitely not myself that says we are not going to win this series. "

There is only one guarantee in sports that matter. Joe Namath guaranteed victory in Super Bowl III and the Jets delivered. It was a huge upset that changed the landscape of the NFL forever. It landed Joe Willie in the Hall-Of-Fame despite a relatively mediocre career statistically speaking.

Everyone and their mother makes guarantees and it has lost all meaning. Thankfully, because of the influx of guarantees, there are some that stand out as particularly terrible.

Here are the worst; feel free to add your own.

5. Kevin Smith guarantees the Lions will make the playoffs in 2009

On his blog, the talented Running Back had this to say:

I won’t make a prediction about how many games we’re going to win, but I will say this: We will definitely make the playoffs this season.

Believe it or not we weren’t far off last year. Almost every game we could have won, we were one play or one player short. Except for Tennessee on Thanksgiving, they just came out and beat us to sleep. They manhandled us, but nobody else did."

Um...really? Nobody else did? What about the 34-7 loss to Chicago? The 42-7 loss to New Orleans? The 38-14 loss to a mediocre Jacksonville team? Come on now.

A three-win season would be reason for a parade in Motown, a playoff appearance? The most unlikely playoff berth in NFL history.

4. Anthony Smith guarantees the Steelers will beat unbeaten New England

"We're going to win, yeah, I can guarantee a win. As long as we come out and do what we got to do. Both sides of the ball are rolling, and if our special teams come through for us, we've got a good chance to win."

What followed was a 34-13 beat down. Tom Brady was 32-46 for 399 yards and four touchdown passes and victimized Smith when he had the opportunity. I don't think the guarantee endeared Smith to the Steeler organization. He now plays for Green Bay.

3. Nick Saban guarantees he'll stay with the Miami Dolphins

"I'm not going to be the Alabama coach."

What he really should have said was, "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach...for another two weeks."

2. We Want the Ball and We're Going to Score

Nine words that will live in infamy forever in Seattle. Matt Hasselbeck made the infamous guarantee after winning the coin toss in overtime of a playoff game against the Packers.

The teams traded possessions in the overtime period and on a third and 11 play, Hasselbeck hit Al Harris for the game winning touchdown. Problem is, Al Harris played for Green Bay...oops.

1. Courtney Paris offers to pay back her scholarship if OU doesn't win the national championship

Paris was a dominant player for the Oklahoma Women's Basketball team. She became the first four time All-American in women's college basketball history.

Sadly, that will be a footnote to her year in 2009 when she pledged to give back her scholarship if the Sooners didn't win a national title.

There was only one problem with that guarantee. UCONN was really good.

The Huskies rolled to a perfect record and didn't win a single game before the NCAA tournament by fewer than 10 points. They steamrolled Paris and the Sooners by 28 points in a regular season contest.

The guarantee was out there to begin with and UCONN probably would have rolled the Sooners again, except the Sooners didn't get the opportunity for a re-match.

The Sooners blew a big lead and lost a national semifinal game against Louisville ending the title quest early. UCONN proceeded to beat the Cardinals by 22 in the national title game.