Billy Cundiff and Kyle Williams, Why They Will Never Recover

Bill Buckner. Scott Norwood. Steve Bartman. Just some of the names who will live in infamy amongst the biggest goats in postseason history. 

Today, that list grew by two names. Kyle Williams and Billy Cundiff.

Each cost their team a trip to the Super Bowl, there really is no way around that fact. Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal that would have sent the AFC Championship Game into overtime. Williams muffed a punt in overtime that gave the Giants easy field position setting up the 49ers' doom in the NFC Championship Game. 

It is hard to watch when athletes fail on the grandest of stages with so much at stake. Athletes at that level work so hard their entire lives to get to that one moment, the one chance at glory, but while there are great champions there also has to be failures.

Unfortunately for Cundiff and Williams it will be hard to forget their failures throughout the rest of their careers. It's certainly possible both of them will go on to have successful careers, but the fact is for a backup wide receiver and a kicker their ceiling is only so high. 

Their ceiling might have been to be an important part of a championship team, but that moment has slipped away. 

Personal embarrassment aside, they must now deal with the onslaught of criticism and hate they will receive from the loyal fanbases of Baltimore and San Francisco, who watched their dreams of another championship fall to the wayside.

They must also deal with the anguish of letting their teammates down who worked all year long for a chance to get into the Super Bowl.

It is unfair to blame the entire loss on either of these players. For Cundiff, he would have never been in that position where he needed to make a kick if Lee Evans had just secured the catch that would have been the game-winning touchdown. For Williams, the 49ers offense had plenty of chances late in the fourth quarter and overtime to drive down the field and win, and they failed over and over again in front of their home fans.

Still there is likely nothing that can be said that can console either of these players right now, and only a chance to avenge themselves on the same stage could ever heal them. 

But neither of these players will likely ever get that chance again. Their entire careers will likely be boiled down to one play, one mistake. 

As Verne Lundquist once famously said about Jackie Smith "Bless his heart he's got to be the sickest man in America!" That title is assuredly tied between Cundiff and Williams tonight.