Heartbreak Ridge.
It turns out that humans still play the games
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A little bit about Tyler Loop, the rookie kicker who Sunday night missed a 44-yard field goal as time expired — wide right, for those keeping score — that would have put the Baltimore Ravens into the AFC playoffs but instead ended their season:
—He’s a 24-year-old kid from Texas. Don’t get me wrong; the age of 24 is the age of a man, not a child. My point is simply that Loop is a kid in the pro game. This was his first season as a professional kicker. Sunday night represented his first-ever chance to end a pro game with a winning kick.
—He grew up in Lucas, Texas, which is northeast of Plano, which is northeast of Dallas. It’s a 30- to 40-minute drive into Dallas most of the time. Lucas is a small town, fewer than 9,000 folks. Loop attended Lovejoy High School there; the school also serves kids from nearby Fairview and a few from Allen.
—The hate posts and death wishes on Loop’s social media began almost immediately, also targeting his fiancee, and — you know what? We’ll get back to that. Let me tell you some more about Tyler Loop.
