The New England Patriots divide people fiercely. If you are from New England, you probably named your firstborn child either Tom or Brady. If you are from anywhere else, you probably hate them with the fire of a thousand burning suns. Which is what made their insane comeback against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI all the more notable. Everyone was either rooting for the Patriots or watching in horror as they did the impossible.

It was “one of the greatest big games of all-time” and “the most historic Super Bowl” according to the NFL, in part because of the 30 records that were broken or tied. It was also the first Super Bowl to be decided in overtime. And that was necessary because Tom Brady led his team to the biggest comeback the final had ever seen.

At halftime it seemed that the Patriots, who had won the Super Bowl four times in the past 15 years, were headed for a big loss. The Falcons led 21-3. Despite whatever speech Bill Belichick gave in the locker room, the second half looked to be even worse, with the Falcons scoring a touchdown and making it 28-3. It was, said the Bleacher Report, “a write-off.”

The Falcons would not score for the rest of the game, and the Patriots surged. They clawed back 25 points to make it 28-28 at the end of the fourth quarter. A touchdown in overtime sealed it, and the nation was in shock.

It had been “8 decades of torment and torture” according to Boston.com. The Red Sox hadn’t won the World Series since 1918. It was all supposed to be down to a curse from when they traded Babe Ruth. They hadn’t even been to the World Series at all since 1986. In 2003, they lost the American League pennant to their hated enemies, the “Evil Empire,” the New York Yankees.

In 2004, it was horrible deja vu. In the ALCS, the Red Sox were playing the Yankees again. And they were losing. The Yankees took the first three games in the best of seven series and were three outs from triumphing in the fourth game and sealing the series again.

Then something amazing happened: The Sox clawed back a win. But they would still need to dominate all the remaining games, a seemingly impossible feat since no team in baseball had ever come back from 0-3 down to take a seven-game series.

But they kept winning. The games stretched on forever, to a record-breaking 25 hours 36 minutes of baseball over six games. In Game 7, the Yankees did everything they could, but it wasn’t enough. The Sox dominated from the first inning. Anxious fans held their breath. By the end of nine innings they had spanked the Yankees soundly, 10-3. They are, to this day, the only team to come back from a 0-3 deficit. The Red Sox would go on to win the World Series that year, ending the 86-year curse.

The Toronto Maple Leafs met the Boston Bruins during the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2013. Whoever lost the best of seven series was going home, their dreams of competing for the trophy that year dashed. And while it came down to the final game, it looked like the Maple Leafs were going to walk away with it. They had come back from a 3-1 game deficit, their greatest success since the 1942 finals. Nine minutes into the third quarter of Game 7, the Leafs had a commanding 4-1 lead. They just had to hope the Bruins didn’t pull off one of the greatest comebacks of all time. They would be disappointed.

CBC described what happened as an “18-wheeler going right off a cliff,” but really, it was an astonishing piece of work by the Bruins. Thanks to injuries they were playing with some novices, and initially it showed. But then they remembered scoring is an important part of hockey and started sinking goals. As the clock ticked down they torture-thrilled fans by mounting a comeback. With two minutes left, with the score 4-2, they pulled their goalie. Astonishingly, they scored twice in the final 90 seconds to tie the game. The home crowd went insane. A goal in overtime saw the Bruins advance to the semifinals.

Boston defenseman Johnny Boychuk described the game as “unbelievable,” and when asked what he would say to someone who missed it replied, “Too bad for them.”

In 1942, a writer for the Detroit Free Press wrote, “Generations of hockey players yet unborn will hear time and again the story of the 1942 playoffs — the most exciting in the 50-year history of the Stanley Cup.” The reaction of one of the players involved was a bit more subdued, crying, “By jiminy!”

It was the middle of World War II, and fans could use some exciting and distracting sports. That year the Stanley Cup gave it to them in spades when the Toronto Maple Leafs “roared back” against the Detroit Red Wings to lift the trophy.

It started terribly. They lost Game 1 in front of the largest ever Detroit crowd. The Ottawa City Council let out early just to watch Game 2, but the Maple Leafs lost that, and lost again in Game 3. No professional hockey team had ever come back from 3-0 down. One reporter said, “You couldn’t get a wager that the surprising Red Wings would be halted in their mad dash for the cup.” But in Game 4 the Leafs coach took a crazy chance, benching veteran players for complete unknowns. It worked, and the Detroit manager was so angry about his team’s loss that he almost started a riot.

The wins continued. The Leafs played Game 7 in front of a record home crowd. After dominating 3-1 they were “stunned.” Their former coach was “rendered speechless.” To this day, no one else has come back from such a deficit in the final.