The excuses for why Hillary lost are many, but like in football, if you fumble on your opponent's two-yard line, maybe you don't deserve to win.

Consider the University of Michigan vs. The Ohio State University football game Thanksgiving weekend, pitting number 2 against number 3 in Columbus.  With the winner heading to the National Championship playoff, this was a huge game.  Michigan was arguably the better team and didn't disappoint by dominating the stats.  The only problem is that when the clock ticked off the last seconds of the second overtime, Ohio State had three more points.

The Sunday morning quarterbacks for Michigan pointed out that the game was rigged.  Ohio State had only one penalty for one yard during regulation and had an offside call in overtime bringing the total penalty yardage for the team to just six.  This in itself was reportedly a record that will probably never be surpassed.  Along with the win, OSU came away with the distinction of being the least penalized team during a game in the history of college football.  Extensive background checks of the officiating crew by dejected fanatical Michigan supporters revealed that two of the refs should not have been on the squad due to incompetence and past transgressions involving favoritism for the home team.

Shenanigans have been called, but the outcome remains the same.

Does this sound familiar? The media coverage of the Russians rigging the election for Trump ad nauseam is the same form of Wednesday-morning quarterbacking.  For that matter, you can substitute electoral college, racism, sexism, voting machines, fake news, alt-right, Comey, and any number of other culprits or combination of guilty parties for why Hillary and her supporters think she lost.

I guess Hillary lost thanks to the Russian-loving, Democratic process-hating, racist, sexist, vote-rigging, fake news-generating alt-right members of the FBI and despicable Trump-voting electorate.  Did I miss anything?

In the Thanksgiving football rivalry, it's easy to forget or discount the fact that Michigan gave up two interceptions for OSU touchdowns and the aforementioned fumble.  While impossible to know for certain, it's easy to assume that had Michigan not had even one of those misfires, they still would have won the game – with or without the officials' hindrance.

Hanging onto the ball is critical in big games.  Hillary fumbled repeatedly, and her advisers made her believe that it was okay because Trump was such a bad guy.  She took weeks off from the campaign trail, relying on her representatives to bring her message to the people.  She ignored urban population centers that reliably turn out 80% for Dems, not ever thinking they might stay home just as she did.  She continued to deny and lie about her involvement in the email issues, keeping them alive as new and more damning emails surfaced right up to election day.  She surrounded herself with yes men and people with even worse skeletons in their closets.

Hillary was painting a Trump she thought was bad, never realizing that this was the picture of a guy the people wanted (Trump's Republican opponents also didn't figure this one out until too late). Hillary and the Democrats were basically saying Trump isn't part of the establishment, so he's bad, but the voters wanted somebody willing to fight the establishment, so he's good.

Yes, the officials waved off a lot of Ohio State penalties, but right up until the final whistle blew, it was still Michigan's game to lose.  Yes, Hillary's illegal email server and the other hacked emails (Russian or not) had an impact on her chances, but right up until November 8, it was Hillary's election to lose.  One more trip to Detroit or even just one to Milwaukee or Madison might have tipped the scales and rendered the hacking and Comey meaningless.

Bottom line is that whether you're playing football or running for president, you have to punch it in from the two yard line if you want to be a winner.  While the University of Michigan football team can say there's always next year, there's no next year for Hillary, and a lot of Trump fans are glad for that.