In a speech on Thursday before the U.S. Olympic Committee, USOC CEO Scott Blackmun made a striking comparison for New Englanders. Taking two of the dominant Boston sports stories of 2015 and combining them, Blackmun compared the Boston 2024 Olympic bid with the Seattle Seahawks’ decision to pass on the goal line in Super Bowl XLIX.

“The Boston bid failed because, from the beginning, it was not a bid supported by the people of Boston,” Blackmun said. “Should we have taken the risk? In hindsight, the answer is ‘no,’  just like it is for the Seattle Seahawks and their decision to throw at the goal line in the closing moments of the Super Bowl. We made a bad call.”

He distinguished the difference between his own organization’s “risk” and Seattle’s failed gamble in the Super Bowl.

“But here’s the thing, unlike the Seahawks, we have not lost the game. We are back on our feet, we have found a second chance waiting and the whole game is in front of us.”

This is one of the more candid remarks a USOC executive has made in any capacity since the Boston 2024 bid was pulled in late July. After experiencing continually low poll numbers, it was decided that Boston could not continue as the official U.S. bid for the 2024 Summer Games. It was the shortest lived USOC-endorsed bid in history.

In the short span since Boston 2024 ended, Los Angeles has picked up the torch, reigniting a bid that the 1932 and 1984 hosts had thought was gone forever when the USOC chose the New England city in January. As no Summer Olympics has been held in North America since 1996 (in Atlanta), the chances of getting a bid by 2024 are thought to be good.

However, strong European bids from Hamburg, Paris and Rome will provide tough competition. Also, a bid from Budapest could surprise in its vote tally. Toronto, rumored to be bidding for weeks before the September deadline, ultimately decided not to bid.

Bonus: Basically, this was apparently Blackmun’s reaction to Boston 2024, except stretched out over months, not seconds: