You Got No Fear of the Underdog. That's Why You Will Not Survive.
I don’t know how it started for me. It was in there early, though. Maybe as an offshoot of superheroes like Spider-Man. He was just a kid in Queens looking out for the little guy. It could have been anything. I have always been on the side of the underdog. I don’t need to explain what that is as much as I want to chart my adherence to this belief over the course of my life.
My blog, my rules.
January of 1981. (How’s that for remembering?) I never had an interest in sports and at that time I could probably name two football teams. I was in fourth grade and I remember a couple of kids talking about who they supported for Super Bowl XVI. There was so much hype about the 49ers and their new quarterback named Joe Montana. I must have heard that incessantly. They asked me who I wanted to win, and I immediately said the opponent, which was a team I only knew from the logo on my bedroom curtains, the Cincinnati Bengals. Of course, they lost. It was Joe Montana, man.
But that began my deep disdain for winning teams like the Niners and the Lakers and the Yankees. And the Cowboys…especially the Cowboys. If they were champs, I wanted them to lose. If they were popular, I wanted them to lose. Here’s the truth: Around 2000, I decided to get into baseball for the first time. I picked the Red Sox as my team. They had gone so long without winning a World Series, and they are the rival of the Yankees, who were so crazy successful at that time. So, I picked them as my team. Bought a cap and everything. I was with them for the championship 2004 series, which was great. First win in eighty-something years. A season or two later, I lost interest altogether. I’m not from Boston and they weren’t underdogs anymore. I moved on.
“Everyone loves an underdog”. This a phrase I’ve heard throughout my life and it is simply not true. There are just as many people who support winners and winning and resent the small underdog when he succeeds. I don’t know exactly how that mental process works, but I guess it is just a reverse of the relationship I have with the underdog. These people go from winner to winner, dumping them when they lose. There’s probably a few that bought Red Sox hats after they started winning. I do the opposite.
It’s not just sports. I relate to first-timers and those who finally break through. I love when a new author sells a billion copies, or some unknown director gets an Oscar buzz. They figured out a way to buck the system. I trust it because usually it’s based on merit, which so few things are. They created something that was too good to be ignored.
But the feeling goes deeper. I love teachers and local politicians trying to make an impact. I love whistleblowers and journalists that give us a truth we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I love new ideas and technologies. They often have the hardest time getting seen. A new idea is such a rare thing; its existence depends on those who are willing to listen and be challenged. The fans of the underdog.
It’s a feeling of hope. Its reflective of life itself. Life is a struggle to survive despite the odds against it.
I don’t know what to make of you if you don’t support the common man. I don’t know where your conscience lies. I don’t know what your heart is made of. You certainly don’t follow the beliefs of any major religion out there. The underdog is the backbone of a culture. They are the blue-collar people who make things work. From that pool come the leaders we say we prefer; humble beginnings, strong work ethic, determination. We say that, but do we all mean it? Well, I do. I vote that way, too. The last three Republican presidents were all sons of rich men, and the last three Democrats started out with nothing.
Maybe that’s what separates us. It all comes down to what we think of the underdog.
Hold on. If you don’t like the underdog, does that mean you don’t like Harry Potter? Luke Skywalker? Frodo? John McClain? Katniss? What the hell is wrong with you?