Why Do Americans Like Underdogs?
April 8, 2008
also see 5 Ideas the NFL should implement and My Five Cents - Quick Hits
Why do people root for underdogs? Seriously – why? Why did every region in the United States outside of New England root for the Giants instead of the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII? You can’t tell me Spygate was the only reason – you and I both know that the country would have pulled for the G-Men regardless of what happened with the Patriots cameras back in September.
Americans rooting for underdogs in sports isn’t just trendy – it’s customary. And it’s also completely ridiculous. In what other capacity do Americans root against the greatest? Imagine if someone said to you, “Yeah, that Steve Spielberg, I know he’s good. But I just don’t like to see him always get the accolades. You know who I’d really like to see win an Oscar? David R. Ellis. Yeah, he directed Snakes on a Plane and Homeward Bound II, and, anyway, I’d just like to see him a get it because nobody expects the guy to win….”
Imagine someone pulling for Jeffrey Norris, an insurance salesman from Meridian, Mississippi to win the Nobel Peace Prize because he donated $50 to the Red Cross this year and, well, he’s a little guy, you know.
Imagine if we rallied behind underdogs on the political front. Our country would be in the hands of Ralph Nader.
Imagine visiting a less qualified doctor just so you can help out the small fry. Or think about what this country’s economy would look like if a majority of people shopped at Rite Aid instead of Wal-Mart just because they thought giving Wal-Mart business would be too predictable and cliché. Our sinking Dollar would be surpassed by the Yen before we elected a new president.
Imagine hoping that the student who scored a 1400 on her SATs would get turned down by the Ivy Leagues in favor of another student who scored a 1050 on her SATs. You gotta love it….the underdog pulling off the upset, right?
There is something inherently American about pro football, yet fans seem to watch it with an inherently French mindset. People watch the NFL because it offers the highest level of football on the planet. The players are the most athletic, the coaches are the smartest and the cheerleaders are the prettiest. The idea for a team is to put all the pieces together. Yet the team that does this better than everyone becomes the villain. Does that seem logical?
Americans love to say that they root for the underdog because they can relate to the little guy. How can people from a country that has the world’s highest standard of living relate to the little guy? And, more than that, how can they all be so proud of that? Relating to the little guy… isn’t that a form of boasting about what a chump you are?
The odd part is, teams themselves love being the underdog – you hear players say it all the time. There’s the stuff about people doubting them, nobody giving them a chance, nothing to lose, chip on the shoulder, yada yada yada. The fact of the matter is, the odds-makers don’t have an axe to grind. A team becomes an underdog by producing enough evidence to illustrate inferiority. Underdog NFL teams that win games don’t prove people wrong – they finally stop making the mistakes that made them underdogs to begin with.
As I finish this column, I can’t help but feel a little extra satisfaction knowing I pulled off an upset by getting you to read all the way to the end. After all, in this amount of time, you could have enjoyed a Rick Reilly column. Nobody expected anyone to read my column instead of Reilly’s, but you did just that. That makes this a feel good story, right?
theres always someone better. thats why people root for the underdog.
Americans root for the underdog because we were the ultimate underdog. We became a country by the narrowest odds possible.