Why We Get Excited When the Underdog Wins

Well, it’s a fine day in Philly.

The Eagles win their first super bowl in what seemed like the most unlikely of circumstances, with the guy everyone is still calling “the backup quarterback” and the city is going to be on a high for days, weeks, months…who knows!  

It’s bragging rights FOREVER.

My husband jumped up and down in our living room like he was 10 on Christmas Day. I almost cried. The impossible or almost unimaginable happened.

I’ve lived in Philly for 30 years. It’s home. And one of the things I’ve always loved about it is, it’s kind of always been an underdog town…not New York, not D.C., somewhere in between.

YO! Sylvester Stallone immortalized and cemented the scrappy underdog image in Rocky.

And then there is the real-life underdog, Vince Papale, who was the oldest rookie in NFL history for the Eagles in 1976. (See the movie Invincible)

But you know it’s just so beautiful and satisfying when the underdog wins.

When the team that everyone doubts goes up against a football legend, a team that’s been a machine of winning and gets a gritty, hard-earned, “fight for your life” victory.

Forgive me everyone, but I just can’t help but make this a mushy, gushy, heart and mind lesson for life.

We’ve all been the underdog before right? I was once told by a former boss in Miami, “You’ll never make it in Philly.”  HA!

Man, that was all I needed to go; just to prove him wrong.

And you know what? Those people who say “you can’t”, or “you won’t”, or “you’ll never”, or “you’re not good enough”… they do scrappy underdogs a favor.

They give underdogs fuel, a mission, a reason to work harder.

So, here’s to all the underdogs who believe no one else can define them or determine what they can or can not do.

Here’s to the Eagles for showing us all what determined underdogs can do.