In too many societies and cultures, winning seems to
be the only way. Coming in second is rarely noticed and third place is
seemingly occupied by losers. Anybody placed below third, why even bother? The
old mantra of having fun getting there, in life as in any form of sports and competition,
seems pre-doomed, because we pathetically believe that winning is the only
thing that counts; and how sad is that – really? But of course you and I are
not part of that sad group that believes it’s so, because we respect the efforts
of the underdog or any dog for that
matter – woof woof…
It was around 1856 that the term ‘underdog’ popped
up, as ‘the beaten dog in a fight’ (whatever). The opposite of underdog is ‘top-dog’,
as ‘over-dog’ would sound really weird; ‘favorite’, is another ‘most likely to
win’ term. Any group, team or individual of any shape or form who is not ‘most
likely to win’ is unceremoniously labeled ‘underdog’. I know, not a very colorful
background for such devastating term and not hysterically exciting to any
extent, but there it is. I think ‘under-cat’ would be a lot cuter; don’t you?
It was around 1956 that I was watching a bicycle
race, one of those things where the riders race around and around, trying to
get over the finish line first (silly concept – but whatever). I was with my
father. He was vocally and consistently encouraging the riders in the back of
the pack to keep up, pedal harder. On the way home I asked him in the wisdom of
a ten year old why he did that. We stopped and got off our bikes, as he wanted
to make sure that I fully understood what he was going to tell me – I fully
understood and never forgot.
Concerning sports (as entertainment), he explained that
emphasis should never fully be on winning; to win should not be the essential/only
part of any contest, watching or participating. The reason being, that when we
emphasize that small part, we are being pathetically ignorant, as well as derogatory
to the many of us, most of us, who are not going to win. That’s pretty much everybody
participating, minus the one who actually wins the contest. I found and still
find that to be so very true on several levels.
In society’s eagerness of hailing winners, we forget
the underdogs, and that is neither fair nor nice, besides it does not make
sense. We hail winners by associating ourselves with them, will perhaps have
some of the luck rubbing off on us. Okay, not you and I, but all the other
‘hailers’.
We might even apply a bit of our darker side, the
envy and jealousy part, as in ‘why him/her/them and not me?’ Some winners we
praise for their outstanding performance, the immense discipline and effort in
training for that top result, placing him/her/them on the highest pedestal; but
while doting on that, we totally forget second and third place and every single
one of the other competitors who also finished the event – shame shame shame.
Yeah, not nice to forget all those ‘underdogs’ who had
no doubt sacrificed as much energy, effort and time while applying the same massive
discipline; but no matter how hard some of these underdogs (most of them/us)
worked, the one on the podium had that one thing that day and at that very
moment to become the top-dog. Some can even do it again and again, because there
are things lined up within and without that make them stand out more often than
others. But that does not mean we should ignore the underdogs – not at all;
they should be as respected and appreciated as any winner is on any day, at any
time – according to me (and my father). I am a stout fan of underdogs and I am always
cheering them on and on and on – wish for them to win, by crushing the top-dogs
(that’s the spirit, Peter).
Here in the USA the stark contrast between the
number one and number two in almost anything is severe. I remember a tennis
final I watched many years ago. It was time to hand out the prices and trophies
to the tournament winner and second place (such a loser, huh?) The winner got a
fancy new and very expensive car, plus a check for $11 million; pretty good
payday for playing tennis. Then the announcer presented the second place winner
by saying that ‘the loser’ (that day, I assume) did not get the fancy car, but only
the ‘loser-check’ of $6 million. I don’t know how much money the announcer idiot
made for a living, but if you gave me $6 million for coming in second, the
dreaded and lowly ‘loser’ position, I’d be happy to lose every bloody day and wouldn’t
give a crap about what you or anybody else thought of me being labeled the
losing ‘underdog’ – I would wear that title proudly (and then buy myself a
really fancy car – I could certainly afford one).
I was coaching a girls Varsity soccer team (high
school) some years back. One pre-season we entered a local tournament at
another high school. It was clearly written on the results-board that after
group play, the winning teams would
be playing the other winning teams
in the post-group play-off. But for some pathetic reason the tournament
organizers felt it was also okay to announce that the ‘losers’ (seriously) would be playing against the other ‘losers’. One of the players from our
team just laughed as she read it and stated that they had been called things
worse than that – I embraced her and her attitude; but not that she surprised
me.
I have never really been good at things that have
anything to do with ‘winning’ (except in my work). The only thing I remember where I came in as a winner
was at a national (Denmark) competition in ‘roller-skate pair dancing’ – true
story. But I only roller-skated (and was actually pretty good at it) because I
was so taken by this very hot and sexy partner of mine; Jytte, was her name. I
was 12 and seriously confused by so many twirling and swirling hormones I had
to deal with at the time. Jytte did kiss me once and that was right after she
was handed our big trophy thing. That one kiss was worth the hundreds of hours
of training on skates; I didn’t care less about the trophy…
But I have certainly participated in the role of
‘underdog’ on several soccer-teams from age 6 and up; played tennis in
tournaments where the 1st place price was a T-Shirt (and you rode
home on your bike). 2nd place, you just rode home on your bike. 3rd
place – don’t want to go there.
I started coaching soccer at age 12 and continued
here in the USA when our sons were ready to play. My coaching-mentor back in
Denmark told me that the most important thing about coaching soccer was to
constantly underline that the reason we ALL were involved, players and coaches,
was to have fun. Nothing was more important. From the day I started to cruise
the sidelines as a coach that was the last thing I told the players running out
on the pitch and the last thing I asked them to do after halftime: HAVE FUN,
whatever you do – and they did.
We shouldn’t emphasize winning so much, by making it
the ultimate goal – the only thing. Sure, winning wars might be of importance as
so many other ‘it is essential to win’ issues. But when we are talking about
sports and games in our everyday life, let’s all wear the ‘I’m an underdog – and I’m having a lot of fun being one’ T-Shirts.
And we can wear that label with pride and respect and be comforted by the true
fact, that the vast majority of us are underdogs in sports and games – at least
what that part of our lives is concerned – so let’s have a lot of fun while we
are at it, okay? And I will keep rooting for any underdog till the day I die –
or perhaps even longer.
All my respect as well – really (Woof Woof)
PS. I still like ‘under-cat’ better, because it’s cute and cuddly (sigh)...
