Day of the Underdog

Remember the day before the final table of the 2007 WSOP Main Event? Read the forums that day? Or during the final table itself? Never saw so many Lee Watkinson fans in my life. (Doubt he has either.) Seem to recall seeing a poll during the ESPN PPV of the final table that showed Watkinson to be an overwhelming fan favorite among those clicking through on their site. (Too bad for him, he’d already been knocked out by the time they got that graphic up on the screen.)

Lee Watkinson? Seems like a nice fellow when I’ve heard him interviewed. But really, unless you’re an endangered chimpanzee or something, how can you get behind Lee Watkinson? Because you don’t know anybody else, I suppose . . . .

Given a choice, I’d rather go with the underdog. Which is how most of us are, I think, when it comes to events other than WSOP Main Event final tables.

I therefore have to believe most watching Super Bowl XLII were pulling for the Giants like me. Not that I cared for Eli Manning all that much before the last week of the regular season. Was pulling hard, though, for the Giants to knock New England off its undefeated perch then. Of course, the way things turned out, it was even sweeter for it to happen the way it did.

Quite a thrill when NY took that 10-7 lead in the 4th quarter. (Who else suffered from a minor buzz kill, though, when Bill-Friggin’-Frist appeared in a commercial directly afterwards?) Once New England took the lead back, I’d basically given up hope three or four times -- until David Tyree made that ridiculous catch of a 32-yarder on 3rd-and-5, that is. Crazy-ass play like that makes you think perhaps something strange might be happenin’ . . . .

Then the fade to Plaxico Burress, completing the runner-runner, come-from-behind upset. Unreal.

We’ve no need, really, for any unseemly shows of perfection in this here imperfect world.

Congrats to the Giants, and all fans of underdogs.