Underdogs

It sure is hard being a sports fan of a west coast team...

Take, for example, today's Seahawks game against the Cleveland Browns... final score: Seahawks 3 Browns 6. During the game, when it would switch to commentary, they would talk more about other games going on than the game they were actually covering.

Consistently refs (in almost any sport) will favour east coast teams over west coast ones.

So why am I still excited to go down for the game on the 30th when Seattle sitting at 2 wins 4 loses?

Well, because I love watching sporting events, I love living on the west coast, I'm proud of the west coast culture, where Vancouver is more similar to San Diego than it is to Toronto, and...

...and I don't mind rooting for the underdog.

As north america was being settled, the civilized world was in the east who were desperate to hold up their newly growing culture to the established European old-world culture. The north american 'wild west' was settled by those willing to fight the odds, work hard, scrape by and take every chance that came their way. Underdogs? Sure. Survivors? Definitely. A little mad? Wouldn't have it any other way.

Yes, that's an extremely simplistic way of looking at it. Arguably, everyone who took a chance on coming to north america were a little crazy, but you don't win big without big risks.

...and isn't that why we love rooting for the underdog? The fact that the odds are stacked against them yet they still keep fighting?

Two words: 'Hunger Games'

I think the love of the underdog is pretty entrenched in our culture. Most of the commonly known fairy tales or folklore have the poor, third son coming from behind to overtake his older/smarter brothers. Cinderella married the prince. Jack beat the giant. Snow White triumphed over the evil stepmother.

We don't like victim who lays down after the beating, we like the guy who gets back up again and throws a punch of his own.

Perhaps because we, as humans, have the drive to survive just like any other creature even if we do live in houses with central heating and buy our hygienically packaged food at the local grocery store. Somewhere coded deep in our DNA we still have that instinct. Fight or flight. And there's the knowledge that it's not always the biggest, strongest that prevails. Often it's the smartest. The one who can read the odds, but isn't daunted. Instead, he or she bets on that one chance in a million and wins big.

Like I'll be in Seattle next weekend cheering for the Seahawks to beat the Bengals.

'Cause it's such a great rush when the underdog wins :)