SPECIAL ROUNDUP!!! The Underdog
EDITION #100! WE'VE MADE IT!
INTRO:
Wow.
This is something that I never thought I would accomplish.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would write a 100 editions and have 200+ people reading my work. But, it did. It happened.
Today, I've gotten a group of writers to come on and talk about the greatest underdog to win. Be sure to check these guys out and subscribe to them. You might think you know everything about underdogs, but while arranging these mini-stories, I definitely learned a lot.
I'm also arranging a Q/A session tomorrow. I hope you can join me on the call. It's one of the perks you get sharing this newsletter. You get to ask as many questions as you want and I'll answer everything. The join code and password will be in the chat.
Here we go!
Roundup: The Underdog
from To me, the Detroit Lions are the ultimate underdog NFL franchise. This team has been around since 1930, and it won four NFL championships -- tied for third-most in the pre-Super Bowl era. But that's about when the winning stopped. The Lions are the longest-running franchise to never make a Super Bowl; the Cleveland Browns are next, but they began play in 1946, sixteen years after Detroit. Before 2023, they hadn't won a playoff game since 1992, and before that their previous postseason victory came in the 1957 NFL Championship. Maybe it's because their decline -- and hopes for renewal -- mirrors the life cycle of their city, which also fell on hard times as the 21st century approached, but the Lions are an easy team to root for.
That's especially true in their current era under coach Dan Campbell and QB Jared Goff, who were also seemingly written off by the rest of the NFL but are trying to build a winner anyway. I can't say whether the Lions will make it back to the NFC title game again in 2024, much less what might happen to a sad-sack franchise if it ever actually wins. (We've seen the identity crises that hit the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs when they went from losers to winners.) But for now, the Lions are synonymous with the underdog -- and it's well past time for them to have their day.
fromBeing an underdog isn’t something transient, at least in my opinion. Instead, it’s an identity forged by only the worst of circumstances; the pained, the outcasts, and the most unlikely success stories. With that in mind, one man I’d label the doggiest (not a word) of underdogs is a local Houston hero: Jimmy Butler.
While we know Jimmy as embodying the underdog mentality with a constant chip on his shoulder, I think it’s more important to look to his upbringing as what truly makes him more than just overlooked, but underappreciated.
Born into a single mother-led family — Butler’s father left when he was an infant — in Houston, he was always left to scrounge for scraps. I suppose being one of seven children would do that, but it rings especially true when you’re dealing with the inner city area of H-Town. In the worst parts, you look at a guy wrong and you’re likely to have a few rounds inserted into your sternum.
In other words, you gotta look out for yourself, and that idea would become even more ingrained into Butler’s story at the age of 13. That’s when his mother, Londa, kicked him out to the tune of, "I don’t like the look of you. You gotta go." And that’s the actual quote.
Suddenly homeless, Butler looked to his high school basketball team for the security he couldn’t find anywhere else. After befriending fellow baller Jordan Leslie, — who is now a former NFL player — Butler was brought into the Leslie family and eventually went off to attend Tyler Junior College. Note that Butler was not deemed good enough to attend a major (or even somewhat major) college for basketball.
Finally, after his performance earned him a scholarship to Marquette, Butler began to break through, yet still only went #30 overall in 2011. The rest, as we say, is history. Somehow, a formerly homeless kid from Houston went on to be one of the clutchest, most admired players in the modern NBA. Somehow, that homeless kid with no major collegiate offers would go on to make over $260 million (and counting) at the highest levels of the game. Somehow, a child rejected by his family would eventually wear one of the NBA’s ten most-sold jerseys in multiple different seasons.
Somehow, Jimmy Butler made it. If he ain’t an underdog, nobody is.
fromMy favourite underdog story ever: Alfonzo McKinnie averaged 11 and 8 his senior year of his high school. He was lightly recruited, didn't stand out at Eastern Illinois, transferred, tore his meniscus twice, and by the time he graduated was the fifth-best player on a Green Bay team that couldn't even win the Horizon League. The only way he could stay in basketball after college was to join the Berbourg East Side Pirates, a one-year-old team in the second division of Luxembourg. After the season ended, he joined the Mexican summer championship, then he paid a $175 dollar fee to join the open tryouts for the Bulls' G League team. He made the team, earned a starting spot within about a month, and by July 2017, just 15 months after his last game in the Luxembourgish second division, officially became an NBA player when he signed with the Toronto Raptors.
fromKeeping with the spirit of celebrating the Boston Celtics taking home their record-setting 18th NBA Championship earlier this week, it only feels right to hand Derrick White the well-deserved moniker of "biggest underdog" in sports. The 29-year-old may not be the most prominent name on a loaded roster that harbors several past and present All-Stars like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Al Horford. But no one can argue White wasn't an instrumental cog in their dominant postseason run. Rewatch any recent matchup, and you will see how his presence as a connective-tissue playmaker and suffocating defender made him a pivotal chess piece for Head Coach Joe Mazulla every night. However, the clever combo guard was an unlikely candidate to find himself in this spot. A little over a decade ago, White was an unheralded recruit committed to suit up for a division two program in Colorado Springs. Despite an uphill battle to reach the best basketball league on earth, he repeatedly defied the odds, earning a scholarship from Colorado, becoming a first-round pick, forging a reputation as a two-way force for the San Antonio Spurs, and cementing his legacy as an all-time role player for a legendary organization.
from“Impossibly, illogically, humbly, charmingly, life-affirmingly, gloriously, in 2016, Leicester City are the Champions of England.” As captain Wes Morgan lifted the cup, Peter Drury summed it up perfectly.
Leicester City opened the 2015 Premier League season at 5000-1 to win the league. That is because it should be impossible for an underdog to win the Premier League. By the end of the 38-game season, all the lucky breaks and moments of brilliance should have quietly regressed to the mean. By Championship Sunday, the teams should have organized themselves in order of wages and transfer fees: big teams to the top, minnows - and foxes - to the bottom.
When they went top of the table in January, we were under the impression that they were just keeping it warm for Arsenal or City. Each week, we expected them to wobble, but instead, they just won. They won through Riyadh Mahrez’s magic tricks on the right wing and N’golo Kante’s ironman performances in the middle. They won through Claudio Ranieri's tactics: positive, pragmatic, perfect. Most of all, they won through their talisman, Jamie Vardy, a factory worker turned pro footballer, who went from making £30 a week on 12-hour shifts to firing in 24 goals on the way to the greatest-ever upset.
They didn’t even bother to wait until Championship Sunday; Leicester wrapped up the title two weeks early, David beating the Premier League’s Goliaths a fortnight ahead of schedule.
(The trophy lift is good, but the best moment is this one. Come for the volley, stay for the call.)
fromRudy Gobert. Here and abroad, he's thought of as a sort of afterthought [in Utah to Don, in Minnesota to KAT and in France to Wemby] in basketball parlance. Rudy was the last to receive a nickname in this town [Salt Lake City], didn't have his likeness painted across the other span of bridge at Gateway Mall [not very far from Don's, as a matter of fact] and has been colossally misunderstood his entire career by pundits, ex-pros like Shaq and many others. Yet I believe it will be Rudy who will someday have his own statue in front of Utah's arena and not Don.
fromI took a liking to the Denver Nuggets in the mid-1990s, about a decade before I would actually get to visit Denver for the first time.
In particular, I loved Robert Pack's basket attacks, but Denver had other enjoyable players: Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (a proto-Steph Curry); forwards Brian Williams (before he became Bison Dele and met a tragic fate), LaPhonso Ellis (who featured a sweet turnaround jumper), and Rodney Rogers (a massively talented rookie); plus Hall of Fame center Dikembe Mutombo.
But when they faced the 63-win, top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, the Nuggets seemed seriously outmanned. And at this point, no 8-seed had ever defeated a 1-seed.
In the best-of-5 series, Seattle held serve with a pair of home wins, but Denver did the same. Then, in a tense, tight Game 5 in Seattle, the Nuggets forced overtime and ultimately pulled off the upset, 98-94, making history and leading to the famous image of Mutombo lying on the floor clutching the ball, celebrating. I felt like I was right there with him.
fromTwo guys I think of when anybody says underdog are Tom Brady and Brock Purdy. While they may have not had a rags-to-riches story, what they've overcome is stunning.
Tom Brady was selected in the sixth round, more accurately the 199th overall pick. Meanwhile, Brock Purdy was the last pick in the draft. Both only had a small window to shine, but both used it to take the starting job. Tom Brady is regarded the Greatest American Football Player of all Time. Brock Purdy is currently the starting QB for the 49ers and has already made a Super Bowl appearance.
You have to feel for them even with all the adversity behind them. Many still say that Purdy isn't a good QB and only made the Super Bowl because of those around him. Wanna hear about Brady? No fan ever wanted him to play. Even at Michigan. Heck, most Patriots fans probably never heard his name ever before.
Brady has 7 titles. Purdy could get many too. It's always about believing. They did it. They earned it.
Conclusion
A 100 editions into this amazing journey. Thanks so much for sticking with me. If you haven't already subscribed, please do.
Remember to join the Q/A session on Sunday at 2:00 P.M. EST. It'll be lots of fun.
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Rulon Gardner