2008: The Year of the Upset

America certainly loves a good upset. We seem to always be rooting for the underdog. The country was even founded on an upset. According to The Patriot’s Lord Cornwallis, “the best trained military in the world was facing a bunch of farmers with pitchforks.” (And if you can’t believe Mel Gibson, then I don’t know who you can trust!)
But without fail every year come March, people get excited to watch Bucknell beat Kansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Why? I don’t know. I think it just makes for a cruddy Final Four. But people love upsets. That is why 2008 MAY be perfect for America. Yep, I know at the tail end of 2007, we had Appalachian State knock off Michigan, Stanford knock off USC and the No. 2 team lost seemingly EVERY week, but that was just the beginning. The prelude to 2008: The Year of the Upset.
Thus far this year the Giants with ELI MANNING have knocked off Tampa Bay on the road, they beat Dallas in Big D, then they went TO Lambeau and took down Brett Favre and the Packers. Then in the ultimate upset, the Giants drove the field with under two minutes left and scored the game-winning touchdown against a 12.5 point favorite in the Super Bowl. The team they beat was being considered for “Best Team EVER!” status by many people, including me. And despite what everyone says, this was an upset. BIG TIME.
But 2008: The Year of the Upset didn’t start there. No sir. It began when West Virginia, with an interim coach, knocked off mighty Oklahoma, the team that thought THEY should have been in the BCS Title game. The next night, Kansas beat Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. KANSAS! They hadn’t even played in a January bowl game since Nixon was the president. Finally, No. 2 LSU beat down No. 1 Ohio State in the title game. (Though LSU was favored, I still say if a No. 2 beats, a No. 1, it helps my argument.)
And if we can step away from the gridiron for a second, 2008: The Year of the Upset goes down under. Novak Djokovic beat the greatest tennis player EVER in Roger Federer in the semi-finals. Djokovic would then beat unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Australian Open Final. Tsonga by the way had to upset Rafael Nadal to make the finals. On the women’s side, Justine Henin lost for the first time in 32 matches to Maria Sharapova, the 5 seed. Sharapova then beat the No. 3 Jelena Jankovic and No. 4 Ana Ivanovic for the title. That is a series of upsets.
So what else can we expect from 2008: The Year of the Upset? Well if Tiger Woods enters a tournament and DOESN’T win, THAT’S an upset. Will if someone other than a team from New York or Boston wins the World Series, THAT’S an upset. Will Oral Roberts as a No. 16 seed knock off No. 1 Memphis? I don’t know, but that wouldn’t surprise me in 2008: The Year of the Upset. Hey maybe even Mike Huckabee has a shot in 2008. Well maybe not. I guess America doesn’t like the underdog THAT much. But that’s a discussion for another blog.
PS this post can also be seen at www.790thezone.com