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This week’s Roar and Against debate is on Leicester’s incredible achievement to win the English Premier League. Is it the greatest underdog sporting moment of all-time or just another special moment to tell the grandkids?
Each week two writers will go head-to-head, and will only have 250 words to get their point across on one of the big sporting issues of the week.
It will be up to you, in the comments section, to decide the winner. That winner will stay on and take on a new challenger and new topic. That challenger can be anyone, including any commenters who throw their hat in the ring.
To debate this week’s topic, Roar guru Connor Bennett is the challenger to take on fellow Roar guru Daniel Jeffrey.
AGREE
Connor Bennett (Roar Guru)
Leicester’s Premier League fairytale has finally come to fruition after weeks and months of nerve-racking anticipation. The constant ‘will they or won’t they’ teased fans of football all around the world.
There’s always been underdogs in sport, it’s what makes the spectacle so great, but no underdog has captured the imaginations of so many people from every corner of the Earth quite like this.
The Foxes weren’t even in the Premier League two seasons ago and spent all of last season duking it out to avoid relegation, finishing 14th.
The bookies had the 132-year-old club at 5000 to 1 odds to win the title at the start of the 2015-16 season. Good luck finding a win that was born from bigger odds than that.
Compare it to some of the other well-known underdog triumphs, such as the Greek Euro Cup winners of 2004, Buster Douglas toppling the undefeated Mike Tyson, the unforgettable Steven Bradbury gold medal or even England’s 2005 Ashes win.
These are memorable accomplishments, we all agree, but the reason Leicester’s unlikely triumph towers over the rest is simple – longevity.
No other underdog story has had to sustain such an unexpected series of results for so long. Greece in Euro 2004 shocked their way through a total of six games, Buster Douglas survived ten rounds with Iron Mike and Bradbury was the beneficiary of a last-lap crash.
The Foxes had to fight for 36 games, ten months, and palm off teams literally eight times their financial worth to earn their first ever Premier League title in what is the greatest underdog story in sports history.
DISAGREE
Daniel Jeffrey (Roar Guru)
Impressive as the Foxes’ Premier League triumph is, it’s hardly the only great underdog story in sports history.
I find it almost blasphemous to write, but Leicester’s season mightn’t even be the most unlikely English success story. After all, Nottingham Forest went from second-division also-rans to two-time European Champions in the space of five years back in the 1970s.
Ice hockey’s ‘Miracle on Ice’ also deserves a mention. How a group of amateurs and college players from the USA came from behind to stun the tough, dominating Soviet Union side at the 1980 Winter Olympics remains beyond me.
Unlikely as Leicester’s season has been, their side is at least fully professional.
I might as well pull out the Australian card and mention Steven Bradbury here. Putting aside the fact Bradbury relied on a disqualification and two crashes, the Aussie claimed what the Olympics themselves have called “the most unlikely gold medal in history” at the 2002 Winter Olympics. That’s no mean feat.
But if there’s one underdog story which really stacks up to Leicester’s, it’s Australia II’s unlikely America’s Cup victory in 1983. Prior to that year, it was a foregone conclusion that the US would win the event; their dominance over the Cup reached back 132 years.
Awesome as Leicester were, they weren’t going up against more than a century of history. Underdogs have won the EPL – take Blackburn in 1995 or Forest in 1979. They’re rare, to be sure, but not 130 years rare.
So, much as I’ve enjoyed Leicester’s success, I’m going to take Australia II.
And anyone who disagrees is a bum.
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