Understanding the Underdog Mentality

There was no question the Philadelphia Eagles were the underdog coming into the last Superbowl. The team was going up against the team New England Patriots seeking to annex its third Superbowl in the last four years. Pretty impressive. The Patriots frustrated the Eagles foray into the Superbowl back in the year 2005.

But what does the term “underdog” really imply?

The term underdog comes from the dog fights back in the 1800s, where, according to some accounts in a 2012 psychological study by researchers from Universities of South Florida and San Diego, the losing team is often called the “under dog”. It meant the dog had to submit to the superiority of the so-called “over dog” or the winner. The under dog rolls onto the opponent’s back and gives the winner the opportunity to win over him or her.

Today, in our culture, we use the term underdog as someone we never expect to win in a competition, be it sports or otherwise. It can be also used in business too. For any competitor, the underdog tag is something that hits deep into the inner side of a person.

The energy is often determined when they have a chance on winning or they are going towards the path of certain failure.

How the underdog tag helped the Eagles?

There were a lot of things going for the Eagles at the start. The expectations were not that high for Philadelphia when the season started. After showing some early wins, the expectation turned downward negative when the team’s starting quarterback, Carson Wentz, suffered an injury that ended his season early in December. It was bad news Brown for Philadelphia.

So, for most of the season, the Eagles were the underdogs. And they were actually not expected to go as far as the Superbowl. Even being in the Superbowl, as some think about it, would be already be a huge bonus for the team, considering the misfortune and the odds stacked against the team.

Kat Longshore, a professor of sports psychology at Lafayette College, said “having that mentality all the way thorough is going to help them (Eagles).” Longshore is also a mental performance coach with the college’s softball and women’s lacross teams.

Longshore and Spencer were confident and optimistic about the Eagles’ chances since the team will be more focused and on target when executing plays and tight on the defensive end, which can be the keys for the underdog to win the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy and muster the right amount of success.

Another advantage, is when the people and even the players expect themselves to lose, the pressure to win goes to the overdog or the favored one, in this case the New England Patriots.

The pressure is on since the Patriots are expected to win, said Spencer. But it will surely not something the Eagles counted on. They played the best game of their lives to overcome the gargantuan challenge of lording it over and to become American football’s world champion.

The key here is, understanding the role of performance anxiety, which the Patriots may not have. The Patriots are perennial contenders for the Superbowl and they have won five of the last seven Superbowl appearances. We need to understand two of the appearances; the Patriots were heavily favored to win only to lose both times to the New York Giants.

New England Patrots essentially developed the underdog mentality in the middle of the game. They were down by 25 at a certain point in the game. They took the tiger by the tail and win it via overtime. They just kept their mindset positive and encouraged each other to stick to the plan and maintained their attention to detail.

It is going to be a huge story, said Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman who was heard telling teammates on the sidelines of that particular game.

That is the kind of mindset that will bring the Eagles to glory, and it did, as Philadelphia embraced the tag it has been getting all season long. They embraced it and they had the chance to win, and they won.