Letter: After the upset, it starts all over again

Football and elections:

I recently watched a highly-anticipated championship game between two rival conference winners. The contest pitted an underdog upstart against a more experienced team from the larger conference. The upstart had successfully pulled off upset after upset during its playoff run, using a very aggressive offensive style. In spite of that, it was lightly regarded, and any notion of its winning was viewed as “deplorable.” The other team was a more diverse team, while the underdog seemed to be predominantly white and lacked playing time.

It became obvious from the beginning of the game that this would be an ugly, grind-it-out battle. The favored team took the early lead, but seemed to lose focus and was assessed a number of penalties for “false” starts and “illegal” procedures. The brash underdog stayed aggressive, but was also guilty of mental mistakes and received numerous “personal” foul penalties for “unnecessary roughness” and “unsportsmanlike conduct.”

As the game moved into its final moments, with the favored team winning and driving for the game-clinching score, there appeared to be a bad call that gave the ball back to their opponent. The upstart took full advantage and mounted its best drive of the game, scoring the winning points as time expired.

Is the winner “great”? Time will tell. But we will all be back for the next game, which starts right after the playing of our national anthem.

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Letter: After the upset, it starts all over again."