The sport of politics. The politics of sport.

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Here we are, on the eve of Super Bowl XLII and the horserace of the 2008 presidential campaign. On the threshold of America’s two most important competitive events, we discuss what could be any team’s most crucial tool — whether in sports or politics. That tool is the underdog mentality.

Pigskin Dogs

Think about it. In the NFL, Red Zone Politics’ sport of choice, we saw this past weekend ascent of one underdog to a place in the Arizona sun: the New York Giants overcame minus-digit cold and their own stumbles to top Brett Favre’s Green Bay Packers. They will face off against what is unquestionably the best team in football, the New England Patriots, in less than two weeks at this year’s Super Bowl.

The Giants’ rise from the ashes of disappointment came, strangely enough, from what in a recent article I referred to as a “good loss,” in the last game of the regular season, to — of all teams – the PATRIOTS.

How could the Pats have known they would create a monster of unity, guts and heart? A monster that might come back to haunt them? Here’s the beautiful irony: the Pats themselves were such a monster once. In 1985 they went on the road as an unquestionable underdog during the NFL Playoffs and beat the Jets, Raiders and Dolphins. Sure, they were convincingly mashed into the New Orleans Astrodome turf by Mike Ditka’s Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX. But as I discuss in my book, “Democrats in the Red Zone: an Independent voter’s take on the game of political perception,” that season was the beginning of hope, and the beginning of respect. It took them another decade to get to their next Super Bowl, and again they were beaten, by … Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. Five more years, then a new team began to take shape. This is the Patriots we know and love (or hate) today.

We may not see a dominant Giants team immediately, but what the Giants have experienced as they raced to the finish line this year is the beginning of hope and the respect that comes with SHOWING you can win.

But who is the REAL underdog here, anyway? One team spent the better part of the season hounded by its own fans and by pundits throughout the sports media as a dog that couldn’t hunt. Quarterback Eli Manning, the Giants’ goofy-faced manchild, was almost universally dismissed as a hopeless klutz with the football. Meanwhile, Giants coach Tom Coughlin got used to having a target on his back.

The other team in this year’s Big Game, the New England Patriots, was attacked by the sports media and some of their NFL colleagues for the sins of coach Bill Belichick, who was caught recording the play signals of his opponents. From what I understand, Belichick’s “strategic misdemeanor” reflected a longstanding practice within the NFL used by teams to gain a competitive advantage. The Patriots, typically, applied next-generation technology to a something that is anything but new.

Belichick got “caught” thanks to the efforts of his bitter former apprentice, the Jets’ Eric Mangini (known for some absurd reason as “Mangenius” in some circles), during the Patriots’ spanking of the Jets in Week 1 of the 2007-08 regular season. Belichick and his team were fined a total of $750,000 and were treated to the treat of being tarred and feathered by the sports press.

Except what the Patriots did with all of the resentment coming their way was to channel their own sense of being ganged up on to fuel an utterly dominant season — one in which they forced their detractors to heel, en masse, before the undeniability of New England’s perfect 16-0 regular season. ‘Nuf said.

Two teams dismissed, for different reasons: one for lack of talent, the other for lack of integrity. And these are the two teams who will play in this year’s Super Bowl. What does that say about the talkers and gripers, the yappers and the hypers? I don’t trust polls and I don’t trust the people who make a lot of money speculating about the “What ifs?” Do YOU?

Prez Dogs

We can apply the same logic to presidential politics, where Hillary Clinton was written off after her loss in the Iowa Caucuses in January by such illustrious members of the “chattering classes” as Chris Matthews and a host of pollsters afflicted by what seems to have been a collective case of wishful thinking.

Barack Obama, himself an underdog in the presidential race, was quickly labeled the “favorite” after winning in Iowa — and what good has it done him? He sprinted to close second-place finishes behind Clinton in New Hampshire and Nevada, and thankfully lost the ”front-runner” assigned to him by the purveyors of so-called conventional “wisdom.”

Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Senator John McCain on the Republican side have ridden their underdog status to victory in Iowa (Huckabee), New Hampshire and South Carolina (McCain).

Democrat Obama is a favorite of Red Zone Politics, thanks to his status as a fellow football fan (Chicago Bears). We think maybe he should welcome his newly-minted underdog status. Why? Because everybody loves an underdog. The Giants know it, the Patriots know it and Hillary Clinton’s people know it, as do Huckabee’s and McCain’s.

The sports press and the political press are essentially the same animal: an adrenaline-driven creature with limited concern for the effect of its words on competitive outcomes. The smartest teams in sports and politics know that the press can talk all it wants. But if you say as little as possible and let your performance speak for itself, you cut the warping influence of that power in half. Then we get a purer competitive process.

That mystical quality we call “heart” is fueled unwittingly by those who would demean us or discount our ability to succeed. This is why you will NEVER HEAR the Patriots declare their intent to beat the next team they play.

Being an underdog is a mentality, not a condition. That is the most crucial thing to remember in the realm of competition, where talent will only get you so far. Unfortunately for the Giants, one of their players has already asserted his team will beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl (”Mark my words”). Did he forget about a certain Pittsburgh Steeler’s “guarantee” before that team fell to the Pats during the regular season? He gave the Pats a little injection of underdog drive, which is a dangerous thing for any team to do.

I believe Super Bowl XLII will be a great game because both teams are driven by an underdog mentality that conceals an utter belief in their ability to kick the pants off the competition. Both teams deserve to be there, despite those who were dreaming of a Brady-Favre matchup.

We’ll know soon enough who owns this year’s Lombardi Trophy. We’ll also know soon enough who the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees will be. All I’ll say is, “Keep your eye on the underdog.”

If you know what I mean.

Your Truly, A.F. Cook