What's Your Favorite Rally Cry?
They have existed throughout the history of sports. Team slogans or catch phrases that help to motivate your team (or your enemy) to achieve glory and greatness. I've been debating this for a week now and nobody has given me a straight answer as to their favorite ones, so I come to my bloggers where I know I will get responses. Especially if I bash the Red Sox (which I won't).
In 1995, the Mariners fans pulled out "Refuse to lose" down 2-0 to the Yankees in the first ever, division series. We know what happened next.
In 1996 the Yankees dubbed "We play today, we win today, that's it" with the help of Mariano Duncan. We know how that turned out.
in 2004 the Red Sox had "Why not us?" and then proceeded to be the first team ever to come back from a 3-0 series deficit.
Those are the big three that jump out to me when I think of a slogan that was made popular and actually worked. That's why "Cowboy Up" doesn't qualify (and it was stupid).
Today I saw a sign from a San Diego fan that said "Don't Stop Believing." What kind of crap is that? You quote Journey to rally your team? It would be one thing if the sign started blasting the song somehow and provoked spontaneous drunk dancing like at a Quinnipiac hockey game if the Bobcats are trailing, but it didn't, it was just those three words. Who can get excited over that? Nobody.
Personally, out of the ones I just named, I prefer "Why not us?" It makes you think and if you think really hard about it, it will eventually pump you up and have you believing the message. "Refuse to lose" is cool because it sounds badass and it rhymes (kind of), but it just doesn't get the same message across. Obviously "We play today, we win today" is awesome because it brings me the only happy memories of the three I just named, but it's too long.
Which other ones are out there? What are your favorites and least favorites? Here are two other ones that come to mind:
"Bend but don't break" and "Chop wood"- Rutgers football and it was publicized after their upset of Louisville two years ago. This is a little cliche and it doesn't really mean much to me.
Let's build a list, leave some in the comment section and if we get enough of them we can all vote on the popular ones.







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