March Madness reflects nation’s resolve

And now there are two. Two class acts. Two faith-driven coaches. Two team performances that instantly became the stuff of legend. Two title winners.

And perhaps most amazing, two championships – in two months – for the City of Brotherly Love.

First, it was the Eagles beating the best-of-the-best Patriots – and history’s greatest quarterback – in a spectacular Super Bowl. In turning destiny upside down, the Birds won not because they were loaded with superstars or caught lucky breaks. Just the opposite. They achieved success because,

under the guidance of Coach Doug Pederson, they turned every obstacle into an opportunity. In redefining what a “team” truly embodies, they never slacked off, never doubted, never quit.

Overcoming adversity became their motivation, and they never looked back.

And now we have NCAA Champion Villanova, winner of two of the last three March Madness tournaments. With their superstardom landing them in the record books, the Wildcats now join the ranks of college basketball’s most hallowed programs. Coach Jay Wright’s “all-forone, one-for-all” philosophy has transformed Villanova into a perennial powerhouse, where the focus is always on the team – not self-centered players with a penchant for hotdogging and padding their own stats.

The best part is that both programs will continue to be at the top of their games.

It’s a good time to be in Philadelphia!

March Madness is, without a doubt, the best sporting event on the planet.

The NCAA Tournament is different, in so many ways. And when it comes our way each spring, some miraculous things occur throughout America.

March Madness teaches us that anything can happen, and that miracles do occur.

Its lesson that sportsmanship, confidence, and work ethic can achieve the impossible are timeless for young and old alike.

For a few short weeks, Americans suddenly become blind to our prejudices. Political partisanship and the management-labor caste go out the window. And the only colors we care about are those worn by our favorite teams.

We come together to cheer for our teams – some of whom we’ve never heard of, hailing from places we don’t know – watching breathlessly as a No. 14 seed comes agonizingly close to felling a giant.

Alma maters and home teams notwithstanding, the vast majority of Americans always pull for the underdogs, the teams that the “experts” don’t give a snowball’s chance in hell to win.

And year after year, many find a way to knock out Goliath – especially this year.

We find this endearing not just because it’s fun, but because it personifies who we are as Americans.

From our very beginnings, the odds have always been stacked against us:

• Defeat the British, the most powerful nation the world had ever known? Dream on. But we did, making the dream of liberty and freedom a reality, on an unprecedented scale, for hundreds of millions.

• Win the Civil War? Forget it. Even if Lincoln’s army prevailed, the defeated South’s resentment would never subside, and its people would never, could never, assimilate into a Northern-dominated America.

If Vegas had odds, it would have been a sure bet that the tattered Union would not prevail. But it did.

• Save the world from the tyranny of the Axis powers? With an under-equipped army and industrial base not suited for defense production? Not for decades could victory be expected.

And yet, the Greatest Generation not only accomplished those things, but provided the blueprint for America’s postwar mega-boom.

• Put a man on the moon? Save the Apollo 13 astronauts? Beat the Soviet Union and defeat communism? End segregation? Elect a black man to the presidency? The list goes on.

And yet despite America’s track record of beating the odds, the naysayers are still out in full force, predicting gloom and doom.

But no matter how many times America has fallen, and how often its back has been to the wall, it has always – always – prevailed.

For the record, my money’s on America coming through in the clutch once again, turning it on when it has to, and finishing the game stronger than anyone else. It’s what we’ve always done, and it’s what we must do now.

Why? Because as ’Nova and the Eagles just showed us, that’s what true champions do.