This election cycle has been an epic battle between two forces. As Nov. 4 nears, though, Obama has pulled ahead in the polls, making some Republicans more than a little squeamish.
 

But not to worry, says McCain. Who cares that he’s down? He’s likes it that way. At a rally in New Hampshire, McCain announced: “I can't think of any place I'd rather be as Election Day draws close than running an underdog campaign in New Hampshire.”
 

He’s got a point. The underdog is not such a bad role to play, in fact it’s a popular theme in sports movies. Just look at these eight films (in no particular order), which glorify the little guy, and then say it with me, “Ducks! Ducks! Ducks!”

1. The Mighty Ducks

When Gordon Bombay, a hotshot lawyer and failed hockey player, gets caught drunk driving he’s forced to coach the worst Pee Wee hockey team in the league. However, they come together against Gordon’s old team and Gordon’s old coach to win and erase Gordon’s biggest regret.
 

2. Space Jam

A super-powered team of space aliens versus the Looney Toons? Hardly fair. But when Michael Jordan made that Stretch-Armstrong reach for the basket to win it, you could hear a pin drop in the theater.

3. The Waterboy

Bobby Boucher is the lowest of the low in college football: the waterboy. However, a coach brings him onto the team after discovering his talent for tackling, and ultimately Bobby makes the game-winning play.

4. Little Giants

Danny O’Shea leads his Pee Wee team of castoffs into battle against his brother’s way more athletic group, but when the big game arrives it’s the runts and rejects that win the day and bragging rights in the town.

5. The Replacements

When NFL’s Washington Sentinels go on strike, a rag-tag team of replacements are brought in. Relying on heart, the substitutes score a place in the playoffs for the real, professional Sentinels.

6. Rocky II

Rocky Balboa may have risen from underdog status to go toe to toe with Apollo in “Rocky I,” but it was in the second film that he finally was able to put Creed down and win the title outright.

7. Cool Runnings

Nobody thought a bobsled team from Jamaica could win at the winter Olympics. And, although the team just misses out on a medal thanks to a mechanical problem, when the four men get up and carry their bobsled across the finish line, they win something much more valuable: respect.

8. Rudy

Rudy is perhaps the most inspiring underdog of all time, and his sack at the end of the film may not have meant much for the outcome of the game, but that moment was a realization of all his dreams coming true.