Weekend Heroics Remind Us of the Power of Sport

In the midst of work stoppages, lockouts and court rulings, what at the beginning of the year was expected to be a sleepy July sports weekend reminded us of the power of sport.

Those of us in the industry work hard to convince clients to invest marketing funds into sport. Extensive research has shown that sports marketing and sponsorship, when executed well, can enhance brand image, increase purchase intention, drive sales and improve employee morale.

But it's the intangible benefits of sports sponsorship that are the most difficult to measure and nearly impossible to prove.

Yet it is weekends like this that can help explain the unexplainable attraction consumers have for sport.

Who could have predicted that Derek Jeter would not only become just the 28th player in baseball history to reach the 3,000-hit plateau on the same day that he would go 5-for-5 and lead the Yankees to a 5-4 win, but that his 3,000th hit would come via a home run?

In his Hall of Fame career, Jeter had only hit 236 home runs in more than 10,000 plate appearances. Jeter hadn't hit a home run since May 8, and hadn't homered at Yankee Stadium since last July 22.


He had only notched five hits in a game one other time in his career, over a decade ago. 


Fast forward less than 24 hours later.


The U.S. women's soccer team is the beneficiary of an own goal less than two minutes into their quarterfinal match-up against Brazil, who had humiliated the U.S. in a 4-0 win in the World Cup semis four years earlier.

This incredible luck was followed by an unbelievable series of misfortunes. A red card puts the U.S. a man down 66 minutes into the match. U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo blocked the ensuing penalty kick, only to be issued a yellow card after being told that Brazil would get another kick. 


Brazil would eventually take the lead, and in order to tie the game the U.S. would have to score a goal a man down against a defense falling back to 
prevent exactly that from happening. 


What were the chances that the U.S., playing a man down for nearly half the match, would score in the game's 122nd minute, in stoppage time?


Zilch. Zero. Nada.


But they did, the latest goal in the history of the Women's World Cup, and won the match on penalty kicks. 


The win took place 12 years to the day of the U.S.'s first World Cup win in 1999.


Unbelievable. Unfathomable. And yet another reminder to us all why we watch, invest in, fret about and intensely follow sport.