The National Basketball Association and the National Football League are two of the most popular and well-known organizations in the United States. Both companies have been around since the mid 1900’s and are now multi-billion dollar organizations. Both companies strive on the league’s fan support and what a better way to increase popularity for these organizations than to have a hot story that the entire country cannot help but pay attention to.

Everyone loves an underdog especially in the United States where movies and television are based upon the “little guy” or the “spear carrier.” This is why the NFL and NBA thrived so much in the last year do to the emergence of Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin. Tim Tebow was the backup for the broncos his first season and only took a few snaps the entire year. Last season he was the third string quarterback, but when the broncos kicked off their season to a 1-4 start, they put Tebow in to play. Tim Tebow took this opportunity and he brought his Broncos to the playoffs winning 7 of 11 games. In the playoffs he beat the #1 defense in the league the Pittsburg Steelers, but lost in the next round to the super bowl runners up the New England Patriots. Now you are probably wondering what the big deal behind the story is. I will simply say that Tim Tebow proved every football announcer, analyst, and expert in the game 100% wrong. Tim was told that not only could he not win in the NFL, but he could not even play in the NFL. Timmy took this criticism to the field and took a team and a city with a miserable future, and brought them to the playoffs. The best thing about this story is that not even his coach nor general manager believed in him, but the one group who was always behind him was the fans. Tebow made more of a financial impact on the NFL, than MVP and Super Bowl winning quarterbacks such as Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. A couple of facts to why the NFL cannot get enough of Tim Tebow are that first of all Tim Led the NFL in Jersey sales before he even got his first start due to the drama surrounding his story. Tebow’s first playoff game brought in the largest audience in history for a first round playoff game in history. Most importantly, everything surrounding the NFL has been financially profited by Tebow especially talk shows and other sports television shows whose numbers went through the roof talking “Tebow”. All these reasons are mainly why the NFL cannot get enough Tebow and cannot help themselves but to keep on promoting him.

The NBA also had its own underdog splash into the league, but this one even more sudden and perhaps more surprising also. That splash came in the form of Asian-American Harvard University graduate Jeremy Lin. Jeremy was undrafted in the NBA draft. He was cut in his rookie season by The Golden State Warriors without being given much of a chance. Jeremy was signed by the New York Knicks this season but did not play at all at the beginning of the year. Although the Knicks had the talent to be good, they started the season off slow. Many analysts felt that the Knicks needed one more piece to complete their chances of making a legitimate title run. And guess whom that piece ended up being? Yes sir, Jeremy Lin. Jeremy turned their season around when they needed it the most. Jeremy has played a major role in his team winning 8 of 11 games. He has averaged over 20 points per games in his 11 starts and almost 10 assists per game. Again, Jeremy was as big of an underdog as you will ever see in your lifetime. Lin’s name alone is now up to 14 million dollars alone in just three weeks. The Irony of that is that just three weeks ago Jeremy was living on his brother’s couch in a New York City apartment. A few facts about Jeremy’s affect on the league are also surprising. Knicks television ratings have increased by 70% since Jeremy’s first start. There has been a 550% increase in traffic in the New York Knicks website within just one week since Jeremy’s first start, which is the biggest weekly increase they have ever had. The most impressive figure overall is 50 million dollars. This is the amount Lin is expected to boost the Knick’s revenue to by next season. All theses facts show you why the NBA cannot get enough of “Linsanity”, and why it is so profitable for the organization.

Above all the things Jeremy and Tim do for their teams and for their leagues the reason these players are so beneficial right now is that they symbolize something much bigger than sports… Hope. This hope could not have come at a better time while the country has very little of it at a time like this. Although they are not the best players yet at their prospective sports they are on a different level of popularity because of their underdog stories. These stories can relate to every person living in the United States which is why Jeremy Lin and Tim Tebow are not only good for the popularity of their sports but they are the pride of the United States.