Stanley Cups and Super Bowls are nice, but Barack Obama's victory is larger than life.
How can America's change of power be put into perspective?
Let's just say that if George W. Bush was a political animal, he'd be a deer caught in the headlights.
In comparison, Barack Obama can be viewed as a majestic lion sitting on a mountain top.
But since this is a website devoted to sports junkies here's another analogy that's easy to understand, especially for die-hard Leafs fans.
Swapping W. for The Big 'O'?
That's like trading Gary Leeman for Doug Gilmour.
Yes, it's been quite a week, as Obama became the first black President in U.S. history and capped it off with an inspirational acceptance speech that would have made Knute Rockne and Vince Lombardi proud.
But with apologies to that legendary pair of football coaches, the president-elect is actually more of a hoop-head. In fact, Obama's brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, is the coach at Oregon State and is considered to be a rising star in college basketball. In high school, Obama was part of a squad that captured a Hawaii state championship and as he awaited the results of Tuesday's election, he even managed to squeeze in a pick-up game at a Chicago playground with a bunch of his buddies.
W., on the other hand, was a lousy baseball player who managed to buy the Texas Rangers with the help of his daddy's big bucks from the oil business. Unfortunately, W.'s biggest claim to fame was trading Sammy Sosa to Chicago where he quickly became the second coming of Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks. W. was also on the scene in Texas when Jose Canseco was busy pumping himself and Rafael Palmeiro full of steroids. W., of course, claims he didn't know anything about it and if he couldn't track down any needles in his own clubhouse, it's hardly a surprise that he never even came close to finding the needle in a haystack known as Osama Bin Laden.
Will Obama find Osama?
In reality, that's a complicated task no matter who's in charge.
Something a whole lot easier to understand is how Obama's magnetic personality and passion for basketball inspired a number of professional athletes to get behind his campaign. Last summer, for instance, L.A. Clippers star Baron Davis emceed a huge fund-raising dinner for Obama and claimed it was one of the highlights of his life.
And it wasn't just black athletes who supported Obama.
Ben Eager of the Chicago Blackhawks will never be confused with a political heavyweight. But he's definitely an NHL heavyweight and in addition to throwing checks at the opposition, Eager tossed a cheque in Obama's direction to help finance his presidential bid.
And then there are athletes such as Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb who were once completely apathatic towards the political process. McNabb had never even registered to vote before but found himself captivated by Obama.
"It (Obama's acceptance speech) reminded me of, obviously, when Martin Luther King spoke," said McNabb. "As a man, if you teared up it was acceptable because it was that deep."
I have to admit that I was one of those typical males who found himself getting emotional over Obama's eloquent address. Afterwards, the media mob covering the election attempted to sum up the historic night. To be honest, there were so many talking heads on the various networks that I wouldn't have been shocked to see Kenny and Spenny pop up as political pundits. But as I flipped through the channels, one reporter who I unfortunately wasn't able to identify made an excellent point about Obama's impact.
"To all the single mothers out there trying to raise your kids in tough neighborhoods, you finally have a positive role model to point them towards. If your kids want to be like somebody, they can't go wrong following the example of Barack Obama," said the unidentified reporter.
Many of today's youth worship movie stars, rap artists and yes, pro athletes. In the never-ending quest to improve ratings, the media is often guilty of focusing much of our attention on "bad boys" such as Adam 'Pacman' Jones, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. But there are athletes attempting to spread a more positive message, and a few may even be capable of following in Obama's footsteps.
Michael 'Pinball' Clemons, for example, has already been dubbed "Canada's Obama" by one Toronto newspaper. That might be overstating things a bit, as Clemons has never held any sort of political office. But there's no question Pinball has the charisma that seems to be pointing him towards a higher calling. There's nothing wrong with helping the Toronto Argonauts increase their season ticket sales, but many people believe Clemons has bigger fish to fry and that's it's only a matter of time before he takes a stab at some level of government.
In the meantime, it's up to Obama to carry the political football.
And just in case you need one more sports cliche, try this on for size.
Wins don't come any bigger than what went down on Tuesday night.