When you guarantee something, you are essentially putting your word and your own personal guarantee on the line.
In ancient times, if a warrior guaranteed victory, he was putting his honor and possibly his life on the line.
When we were merely cavemen, a guarantee was putting your word on the line, and sometimes all a man had left was his word.
It’s disappointing this day in age how many sports figures throw out reckless guarantees and don’t back them up. It’s become a cliché thing to do in sports and often it leads to inspiring bulletin board material for the opponent. The problem is that no one really remembers the guy who made the faulty guarantee, it’s not like they take him out to the town square and give him a sound flogging.
However, a guarantee that is backed up by the player that makes it can make that player legendary.
Tim Thomas, the goaltender for the Boston Bruins when prompted by a reporter, basically guaranteed his team would win the next game. He made good on that guarantee in Game 5 with an amazing performance and one of the best stick saves to win the game you will ever see a goaltender make.
In honor of Tim Thomas making good on his guarantee, here’s some of the greatest sports guarantees.
Joe Namath’s Super Bowl Guarantee
In Super Bowl III, the NFL champion Colts were the heavy favourite to defeat the AFL champion Jets. At the time, the AFL was not generally regarded as competitive or as having the same caliber of talent as the NFL and the NFL had one the previous two Super Bowls.
That’s when Joe Namath stepped up and recklessly guaranteed that the Jets would be the Super Bowl champions. It was nonsense to almost every sports expert at the time, but Namath backed up his words by completing 17 out of 28 passes for 206 yards to lead his team to 16-7 victory. Namath didn’t throw a single touchdown in the game, but he was named the Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Player and became an instant legend.
Rasheed Wallace “Guaransheed it”
In the 2004 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, after the Detroit Pistons lost game one to the Indiana Pacers, Rasheed Wallace brashly guaranteed victory in game 2 and the Pistons won the game. In 2005, Wallace once again guaranteed his team would beat the Pacers to tie the playoff series at 2-2 and once again Wallace made good on it, putting in a stellar performance of 17 points, 12 rebounds and 5 blocked shots to help lead his team to victory.
Tim Tebow’s Pledge
In 2008, when Ole Miss shocked Florida at The Swamp in 31-30 victory, there was one man on the Florida Gators that made one of the best and inspiring post game speeches you will ever hear. Tim Tebow not only took responsibility for the loss but he put his honor, his word, and his guarantee that it wouldn’t happen again. Tebow’s guarantee has since been known as The Pledge. Not only did Tebow’s Gators not lose another game that season but behind the Superman play of Tim Tebow, the Gators went on to beat Oklahoma for the national title.
The following March, Tebow’s speech was engraved on a plaque and placed outside the Florida football facility.
Tim Thomas is just one win away from taking the Boston Bruins to meet the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup Final.
