Few American sports fans can relate to the magnitude of emotion related to the relegation system of England’s Premier League (and other European leagues for that matter).  The long and short of it is that the bottom 3 teams in the Premier League each season are forced to move down a division - the equivalent of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays being forced down to AAA ball.

Every year there is some compelling story about a team that is fighting for its Premiership life - which for mid-to-bottom tier clubs can be quite a fight, considering the massive amount of $ that Premier League clubs split via the FA’s TV contract.  This year’s winner of the Relegation Amazement Fest is London’s Fulham Football Club - which just happens to be the home for 5 Americans (Brian McBride, Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson, Kasey Keller, and Carlos Bocanegra).

Fulham struggled mightily during the majority of the  season - from mid August to mid March, the club only won 3 of 29 games.  They went through 3 different managers, and had to deal with the loss of team captain McBride to an ACL injury in one of the season’s first games. 

But the squad fought on, determined to somehow escape relegation.  In the team’s last 9 games, Fulham put together a record of 5-3-1 and successfully stayed in the Premiership for at least one more year.

Even if all this means nothing to you, I encourage you to watch the above highlight video which shows the last portion of the season - keep in mind that this is a cellar-dwelling team with no trophy to fight for - and watch how much it means to both the team and its fans.

Makes you wonder, maybe the NBA needs relegation.