A Comeback Story for the Ages: The Rock Fight
A Darby Edit Exclusive
By: Colin True
I grew up about an hour west of Philadelphia, and yet for some reason, I always hated Philly sports teams. Particularly the Eagles and 76ers.
I can’t really speak to why, but the Flyers and Phillies never bothered me as long as they weren’t playing a team I did root for. The Birds and the Sixers, however? Yeah, pure sports hatred for those two teams, especially given that I eventually became a Boston sports fan.
(Please save yourself the effort of sending me the anti-Boston-fan-bandwagon-accusing email you’re already crafting in your head. When I started rooting for New England teams, the only one that was any good was the Bruins, and even that didn’t last for very long. I promise I’m legit, and I won’t wave the fact that we’ve won 13 championships this century in your face. I promise I won’t do that even though there have been 13 titles since the year 2000. Really. I promise. 13.)
But for a sports fan in the 1990s, regardless of who you rooted for, there was one fandom outlier we all shared.
That outlier? Michael Jordan.
Because unless the Bulls were playing your team, it was impossible not to root for them—or, more specifically, to root for MJ.
When young sports fans make the argument for LeBron James as the greatest basketball player of all time, I understand why they do. The case for LeBron, based on his numbers and longevity, is compelling. And I know how much it makes me sound like an old guy to any of the “youngs” who may be reading this when I say the following, but I will anyway:
You don’t know what you’re talking about because you weren’t there.
Because if you had been there, you would understand why MJ was the best. Seriously.
We were all invested in MJ in the ’90s. We all wanted to see him win. We all wanted to see him pull another rabbit out of his hat. Because he always came through. Always. Especially after he retired at what seemed like the height of his powers.
An important part of the lore around MJ was when he left the NBA to play baseball. That tale has been told by more qualified people, but I bring it up because it eventually led to one of the more notable moments of MJ’s basketball career:
March 19, 1995. The night he came back. AKA the night of one of the greatest comebacks of all time.
The day before, Michael Jordan sent a two-word fax to the press that simply said, “I’m back.” The next day, he suited up against the Indiana Pacers (famously wearing number 45 since his iconic 23 had already been retired), scored 19 points, and kicked off the last phase of a career that would net him three more titles.
The comeback is an indelible part of the human cultural experience. Whether it be sports, music, movies, politics, whatever, when a person or team flips a narrative in an unexpected way, we all love it. And while there are many great choices in the pantheon of all-time comebacks, here are my personal top five favorite comebacks ever.
Honorable Mentions: Rocky in Rocky III and the Cleveland Indians in Major League. I’m on a strict word count here, which is lucky for you because otherwise this entire column would be about Rocky III and Major League. Moving on…
#5 Shackleton: The Endurance was crushed by ice in Antarctica—in 1915, mind you—and everyone survived. Every single one of them! THEIR SHIP WAS CRUSHED BY ICE IN ANTARCTICA IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY AND THEY ALL SURVIVED. That’s a helluva comeback. In the adventure world, I’m not sure we can find a bigger comeback, and FWIW, that’s way better than the three dudes in space on Apollo 13. Just sayin’.
#4 Robert Downey, Jr.: Those of us who admired Michael Jordan in the ’90s were also aware of the trials and tribulations of actor RDJ, who had arrived with all of the talent in the world but couldn’t stay clean or stay out of jail. I’ve had season tickets for RDJ since the 1980s, when he became an important part of my life: first as wild card Derek Lutz in Back to School, then Ian, one of the villains in Weird Science, and then as reincarnated leading man Alex Finch in Chances Are (the ’80s were wild, bro). But even as a fan, how could I have expected Downey to become Iron Man and everything that would follow? Big-time Hollywood comeback.
#3 28–3: In February 2017, I hosted a Super Bowl party attended by people who mostly didn’t care about football. By the midpoint of the third quarter, when the Patriots were still down to the Falcons by a score of 28–3, I was the last person watching the game. But I was doing so while standing up, about to leave the TV and join my guests, who were chatting in our kitchen rather than watch what at that point felt like a guaranteed loss. By the time New England ripped off 31 straight points and won the game in overtime, I was back on the couch. I still can’t believe it happened. Whether or not you like the Pats (and they’ve given you plenty of reasons not to like them), I’m not sure you can honestly cite a better Super Bowl comeback than this one.
#2 2004 Red Sox: Yeah, that’s right. Two New England sports moments on the same list. All I will say is that more than 20 years later, whenever I’m watching the MLB playoffs and a team goes down 3–0 in a series, I always stick around until the end of the game just to see the graphic that says “Teams to Overcome a 3–0 Series Deficit” and see the name of the only team that has ever come all the way back. (Oh, and eat shit, Yankees fans.)
#1 The Rock Fight: Personally (and selfishly), all of these comebacks have led us to the return of The Rock Fight. I didn’t stop making The Rock Fight because I wanted to. There were simply circumstances that needed to be addressed, and now that they’ve been addressed, The Rock Fight is back.
If that’s not good enough for you as far as reasons go, I’ll smuggle one more comeback into this list that perhaps will help you understand.
In 2000, one year after losing bassist D’arcy Wretzky, dealing with declining popularity, and facing growing tensions among bandmates, the Smashing Pumpkins broke up. Five years later, on the day that frontman Billy Corgan released his first solo album, he also wrote a letter that he ran as a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune. In that letter, he announced his intent to reform the Pumpkins. The main reason to “get the band back together,” as he wrote in that letter?
“I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams.”
While it may not be as simple or as effective as Michael Jordan faxing “I’m back” in March of 1995, it will have to suffice.
Because it’s September 2026 and The Rock Fight is back.
I hope you’ll listen.
Colin True
Colin True spent over 20 years working for outdoor brands, living in places most people only get to visit, and forming a definite opinion about the good, the bad, and ugly of the outdoor industry and our outdoor community.
He also discovered that most of the outdoor media sounded the same, covered the same topics, and generally was just ok.
To Colin, just ok was not ok, and thus Rock Fight was born.