Now behold the stubbornness of the most stubborn team in all of sport.
Mayo have survived in Division One with the last kick of the game off the weaker foot of Kevin McLoughlin all the way from downtown.
Having trailed Donegal from the 22nd minute – 51 whole minutes – Stephen Rochford and the men from the west showed yet more iron-like resistance to a beating as they came from behind, they refused to lie down and they found something from somewhere – from f**king God knows where at this rate – to tie the scores with no more time left on the board and avoid relegation.
Remember that scene in Rocky IV when, like most Rocky films, he’s taking a good pounding and Ivan Drago is smashing him to pieces? Rocky keeps getting up, he keeps coming at the Russian and, no matter how hard he’s hit, he continues to come back.
Eventually, he cuts Drago himself and, in doing so, breaks the Soviet’s spirit who’s simply wondering what more does he have to do to kill off this man he’s treating like a rag doll..
“He’s not human,” Drago says.
“He’s like a piece of iron.”
Mayo, ladies and gentlemen.
Mayo weren’t really good in this must-not-lose clash with Donegal but when does that ever matter to Mayo?
It was the hosts who were taking the initiative after a strong start for the All-Ireland runners-up. In fact, Mayo went 27 minutes of football having kicked just one score, a free, after their initial five and, from there, Donegal just took control of the game.
Patrick McBrearty was at one with football, winning possession with his eyes closed, kicking as if he was a master of physics and giving poor Caolan Crowe a traumatic time.
Michael Murphy was barging around the middle third and Mayo – shorn of five backs from last season’s final – looked off the pace against Donegal’s young and enthusiastic legs.
Eoghan Ban Gallagher won man of the match and, for most of the day, he was just racing past green shirts and motoring upfield like he was on a bloody moped – but it was him who Kevin McLoughlin force-fed a taste of his own medicine at the very, very death.
McLoughlin lining any defender up one on one is just plain cruel and so it panned out as he brushed by Gallagher with no regard for his ankles and kicked a monstrous, monstrous effort with his right boot to split the posts and rescue Mayo.
Scéal an chluiche – A draw is enough to keep Mayo in Division 1. #GAABEO
Scór Deiridh – Babhta 7 #AllianzLeagues@officialdonegal 0-13 @MayoGAA 0-13 pic.twitter.com/EJzG7xjnVr— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) March 25, 2018
From a position where it looked like the Ulster side would just control matters and see it home, from a Mayo side who looked like their luck was spent and legs too leggy, they came back from the dead yet again, stood back up, stared their aggressors in the eyes and might as well have spat in their faces.
No team enjoys being punched squarely in the gob like Mayo do because it’s seemingly what galvanises them. The harder you hit them, the harder they come back – even when it looks like they’re going to just take it.
But Mayo will never take it. They’ll never lie down.
And, with Eoin O’Donoghue an unsung hero with his late score, McLoughlin completed another comeback and Mayo sent yet another reminder to the rest of the island that they will never, ever die easy.
At this rate, you have to wonder if they’ll ever die.
