Thunder

The Rundown: 5 Bizarre Superstitions in Sports

You can’t talk sports without talking about superstitions. Athletes are some of the most superstitious people around…changing their driving route to the stadium if they had a bad game or growing out facial hair for the playoffs. Therefore, we bring you five of the more unique superstitions we’ve heard of, purely for your enjoyment.


Things are going to get weird,

The Last Night’s Game Team  


FIVE BIZARRE SUPERSTITIONS IN SPORTS

  1. Head coach of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team, Nick Saban, fuels his fire with a Little Debbie Oatmeal Crème Pie before each game

  2. Basketball great Michael Jordan wore the North Carolina Tar Heels shorts that he had on when he won the college basketball national championship underneath his Chicago Bulls (NBA - National Basketball Association) uniform.  

  3. Hockey’s Sidney Crosby has so many ‘traditions’ that we can’t list them all. Some include wearing the same jock strap for years and not calling/seeing his mom or his sister on game day. He swears every time he does, he gets injured. 

  4. The golden thong was worn by former MLB (Major League Baseball) player Jason Giambi to help him break out of hitting slumps. Rumor has it that said tiny undergarment was left in the lockers of his teammates and they all began to hit well. (We warned you it would get weird).

  5. The curse of the cover of the Madden video game is a well-known folk tale. Many of the NFL (National Football League) players featured were ‘cursed’ with a horrible season or a season ending injury after appearing on the front of the video game. Quarterback Tom Brady is on the cover of this year’s game. Hopefully his irrational fear won’t get the best of him otherwise they’ll be holding a séance at Gillette Stadium.   

OVERTIME

  • Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook (NBA) won the regular season MVP on Monday night. In his acceptance speech we saw an emotional side of Westbrook. To top off the night, he also won the inaugural Best Style AwardHere’s how you can dress like Westbrook.

SIDELINE STAT

COACHES’ CORNER

  • Since it’s baseball season, here are two universal superstitions you should know about in the game.

  1. Ball players do not step on the foul lines (the white lines that run down the first and third baseline) when entering/exiting the field for fear of bad luck.

  2. Never discuss a no-hitter or perfect game while it’s in progress. (A no-hitter means no offensive player gets a hit and a perfect game means no offensive player gets on base). Don’t be like Martha Stewart whose tweet allegedly jinxed a New York Yankees perfect game earlier in the season.