The Word: Superstitions are a real thing when you’re a sports fan

I've been a sports fan for as long as I can remember since I was able to comprehend anything in my life, its been something I've followed, and been emotionally invested in. I've always felt a superstitious sense when its come to sports, whether it was playing wise or as a fan.

Over the years when I played baseball, I used to purposefully not step on the white chalked foul lines, doing the same thing before I got in the batter's box, the same thing after I got on base, and more. When I played basketball I had a superstitious routine shooting free-throws and whenever I checked into a game.

As a sports fan, I've done the assigned seats, changing seats if things aren't going well, wearing specific jerseys or wearing the same thing every game. For example, during the 2010 NFL playoffs, I wore the same outfit throughout the entire Green Bay Packers run to capturing the Super Bowl.

On Sunday night during the Chicago Bears and Packers game, I found myself in one of these superstitious conundrums. I started off the game wearing one of my favorite Aaron Rodgers t-shirts:

It's undoubtedly one of my favorite shirts (don't mind country star Kelsie Ballerini, focus on the shirt) but the start of last nights game was less than favorable with Khalil Mack recking all kinds of havoc and then the injury to Aaron Rodgers. So, I said to myself I've gotta do something to change the momentum, switch things up, and so the shirt was replaced with a normal white t-shirt at halftime. I also completely turned my phone off because the amount of "sorry for your loss" and worse text messages were bombarding my phone.

Aaron Rodgers would emerge from the locker room after halftime and would go on to lead the Packers to a 20 point comeback victory, one of the best comebacks in franchise history. Now, I'm not saying I had a single thing to do with Green Bay winning that game but as a fan, you're so emotionally invested into how the team is performing you're willing to try just about anything to "help" change their fortune.

As fans, we so badly want to be locked into our teams as much as humanly possible. I remember last year during the World Series Kevin Foote had on blue shoes as he was watching the Houston Astros take on the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the time, the game wasn't going the Astros way and so he took off his blue shoes and threw them out of the Facebook Live video. Wouldn't you know it, the Astros would go onto win that game.

Maybe superstitions are silly, maybe they don't really work, but maybe just maybe every once in a while the sports gods get a glimpse of us trying to "help" however we can, and we do have something to do with the outcome. It's never a bad thing to believe, no matter how crazy we really are, especially when it comes to sports that's what truly makes it enjoyable.

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