Superstitious Fans: Why We Do The Things We Do

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Everyone has a superstition or two. Whether it's wearing a specific tie to a job interview or growing a playoff beard to coincide with your team growing one, superstitions are a part of our lives.

Why do we do have them though? What makes us want to repeat a task or have some sort of special clothing or item that we need to make us feel like everything is going to be alright?

Sports fans might be some of the most superstitious people. We have to wear our team's jersey; we can't bet on our team; we need to be eating the same food at the same time at the same place with the same people every single week, just to feel like our team is going to win.

Basically a superstition is a way for us to find comfort. Every big game that our team faces brings us nervousness; superstitions help shield it. They just help to alleviate some of the problems going on and make us think that we can't help our teams in a positive way.

We've all had the feeling at one time or another where we felt we were the cause for a miscue. Someone said something right before a play or we forgot to wear our lucky shirt. Finding blame is much easier to place on ourselves then to place on our teams.

Even announcers believe in superstitions. How many basketball games have you seen where the announcer talks about how great a free throw shooter the guy on the line is and then he misses one? They always take the blame and say they jinxed him.

I have plenty of minor superstitions. My worst superstition however is for my favorite team in all of sports; Duke Blue Devils basketball. Every game that Duke has I have to wear the same color shorts that they are wearing. I have about eight pairs of Duke shorts because of this and since Duke keeps changing their jerseys it becomes a task just to keep my wardrobe up-to-date. I don't know why I do it. It's not like I think I'm part of the team, I just think I'm helping the team by doing so. I also have to change the channel for a minute or two if they start to lose. Most people have done that a time here or there thinking the outcome will change if they're not watching.

The real reason sports fan have so many superstitions is that they help us feel like we're in control. There's nothing worse than just having to sit and watch your team fail. In the big moments of the game we want to feel like somehow, in some little way, we were partially responsible. It's our way of being part of the team, to show our support, and have a belief that our teams will always prevail.

Maybe I really can't control the game, but I can control my superstitious behaviors. If we can't believe in superstitions then what can we believe in? I know that statement sounds ridiculous, but superstitious are just our beliefs; transformed into a manner that allows us never to waiver in our thought process.

Everyone says you got to see it to believe it. I say you just got to feel it to believe it.