The Ohio State Buckeyes made it to the National College Football Championship, but I did not watch the game.
Why?
I can sacrifice watching the game if it helps my team win—a sentiment many sports fans share.
This year, we reached the championship for the fifth time in my life and won for the second—but I didn’t watch a single second of the game. It was not because I didn’t want to, or have the time, or some other excuse—but because I am bad luck. It hurts just to say it, but the team I have watched for my entire life has turned against me or, more accurately, I turned against them. The only Ohio State Buckeyes (14-2, 7-2 BIG) games I watched were our only two losses. The first was the game against the University of Oregon (13-1, 9-0 BIG), and the second was against our rival -ichigan (University of Michigan) (8-5, 5-4 BIG). Perhaps I got too friendly with -ichigan, a team we Ohioans despise so much that we can’t even bring ourselves to say their full name. I don’t know. But I do know that we lost the only two games I watched. This is no coincidence; this is direct causation–and unfortunately, I took it to heart.
I, obviously, think I am the reason my team won (or at least didn’t lose) the regular season and playoff games, and I’m not the only one. “Some even put stock in the power of their actions to control a game’s outcome.” said the Columbus Dispatch on the rituals and superstitions some Ohio State fans play into.
Online, Ohio State fans discuss pre-game rituals and superstitions endlessly on forums and in articles. “What are you doing to help or avoid hurting the Buckeyes in the days before the championship?” asked one forum. “Discussing what my rituals are to anyone outside of my family is out of bounds. Just do your thing, if it works, talk about it afterwards, don’t jinx us now. Crazy, I know,” responded one fan.
There is also an aspect of not wanting to be at fault for the loss. “It is time to make sure I have everything in order so that I am not to blame if the Buckeyes lose a game,” wrote Doug Krous, a Bleacher Report writer. “I like to think that I make them hit their shots, statistically” James Long, a Georgetown University freshman, told the Voice, on his experience with watching Georgetown Men’s Basketball. “There is a little bit of luck, a little bit of chance, and I’m a bit superstitious.”
Superstitions are a way for fans to feel they have a stake in the outcome of the game. Sometimes, watching a game isn’t enough, and fans want to feel responsible. For others, like me, the responsibility is placed upon them. I wish I weren’t superstitious, but I am. Even in the sports I used to play—basketball, Shot Put, and Discus—I had my own superstitions. I never put lotion on before a game, and I tried my best to make sure my teammates didn’t either. I always chewed a piece of gum during warmups, and during track, I stuck to the same routine when I walked into the circle. I had control over the game’s outcome, yet, I still had a routine. Even though I no longer actively participate in the sports I watch, the superstitions still linger.
For those of you who question the sanity of sports fans and our superstitions, I ask you to look in the mirror. You’re (probably) a Georgetown Student, and I can almost guarantee that you haven’t stepped on the Georgetown Seal right outside of Healy because of superstition. The common myth is that if you step on the seal, you won’t graduate. Obviously, you don’t want to hurt your chances, so even if you don’t fully believe in it, you step around the seal. If you have toured other universities, you’ve likely come across superstitions like the Healy Seal—it’s not exclusive to Georgetown. Numerous universities across the country, including Ohio State, have the same superstition, and students avoid the seal in the same way. My point is that it’s not just sports fans who have superstitions and rituals that are seemingly meaningless and don’t always work.
Humans naturally search for patterns, and we find natural correlations between things. But superstitions only work if there’s some purpose behind them. “Most important is the meaning the athlete attaches to the ritual,” Georgetown Professor of Psychiatry Dr. Judith Kupersmith said in a Youtube video about the superstitions of Olympic athletes. It makes sense that you wouldn’t step on the seal because someone told you not to. If you wore red socks when you got an A on your first Econ test and coincidentally wore the same pair for the next test,you have yourself a pair of lucky socks and a matching superstition. I bet you’ll wear your matching socks for the next Econ test, and I’ll be at home not watching my team win the National Championship because your socks are good luck, and my viewership is bad luck.
