BLUNT VIEWS SPECIAL

"Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot...." Well with some of the criminal performances on the field this year in the NFL (and off the field in the WLAF) perhaps we should also remember that....
"Players are a superstitious lot" We all know that players of any sport are superstitious, they wear the same socks for years because they are 'lucky', always enter the stadium form a certain direction because the doors face their home town, never put their uniform on without having a shower, grow a stupid fisherman's beard (like that did the trick Neil O'Donnell eh? My those 2 INTs didn't cost you the superbowl did they?).

There are two schools of thought about these superstitions of players.
1) It's a load of rubbish and all the mind - it might help the player feel more comfortable but nothing more.
2) It's too unlucky to talk about it so stay away.

It's easy to see why players believe in this rubbish. They don't want to have their entire performance on the pitch to be totally their fault if it goes wrong. Throw 2 game costing INTs in the Superbowl? Not your fault! It was that unlucky razor someone showed your lucky fisherman's beard before the game. Fumbled that ball? What do you expect when the equipment guy forgot to bring your lucky socks? All this nonsense screams out - NOT ME COACH!

Fans know this is rubbish but the players haven't seemed to realise how silly it all is. So what do the Fans do? They talk about voodoo curses in Tampa Bay and New Orleans, the Sprit of Lombardi giving the Packers invincibility at Lambeau Field. Then the commentators get in on the act. Between each play they've got about 15secs to yatter waiting for the snap and before and after the game they've got huge amounts of time to fill in - so they talk about curses and jinxes on players/teams/stadiums.

The commentators even managed to get a good excuse out of it... they predict the Raiders will beat the spread only to lose with a shutout? It was that voodoo curse / jinx / player who forgot his socks / coach who forgot his hair piece.

Mind you there's some truth with the hair piece thing. Lets say coach 'x' forgets his hairpiece so at the game he has to wear a hat two sizes too small to hide the bald patch. Only the hat is too small (so it doesn't blow off) and it cuts off the circulation to the brain, coach makes bad calls team loses.... Hey there's a study for some student looking at stats! Coaches wins Vs number of hats worn in a season.

So in this climate of fear - no wonder the players are superstitious. And there is evidence for the effect of something 'unknown' eg. Buffalo Bills (Boy I Love Losing Superbowls) in the Bowl, Denver in the Bowl, Miami's invisible running game and of course the Raiders. How else can you explain Vinny Testaverde's career and the other Tampa Bay QB effect victims of Steve Young, Steve DeBerg, Doug Williams?

So perhaps we should indeed be making offerings, wearing lucky clothes, growing silly beards (I tried this for the Claymores last year didn't get us in the World Bowl!) and worshipping the gods of football.

Or we could just blame the players for stupid mistakes, coaches for obvious play calling and poor weather conditions. It is all a bit silly isn't it.

Knock on wood the Claymores will win this year! So keep your fingers crossed and avoid any black cats on the way to the match, because you never know....

The wining season is out there....

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