It’s in our best interest to be superstitious about our sports teams

Earlier this season a Seahawks fan got in trouble for flying his 12th Man flag in his neighborhood. He wouldn’t take it down because the Hawks lost the one time he did.

We know there are a lot of you out there that are rational during the week but come kickoff on Sunday, you’ll be in your special shirt, with your special socks and sitting in the same chair you have all year.

It’s only crazy if it doesn’t work, right?

Some sports fans actually believe that what they’re doing impacts the game, though most would probably grant you that, deep down, they know it doesn’t.

Doctor Edward Hirt is a sports psychologist at Indiana University. He says fans use these superstitions to enhance their connections to their teams, and it’s in their best interests. When the team does well, their life goes better.

“It’s pretty unlikely that the outcome is really affected by this, but at the same time, we believe in a lot of these forces, like fate and karma,” he said. “I mean at some level, we’re willing to admit that it really doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

And while deep down, we probably don’t really believe what we’re doing as fans impacts the outcome, we certainly aren’t going to risk it by doing anything different.

Case in point, our colleague Dan Restione. Not a big sports fan, but the one Seahawks game he watched this season, the team lost. He told a neighborhood bartender about it and last Sunday that bartender kicked him out of his favorite bar because the game was on.

Now, unwittingly, Dan is caught up in someone else’s superstition. He must avoid his favorite bar on game day, even if he isn’t watching.

“I guess I have to because I don’t want to be pilloried and stoned and destroyed,” he said. He knows he’d be blamed for any bad thing that happens. “So now I have to carry the weight of an entire team, and I don’t even know what the tight end does.”

It’s only crazy if it doesn’t work.