Sports superstitions: Weird and sometimes wacky, but do they help us win?

By on May 1, 2018

It takes a special type of human to be a professional athlete. You have to have talent, mental stamina, physical strength, mental strength and probably a few quirks. And sometimes those quirks can be pretty odd. Here we will focus on the odd superstitions that have caught the attention of the sports world.

Delicious and superstitious

Two chocolate chip cookies. That’s what it takes to get Brian Urlacher pumped for a game. Every game. He eats two chocolate chip cookies before every game.

Don’t they smell?

Serena Williams refuses to wash her socks during a tournament. So many questions. But the main one is why? So far as we know, her sister and fellow tennis star, Venus Williams, washes hers.

Power in numbers

Three pitches, three outs, three everything. Baseball star Larry Walker really believed in the power of threes. He wore #33. He always woke up at 33 minutes past the hour. The obsession wasn’t just in his sport either, he even got married at 3:33 p.m.

College days

Arguably the most famous athlete to ever play sports even had an odd superstition. Michael Jordan always wore his UNC shorts under his professional shorts. Some people can’t give up the letterman jacket, Michael couldn’t give up his lucky shorts.

Say a little prayer

Karl Malone believed in the power of prayer when it came to his free throw percentage. Before every free throw, he said a prayer. With a free throw percentage of close to 75 percent, he may have been onto something.

Are you talking to me?

Or are you talking to those goal posts? Patrick Roy, one of the greatest hockey goalies of all time, had possibly the oddest quirk. He talked to the goals posts. Mostly thanking them when the puck bounced off one of them. Could this habit be the key to his Stanley Cup title and massive success?

Back to the shorts

Maybe it is just something with NBA players having superstitions about shorts, but Jason Terry may have had the oddest one. He wore the shorts of his opponent the night before every game. Yes, he had that many pairs of shorts.

Barbra Streisand helps me win games

Even our own Scott Mitchell had his fair share of superstitions or routines. One of the oddest may be his reading choices before games, like Barbra Streisand biographies. You can listen to the Helmets Off podcast to hear the rest of his hilarious stories and superstitions.