By Christopher Ashton
Athletes have superstitions galore.
Consider these cases: Jets running back, Curtis Martin reads Psalm 91 before every game he plays. Rams running back, Marshall Faulk wears all black to the stadium and Packers running back, Ahman Green, believes so strongly in his pre game superstitions that he won''t even talk about them.
Chris Hale, BYU wide receiver and superstition guru, believes strongly that getting dressed in a certain sequence helps him get superior results on the field.
'Everything I do is in the same order,' Hale said. 'I''ll put my clothes on in a certain order, you gotta'' put on the pants first. You have to put on the right glove before you put on the left glove.'
Turk Wendell, relief pitcher for the Colorado Rockies, brushes his teeth between every inning. The logic behind this periodontal compulsion? Maybe he has an obsessive dentist. Wendell also jumps over the first and third baselines before and after every inning.
But why? Why is it so many athletes go to such great lengths during their contests to take care of such ridiculous habits?
'Superstitions have a huge deal with how you feel mentally,' Hale said. 'If you feel comfortable, you can go out there and not worry about anything. I don''t know why, but if some guys don''t do what they''ve always done they get out on the field and you can see them decline because they are more worried about ''oh I didn''t follow with my superstition.'' It plays with your head more than anything.'
What about the Sports Illustrated curse? Superstition has it that being on the cover of Sports Illustrated is the kiss of death for your favorite team or athlete. A week before a heart breaking Super Bowl XXXVI loss to the Patriots, Panthers wide receiver Muhsin Muhammed found himself gracing SI''s cover. His team was defeated 32-29 a few days later.
This wasn''t a one-time phenomenon. For Cleveland Indian fans, an April 1987 issue best exemplifies the curse, when Sports Illustrated predicted that the Indians would win the American League pennant. The Indians graced SI''s famed cover for the magazines baseball preview issue and finished last that year, losing an astounding 101 games.
The SI curse even found a home in Provo. In 1990, days after Ty Detmer took home the coveted Heisman Trophy, he found his mug on SI''s cover. In their next game, the Holiday Bowl against Texas A&M, Detmer threw an interception and separated both shoulders as the Cougars got pummeled 65-14.
And what about the Curse of the Bambino? In 1920, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee needed money to finance a play his girlfriend was a part of, so he sold Babe Ruth''s contract to the New York Yankees for $100,000. Since then, the Red Sox have not won another world series. Their closest encounter with baseball glory went through the legs of Bill Buckner in 1987.
Try and tell a diehard Red Sox fan that superstitions don''t matter. You''ll probably come out of that conversation with cuts and bruises.
Hale said he likes to listen to a specific music CD before each game. It includes music that helps him prepare for the competition: Metallica, Stabbing Westward and a little Bon Jovi.
But his best superstition is probably with the one he sports on his chest every Saturday throughout the fall.
'I wore number 23 when I was in high school and that''s what I was hoping to get my freshman year,' Hale said. 'But I was kind of at the bottom of the barrel and 29 is the number that they assigned to me. In my first collegiate game, when I scored the game winner against the University of Washington, I decided to keep it. I guess when you get good results you just stick with it.'