By: Matthew Du; Staff Writer
When the big game is here and the stage for the Super Bowl is set, many people have crazy superstitions – from wearing a lucky or unlucky jersey to eating a specific food they believe can dictate the outcome of the game. They believe their actions can influence the outcome of the game or whether their favorite team wins or loses.
They do this because the last time they wore that jersey, it helped their team win or the last time they wore a jersey, their team lost. Since one jersey made their team lose, they would most likely avoid wearing that jersey. Some people have a routine to do something after their team scores or their opponent is kicking a field goal. It makes them believe that superstitions may be true.
In 2019, a psychologist, Stuart Vyse, who has a PhD in psychology, spoke in an interview on the Speaking on Psychology podcast. “Superstition is a belief or practice that is inconsistent with our understanding of science. And what they have in common of course is the need to control, an attempt to bring about the good thing or avoid the bad thing. As a result, they tend to emerge in circumstances when we have less than perfect control, where—two of the conditions that mean that we’re going to, or more likely to be superstitious, are ones where we don’t have control and yet we do care very much about what happens, about the outcome,” said Vyse.
According to Redditors online, a person switched jerseys every single game and one person would put pictures of players on a Barbie doll and burn them on a grill. One person had a unique superstition where he would not talk to their wife or children when their team was playing.
I walked around Mills campus and spoke with many students asking them about their sports superstitions.
There were quite a few students that believe that either the NFL is rigged or the colors of the Super Bowl logo corresponds to the two teams that are going to play in the Super Bowl.
Charlotte Leung (12) believes that Patrick Mahomes played poorly because of a video that went viral across social media platforms showing a female fan using needles, punching them into a Patrick Mahomes vudu doll.
One senior student who wishes to remain anonymous stated that he would eat Wing Stop chicken wings and the Niners win most of the time when he eats the wings.
Another senior Nathan Vasquez stated, “Every time the Niners play, I watch the game with my friend, Gavin, over there, the Niners win most of the time.” He adds, “I feel like it’s worked two out of three times.”
One of the crazy superstitions I have heard while going around interviewing students was when Spencer Louie (12) said, “So when the Niners are playing, I wear my Henry Ruggs jersey and every time I wear that jersey, they win.”
Simon Carcar (11) says, “You don’t talk about it so you don’t jinx it.” Carcar believes that if you talk about the team, that team would lose.
While students at Mills have superstitions, teachers at Mills High School have superstitions, too.
Nils Headley, an Algebra 1 and AP stats teacher who is a Chiefs fan at Mills said, “Superstitions from now on, I plan to not be on an airplane when my team is playing in the Super Bowl,” after the Chiefs’ loss to the Eagles in the Super Bowl and he was on a flight from San Francisco to Dallas. Headley noted, “For sports, yes. I always try to wear some clothing of mine during the game. I never bet on sports because I feel like if I bet what I want to happen, I will lose.”
Christopher Kaminski, the counseling student services assistant and football coach commented, “My superstition is that I watch football games alone. I like to think that I’m in the game and I’m physically there. I feel that if anybody else is in the room that we will lose. I isolate and I am just there, I feel that win. My second one superstition is I will always, always, always wear green on a day the Eagles play. So when Eagles play, you have to wear green. They were pretty much set zone, they are even solid.”
Kaminski recalls, “I’ve heard some crazy ones though that I’ve had teammates when I’ve played before. They wore the same socks for the whole season and never watched them. The locker room didn’t smell too great.”
My prediction on the Super Bowl is the Eagles are going to win, shattering the Chiefs’ dreams and hopes of being the first team to three-peat Super Bowls. I predict that the Eagles will win in a close game and a head-to-head battle. A lot of scoring and crazy plays capped with great defense. The Eagles are ultimately going to win this one with three Saquon Barkley touchdowns. The final score will be 34-27 Eagles.
*(This prediction was made before the Super Bowl commenced)*
