Note: If you haven’t read my earlier post “Why Do We Love Sports?” It will help because it explains the buy-in people have with their team of choice.
Appropriate that I was inspired to talk about fans and their crazy rituals, and posit some reasons behind them while the Super Bowl looms in New Orleans, the voodoo capital of America. This weekend the 49ers and the Ravens are set to do battle in Super Bowl 47, and fans from coast to coast (literally) are doing everything they can on the ethereal plane to contribute to their team’s victory this weekend. The mantra of the current Bud Light sports ad campaign is that “It’s only crazy if it doesn’t work,” an ad campaign featuring fan superstitions and their perceived contributions to the team’s success. It strikes home for most people, because everybody has their small that they realize is illogical… if not a little crazy.
Today was my office’s “Super Bowl party” in honor of our local team being in the big game this weekend. We were encouraged to wear our 49ers gear. I, logically, chose to don my NaVorro Bowman #53 at work. I will be the first to admit that my Bowman jersey is disgusting. The bad boy has seen every game played at Candlestick since last Christmas. Granted, that isn’t that many, but tailgating in the dirt outside Candlestick can be a harrowing experience. However, there are a certain subset of people who are superstitious who believe this grunge and grime, this patina of fandom, somehow contributes to their team’s success. The various food stains (and beer splashes) on my #53 are testament enough that I am one of these people.
Logically, I know that me wearing a disgusting stained jersey has no bearing on what the 49ers do on Sunday; but to me, it helps. Harkening back to my theory of fandom; that a fan inserts themselves into the team’s narrative, becoming a part of it, it actually makes a bit of sense. All week all we have heard is about how hard the 49ers have been working in practice and in the film room. If a fan firmly believes themselves to be a part of the narrative (a “true fan”), then obviously they need to do what they can to contribute to the success of their favorite team.
Try as I may, however, Jim Harbaugh won’t give me a chance to try out for Defensive End. Ditto Bruce Bochy and a fireballer Relief Pitcher. Therefore, I do whatever I can. Fans take a look at their team’s success, and, with their obsession with subconsciously inserting themselves into the narrative, look at what they are doing and how it contributes to the play on the field. Humans are trained to see patterns in their actions, and patterns in the face of actionable logic can be called… superstition!
Outside of nasty jerseys, the most common superstition is the playoff beard. I started growing a beard in October. The reason for this is because I had a cut on my face that would reopen every time I shaved. As the beard grew, the Giants made spectacular comebacks in the playoffs, eventually winning the World Series. Deep down, I know that the amount of hair on my face contributed exactly 0% to Pablo Sandoval cranking three homeruns off of Justin Verlander, but part of me can’t separate the two.
Just a few days ago, I looked at my beard, considering shaving it. “Not yet,” I thought. “Not until after Sunday.” Initially, the logic played out. I couldn’t shave my beard before the Super Bowl, it would destroy my chances of helping the 49ers win on Sunday! It took me until I got to work to realize the lunacy of my thought process. In my mind, it made perfect sense to keep a beard to help Justin Smith lock in the double team, to help Colin Kaepernick on that read option. After half a second of consideration, however, that is the logic of a crazy person. To think that the current state of my facial follicles has any bearing on Sunday’s tilt is pure illogicality. However, as a fan, you have bought into the narrative, and you have bought into the team’s success. Since their successes and failures are your successes and failures, you contribute any way you can.
This is why fans develop superstitions and rituals, they believe that their small efforts contribute to their team’s overall success. They believe that their beards or dirty jerseys will inspire their teams to play better and their efforts contribute to the victory. What happens in defeat? Fans grasp at random reasons why their team didn’t win; they didn’t cheer hard enough, they washed their jersey, they shaved, they didn’t cheer loud enough. Given that fans have decided that they are a part of the narrative, it is logical to think that they have to figure out a way to contribute. When a team comes up short, the players analyze their performance on the field. If fans consider themselves a small part of the team, then logic would dictate that they, too, have to analyze their performance.
In the end, whatever we do as fans does nothing to determine the outcomes when our teams play. However, as we are pattern-detecting creatures; we see whatever random things we are doing as contributing to the overall success of our teams. Therefore, we have to optimize our contributions to the franchises. When they win, we look inward and try to figure out what we did to help them. Obviously, we want our teams to win, so whatever random thing we have done we will replicate in order to ensure victory. This is how superstitions develop and why they have such a hold on the collective psyche of sports fans. We all do it, we all recognize that it is silly and that there is no logic behind it.
We all recognize that what we do at home or in the stands has no bearing on what happens on the field. Therefore, we should all abandon our superstitions as they are ultimately pointless. We won’t discuss this point, we don’t recognize this point, but deep down, we all know it’s true. Despite this truth, we continue, relentlessly towards pointless rituals.
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