Sports Superstitions

Many of you have commented to us on the side-bar notification that we are getting rid of cable. Of course, the cable company is very tricky and makes you bring your DVR and remote to them to get your service cancelled - they will not show up at your door to pick it up. They know you'll be too lazy to do it and will keep paying the extra $57/month out of sheer laziness. We were supposed to get rid of cable at the very beginning of the month, but then I never got around to unhooking it and taking it back, so there it sits - charging us $1.90 every day that I don't get around to returning it. It is going back on Monday. So then we will officially be cable-free. We're keeping the basic network channels so we can still watch our shows like LOST and The Office, but everything else will be gone. For Michael, this means no more ESPN, USA, TNT, and any other cable network that airs sports. It has been very hard for him to agree to let go. But we have friends who are cable-less and get along through life just fine, and Michael has some close guy friends that will let him crash their house to watch any crucial games he might miss as a result.

But since we still have the cable this week, Michael has been able to watch some of the US Open matches airing on USA. I love sports as well, but I will not sit down and watch most of the things Michael watches on my own. I only watch them when Michael has them on. But I must admit that once they're on, I get hooked. So Michael and I were really into the men's quarter-final match between Roddick and Djokovic. I think Djokovic is a little bit of a punk, plus, who doesn't want to see Roddick get his game back and do well for once? So we were disappointed when it looked like Djokovic was going to sweep the match, when Roddick started playing well and all the sudden it looks like he's going to take the match to a 5th set. Right when we're getting excited for that prospect, John McEnroe (who's commentating the match) says, "we'll I'm putting it all out there and saying Roddick's taking this to a 5th set". Immediately Michael gets all upset and starts talking about how McEnroe just jinxed Roddick. Then Djokovic breaks Roddick's serve. Then Djokovic forces a tie-breaker game. Then Djokovic breaks Roddick's serve twice. Michael's sitting on the couch saying "see, SEE!!! McEnroe totally jinxed him!!! If he just hadn't opened his big mouth...". And of course, Djokovic ends up winning the tie-breaker and wins the match. Michael was disgusted.

And I just had to chuckle at him. He has very ingrained sports superstitions. His rational mind knows that Roddick did not hear what McEnroe said, that the fact that Djokovic won had nothing to do with McEnroe predicting a 5-set match...but his "sports mind" knows that had McEnroe not opened his big mouth, Roddick stood a chance. Other examples: the Gators won a crucial football game last year that they weren't expected to win. I was out of the house with Shaelyn while Michael watched that game. He was convinced the Gators won because he was watching the game alone, so consequently I was not allowed to watch the next two games with him either. If he's eating a certain food when his team wins, he has to be eating that food again. Or sitting in the same spot on the couch. Or wearing the same shorts. You get the idea. The funniest part about this is that we have DVR'ed most sports that we watch, so by the time he's watching it, the game is already at least half-way over, if not completely over, so his superstitions are time-traveling superstitions. I've pointed this out and he still holds to them. What if when the Gators were playing live they knew that in the future he would be watching the game alone sitting on the left couch cushion while wearing his Danny Wuerffel jersey? Now that's some heavy stuff!!

While some wives would find this behavior peculiar to say the least, and most would find it quite annoying, I find it endearing. I'm a big sports fan and wanted to marry a big sports fan. I want our kids to be big sports fans. Sports superstitions just come with the territory. So when our future sons tell me to leave the room for the game or yell at McEnroe for ruining Roddick's chances, I'll understand. And I'll warn their future spouses.