The reasons for rituals: the logic behind football superstitions

Before every Tufts football game, senior linebacker Zach Thomas cleans his ears. By his recollection, the ritual began during his senior year at Arlington High School.

“The kid next to my locker started doing it,” he said, “And then, I don’t know, we both just started doing it. [Then] we started winning … and we kept on winning, so I didn’t stop.”

Thomas is not alone. Many members of the football team go through certain routines before every game. Sophomore wide receiver Winton Blount, for instance, washes his hands multiple times. Sophomore running back Jay Tyler completes exactly 32 push ups. Junior offensive lineman Dan Dewing listens to “Baba O’Riley,” The Who’s iconic opener to "Who’s Next" (1971).

Others players have sartorial-based superstitions. Junior defensive lineman Jack Rhodes dons the same undershirt under his pads for every game. Senior quad-captain defensive back J.P. Garcia wears a red wristband on his left arm, while sophomore linebacker Greg Holt always sports a bracelet on his right arm.

Although their pregame practices vary, the Jumbos share a larger human tendency to engage in specific rituals before important events. Over the years, athletes at all levels of competition have adopted particular traditions, routines or superstitions.

Michael Jordan, for example, used to wear the old shorts from his college days at the University of North Carolina underneath his professional basketball uniform. When on hot streaks, National Baseball Hall of Fame center fielder Richie Ashburn was so worried that the clubhouse employees would mix up his lucky bat that he would bring it home and sleep with it alongside him in bed. Countless other stories abound about the great lengths that athletes go to in order to complete certain ceremonies that, to them, seem essential to their success.

According to Dr. George Gmelch, professor of cultural anthropology at the University of San Francisco and at Union College, superstitions constitute “a response to all the uncertainty in sports.”

“It’s a way for the player, by performing a ritual, [to gain] confidence,” he said. “He feels like, ‘Okay, if I do this, then the chances of having success are greater.’ Now, I think most players actually know — if you pinned them down and [said], ‘Did you think tapping the home plate three times is really going to increase your chance of getting a base hit?’, most of them will say ‘no, not really, but it makes me feel lucky. It makes me feel better. It gives me more confidence.’ And so I think that’s the root of it.”

Tufts football coach Jay Civetti offered a related explanation for the prevalence of superstition, citing the important relationship between confidence and focus.

“Having gone through the experience of losing 31 straight games — 24 of them being in charge — I think I’ve probably tried every single ritual that could possibly exist... I’ve probably been a pretty good test subject that none of it really [makes people luckier],” he said. “If I’ve learned anything, it’s that [routine] comes down to having confidence in your preparation… What I do believe in [are] the positive reinforcements that highlight the behavior that you need to act with in order to be successful.”

Civetti is not only a head coach and former NESCAC player; he also dedicates time during each offseason to reading and educating himself about the latest findings and research in sports psychology. His combination of personal experience and academic knowledge has led Civetti to appreciate rituals’ relevance to success.

“I really think [rituals are] a byproduct of training your brain to know when the execution of the training that you’ve put forth is needed," he said. "I also think it’s a way of preparing your body to do whatever it is that you’re doing next.”

Sometimes, this calming effect can help players cope with painful memories from years past. First-year kicker/punter Matthew Alswanger’s pregame routine of walking around the field derives from a grievous injury sustained in his first-ever football game. The traumatic event transpired during his first year of high school.

“I remember taking a lap around the track,” he said. “I didn’t really have anything else to do while the other guys were warming up, so [they] were like, ‘Hey, you know, just go for a walk, it’d be a nice thing to do.’”

Due to the severity of the injury, walking around the track is the only thing that Alswanger can recall from that day.

“I just remember vividly walking around that track, and ever since that moment, I kind of just live by that,” he said.

Now, before each game, Alswanger goes out on the field 20 minutes before everyone, takes a lap around the track and “gets [his] bearings for the lay of the land.”

For the Stamford, Conn. native, the routine delivers crucial emotional support.

“I definitely think it’s a confidence boost. [It’s] definitely something that makes me feel more comfortable with my surroundings,” he said. “[The injury] was such a traumatic experience that [the ritual] really makes me feel more comfortable in my position.”

Not all players, however, agree that their pregame routines improve their confidence. Thomas demurred when asked if his ear-cleaning routine provided him a psychological boost.

“I mean, it doesn’t give me confidence. It’s just kind of like a habit,” he said. “It’s just like brushing your teeth in the morning, I guess. You just do it on game day.”

Gmelch explained that while rituals are widespread in sports, they also appear — and can serve the same calming purpose — in other areas of life.

“Years ago, I actually took a look at my students’ behavior in areas where there was uncertainty — for example, taking the LSATs or the MCATs, or a first date with somebody,” he said. “The same thing showed up: that the more uncertainty in the activity raised the likelihood of there being some superstition or some ritual.”

Civetti affirmed the parallels between football and other pressure-infused activities.

“It’s the same [when preparing for football as it is when] preparing for a test,” he said. “In sports, you over-focus a little bit more on what those things are. But the reality is [that] for those people who operate at the highest level possible, my guess is that routine [and] ritual are probably far more present than you think.”

In addition to his academic research on the subject, Gmelch has personal experience with sports and superstitions, having spent three years in the lower rungs of the Detroit Tigers organization in the 1960s. Naturally, he had traditions of his own.

“I developed a taboo against eating pancakes,” he confessed. “One day, I ate pancakes for breakfast, [and] I struck out three times. A few weeks later, I had pancakes again and had another terrible game. So in my mind, I connected pancakes and not hitting well, and developed a kind of taboo prohibition on eating pancakes.”

Altogether, Civetti believes that the psychological aspects of football are an underappreciated yet fundamental component of preparation.

“We train in the weight room,” he said. “We train in the practice field. How much do we do to really train our brain to mentally prepare for the job at hand?”