Upon The Evil Jinx

...4 seconds left to go in the Jets game. Tied 17-17 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Jets have out-played their 15-1 opponent, and are in position to win and advance to the AFC Championship Game. Place kicker Doug Brien has hit the crossbar on a 47-yard field goal just moments earlier, and now he is set-up from 41. After the missed field goal, the Jets intercept the Pittsburgh QB and drove the ball and the clock down so that they could kick it for the win, and end the game.

Then, someone who shall remain nameless walks into the room. The obligatory "freeze the kicker timeout" has already taken place. This unnamed person then says "So the Jets scored huh?" I recoiled in horror. Nooooooooo, my internal self-screamed, you did not just do that!. Everyone knows you can not come into a room you have not been sitting it, to a game you have not been following, and comment about a potential score that has not happened yet. You just don't do these things! Of course Brien misses again. Unfreaking-believable! I lamented in my mind. I couldn't express myself as I I wanted to because of the sensitivities of this unnamed person, but inside I was tearing them three new one's.

This unnamed person then left the room as the coin-toss for overtime occurred, which of course the Jets won. They then returned for the Jets possession, and continued to sit in the room just long enough to kill their drive and give the Steelers the ball. Pittsburgh then drove the field, kicked the field goal, and won the game.

Now I know it is not reasonable to suggest that doing or saying something while watching a televised game can affect the outcome, but the history just does not lie. Jinxes are most certainly real, and they are often affected by non-sports following members of the fairer sex. Case in point, another unnamed person came down during the Yankees' game three beatdown of the Red Sox in this year's ALCS. "Don't you kinda feel bad for the Red Sox?" they said. On this occasion I didn't keep my horror inside. The Yankees lost the next 4 games in a row, the first time in history that had happened.

There are certain rules for sports as a fan watching a game. Don't talk about a perfect game/no hitter as it is happening, at all if possible, but certainly not after 5 innings. Don't change rooms in a close game unless you absolutely have to. Don't say anything as big at-bats, free-throws, field goals...etc are occurring. I can't list them all, but anyone who watches sports with devoted fans should avail themselves of these rules.

Seriously, how do you do that?!

Addendum 1/17/05:

Time and reflection, combined with a gentle reminder, has inspired me to provide this addedum to the last post.

Should any person who may have unwittingly contributed to a sports jinx read this post and feel upset, they should know that there are many things more important than sports, and that rationality always prevails over the sting of defeat. Its not really their fault; the field goal would still have gone wide, the free throw would have missed...etc. However, a fellow sports fan can certainly relate to what I was saying. At the time, it seems more than a coincidence. Later, it seems silly. No harm intended nameless.