Erin Andrews

The Rundown: 5 Bizarre Superstitions in Sports

You can’t talk sports without talking about superstitions. Athletes are some of the most superstitious people around…changing their driving route to the stadium if they had a bad game or growing out facial hair for the playoffs. Therefore, we bring you five of the more unique superstitions we’ve heard of, purely for your enjoyment.


Things are going to get weird,

The Last Night’s Game Team  


FIVE BIZARRE SUPERSTITIONS IN SPORTS

  1. Head coach of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team, Nick Saban, fuels his fire with a Little Debbie Oatmeal Crème Pie before each game

  2. Basketball great Michael Jordan wore the North Carolina Tar Heels shorts that he had on when he won the college basketball national championship underneath his Chicago Bulls (NBA - National Basketball Association) uniform.  

  3. Hockey’s Sidney Crosby has so many ‘traditions’ that we can’t list them all. Some include wearing the same jock strap for years and not calling/seeing his mom or his sister on game day. He swears every time he does, he gets injured. 

  4. The golden thong was worn by former MLB (Major League Baseball) player Jason Giambi to help him break out of hitting slumps. Rumor has it that said tiny undergarment was left in the lockers of his teammates and they all began to hit well. (We warned you it would get weird).

  5. The curse of the cover of the Madden video game is a well-known folk tale. Many of the NFL (National Football League) players featured were ‘cursed’ with a horrible season or a season ending injury after appearing on the front of the video game. Quarterback Tom Brady is on the cover of this year’s game. Hopefully his irrational fear won’t get the best of him otherwise they’ll be holding a séance at Gillette Stadium.   

OVERTIME

  • Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook (NBA) won the regular season MVP on Monday night. In his acceptance speech we saw an emotional side of Westbrook. To top off the night, he also won the inaugural Best Style AwardHere’s how you can dress like Westbrook.

SIDELINE STAT

COACHES’ CORNER

  • Since it’s baseball season, here are two universal superstitions you should know about in the game.

  1. Ball players do not step on the foul lines (the white lines that run down the first and third baseline) when entering/exiting the field for fear of bad luck.

  2. Never discuss a no-hitter or perfect game while it’s in progress. (A no-hitter means no offensive player gets a hit and a perfect game means no offensive player gets on base). Don’t be like Martha Stewart whose tweet allegedly jinxed a New York Yankees perfect game earlier in the season.

The Rundown: When I Met You In The Summer

Summer is here and it’s no more evident than in sports. From weddings to awaiting the announcement of the NBA (National Basketball Association) League MVP to figuring out why blondes have more fun, we have all you need to know to start a conversation with a tan stranger on a beach blanket.

 

Will you put sunscreen on my back?

The Last Night’s Game team


College Baseball World Series

MLB (Major League Baseball)

  • What no puffy shirt? Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Cody Bellinger has continued his home run hot streak, hitting two more on Sunday (yes in one game). Even more impressive (or frightening) than his record-breaking home run streak? He doesn’t know who Jerry Seinfeld is. Apparently, he’s never met Kramer (above) either.  

Overtime

Sideline stat

  • Miami Marlins Ichiro Suzuki must have found the fountain of youth. He made history on Sunday, becoming the oldest player (43) to start a game in centerfield, breaking Ricky Henderson’s previous record.

Coaches’ corner

  • Sports and music always seem to collide and that’s the case in the “Big 3,” a three-on-three basketball tournament started by rapper Ice Cube. The games have no time limit, the first team to 60 points wins. The players and coaches include former NBA (National Basketball Association) legends like Julius “Dr. J” Erving and Allen Iverson.

You can catch the games on Fox Sports 1 on Mondays for the next eight weeks.

The Rundown: 5 Things to Know About the Winter X Games and Other News

Today, alongside the trending topics in sports, we’re talking about some incredible women who you’ll undoubtedly be talking about at the water cooler this morning.

Strong is sexy, 

The Last Night's Game Team


Five Things to Know About the Winter X Games

  1. The X Games were created in 1995 by ESPN (the sports network). They recognized that there was a huge segment of the population that were bored with traditional sports. There are two X Games a year – winter and summer. This year’s Winter Games will take place for the 15th year in a row at Snowmass Mountain in Aspen, CO. (January 26 – 29th). 
  2. There are 18 different disciplines that take place on skis, snowboards or snowmobiles/bikes. There are new disciplines this year including the snow bike (a dirt bike with a ski for front tire and snowmobile track on the back) and women’s ski big air (skiers go down a hill and perform tricks after launching off very large jumps. It is an extreme version of what you see in the Olympics).
  3. Unlike the Olympics, the X Games are more of an individual competition, not a team sport.
  4. Ones to watch: Chloe Kim – a 16-year-old snowboarding prodigy who has won two consecutive half pipe gold medals. Shaun White – the “Flying Tomato” will return to compete in this year’s X Games in snowboarding. Colten Moore – who will attempt a double backflip on a snowmobile. Wait what? Hombre loco. 
  5. What does the ‘X’ in X Games stand for? Well it stands for a few different things – X for extreme, for the unknown factor or for generation X, who were some of the first competitors. 

Overtime

  • Yesterday we heard stories of two extraordinary women – sports reporter Erin Andrews and Katie Levitre, wife of Atlanta Falcons left guard Andy Levitre.

Andrews revealed that last year she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She had surgery which eliminated the disease and she was back on the field two days later. Andrews embodied the toughness of her NHL (National Hockey League) player fiancée Jarret Stoll telling him, “You’d play through any injury, do whatever it takes to get back out there. That’s going to be me.”

Levitre received the game ball from the Atlanta Falcons (NFL) for portraying “ultimate toughness.” She went into labor during Sunday’s playoff game but waited it out until the end of the game. Luckily the Falcons won.

Sideline stat

  • The all-star game for the NFL (National Football League), The Pro Bowl, is this Sunday. Only 57% of the players originally selected will be playing in the game. Most players don’t want to risk injury by playing and players on teams that are in the Super Bowl are not eligible. Don’t forget to tune in Thursday night to see your favorite NFL players participate in a skills competition that includes dodgeball. We wonder if Patches O’Houlihan will be coaching?

Coaches’ corner

  • Recruiting is everything in college football and what better way to appeal to recruits than with a trip to Italy? University of Michigan football announced it will be holding three spring football practices in Rome. The NCAA (governing body for college sports) banned off-campus workouts but international travel is not covered in the ban. Kudos to Michigan for finding a loophole that involves pasta and red wine.