Lucky Underwear and Locker Room Letters: The Wildest Superstitions in Sports

Football season is back, and with it comes all the little rituals that show up in living rooms every Sunday — the same chair, the same snack, the same jersey worn a few too many times without a wash. If your household has its own set of game-day quirks, you are in very good company. It turns out some of the most talented athletes on the planet are just as ruled by superstition as the rest of us, and their rituals are, frankly, a lot more fun.

The lucky-clothing club

Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes has worn the same pair of red underwear for every game of his professional career — a gift from his wife that he insists on wearing (and, yes, washing) for every single game. Giants quarterback Eli Manning reportedly does something similar but tamer: he picks one "lucky shirt" each season and wears it on every game day. And it's not just football — tennis great Serena Williams was known for wearing the same socks all the way through a tournament, refusing to wash them for fear of rinsing away the good luck along with the dirt.

The food and drink rituals

Eagles' kicker Jake Elliott has eaten a slice of pizza and a piece of cheesecake before every game since his freshman year of college, and he's not about to break the streak now. Vikings safety Harrison Smith reportedly takes a shot of Tabasco sauce before kickoff to sharpen his focus, and former Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch was famous for his pregame Skittles habit. Even legends aren't immune, Tom Brady has spoken about incorporating mantras and lucky stones into his pregame routine over the years.

The rituals that are just plain unusual

49ers defensive lineman Clelin Ferrell has a pregame tradition of going to see a movie, whatever happens to be playing, because he says it helps him settle into the right headspace. Former Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs reportedly used to trace his own shadow in chalk on the turf before a game and talk to it, a habit he picked up from his grandmother. And former wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders liked to play — and beat — that week's opponent in the Madden video game before ever stepping on the actual field.

The emotional ones

Not every ritual is about luck. 49ers tight end George Kittle receives a handwritten letter from his father before every game, filled with encouragement and reflections, and reads it as part of his pregame routine. It's a nice reminder that some of these habits are less about outsmarting fate and more about carrying the people who matter most onto the field with you.

Remember doing this as a kid?

Long before Mahomes and his lucky underwear, most of us were doing our own version of this as kids. Holding your breath every time the car passed a cemetery so a wandering spirit couldn't slip in — still a real Southern tradition today, believe it or not. Carrying a rabbit's foot on your keychain for good luck, a charm with roots going back centuries, long before it showed up dangling from a gas station rack in the 80s. "Step on a crack, break your mother's back," chanted very seriously on the way to school. Tossing spilled salt over your left shoulder, avoiding black cats and ladders, or knocking on wood the second you said something you didn't want to jinx. We weren't athletes with a championship on the line — we just didn't want to take any chances either.

Why we all do this

Sports psychologists have a pretty simple explanation for all of it: rituals help athletes (and fans) feel a sense of control in a situation where the outcome is genuinely unpredictable. A pregame routine can lower anxiety and sharpen focus, whether or not the Tabasco sauce or the shadow chalk actually does anything at all. So the next time someone in your house refuses to move from "the lucky chair" during the fourth quarter, just know you're in the same company as Super Bowl champions and Grand Slam winners. It's not ridiculous — it's tradition.

The bottom line

Whatever your household's rituals look like this season, you're in excellent company. So grab the snacks, sit in the lucky chair, and don't you dare wash that jersey until the season's over.

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