Dealing with curses of the sports world
With rapper Drake trying to end the losing habits of those he backs, Daniel Schofield explores solutions.
Sportsmen tend to be a superstitious lot. So the idea of a curse being placed on a team is enough to cause paroxysms of panic.
Generally these are winless or trophyless runs, retrospectively attributed to a Romani gypsy’s curse or the presence of a particular ill-fated individual.
The latest such malediction has been associated with rapper Drake. There is a certain correlation between his presence and the loss of the team he is supporting. The list of teams and athletes he has condemned to defeat includes: the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL playoffs, Serena Williams before she was knocked out of the U.S. Open by an unranked player and UFC fighter Conor McGregor before his defeat by Khabib Nurmagomedov.
So how do you end such a hex? For the Toronto Raptors’ decisive NBA playoff game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Drake attempted to reverse the curse by wearing a pair of 76ers shorts. It worked. Just before the buzzer sounded, Kawhi Leonard let go a shot that bounced four times on the rim before dropping in to give the Raptors a 92-90 win.
It is far from the most extreme or unusual method that has been used to lift a curse. When the Birmingham City soccer team in England constructed its St Andrew’s ground in 1906, a group of Romani travellers was forced to make way and placed a 100-year hex on the new ground.
In the 1980s, coach Ron Saunders tried to end the curse by placing crucifixes around the floodlights and painted the bottom of his players’ boots red.
The more traditional approach in these matters is to go directly to the source of the curse.
When another English soccer club Derby County similarly upset members of the Romani community in constructing the Baseball Ground, their punishment was never to win the FA Cup again. They subsequently lost their next three finals, prompting club captain Jack Nicholas to pay some Romani travellers to lift the curse before their 1946 final against Charlton Athletic. Derby won 4-1.
Similarly, the Australia football team provoked the ire of a Mozambique witch doctor whom they had failed to pay for performing a good-luck ritual before a 1970 World Cup qualifier.
The nyunga reversed his ritual and Australia went 32 years without qualifying for a World Cup until an enterprising Australian journalist travelled to Mozambique and paid a witch doctor to break the spell. The Socceroos have since qualified for the past four World Cups.
An even higher authority was consulted by the Mayo Gaelic football team, which has been cursed since 1951.
So the legend goes that in celebrating winning the All-Ireland final, they failed to pay respect to a passing funeral. The attending priest said that they would not win another final until every member of the team had died.
They have since reached eight finals and lost them all, but last year Pope Francis was asked to sign a jersey.
We await to see whether His Holiness’s autograph has the desired effect.