Sports Urban Legends
Almost everyone in the world today is familiar with sports in some way or another. All over the world, people attend sporting events. Here in the United States, sports is a big part of many people’s lives, whether they are actually playing a sport or attending an event as a fan. Most people have their favorite teams and players. They talk about them and tell stories about them. Many teams have been around for a long time, such as the New York Yankees, the Green Bay Packers, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Boston Celtics, just to name a few. Many of these teams have stories that have been passed down from generation to generation by their fans and those affiliated with the organizations. Some of these stories may have some truth behind them, while others, well let’s just say that they may stretch the truth just a little, or may have no truth behind them at all. These stories are what make up the world of urban legends about sports.
Whether one is a sports fan or not, most of these stories would spark the interest of anyone. Many of these stories really have no real truthful basis to them. Most of these legends, such as the jinxes and the curses, are stories that are made up, in my opinion, to act in place excuses for why a team or player fails, such as the Madden Football Cover Curse and the Sports Illustrated Cover Curse. But, just like all other myths and legends, these urban legends capture one’s mind, just for the simple fact that maybe there is something to that curse that the guy put on the Cubs because they would not allow him to bring his goat into the stadium. Believe it or not, the Cubs have never been to the World Series since, so is this fact or merely coincidence? Stories like this one leave that lingering question of fact or fiction in the minds of people, creating grounds for discussions and sparked interest, just like some of the ancient mythology does. Being that Oklahoma is a sports-crazy part of the United States, there is even more interest in these stories, just because of the mere fact that most people can find a way to relate to them.
My storybook is presented as a Sports Center telecast. As many people may already know, Sports Center is always doing some special series on something that is related to sports. For example, they just did a five part series on gambling in sports. From Monday to Friday, each night they explored a different aspect of the world of sports gambling. Another one they did was on sports video games. They showed how they were made, who plays them, what professional athletes played them, and their effects on people. The series I did is over urban legends pertaining to sports, including curses, jinxes, and a few other off the wall stories. I began my story book with the Heisman Trophy Curse, where many of the winners of the Heisman Trophy seem to have been snake-bit either in their bowl game or their NFL career. The next story I used was the Sports Illustrated Cover Curse. In this story, I created a fictitious person who I had claim that his appearance on the cover ruined his life. Then I used the Madden Football Cover Curse, where I had a supposed former marketing executive behind the curse. Next, I used an intern from the Democratic presidential campaign to explain how they fixed the Redskins game the weekend before the election so that Kerry would win. The final story that I used was the Cubs' curse, where I interviewed a goat, by far the funniest story in the story book. If you want to find out more, you are just going to have to read them!