Athletes have always had rituals: Michael Jordan wore his North Carolina shorts under his NBA uniform; Wade Boggs ate chicken before each baseball game; and of course hockey players have playoff beards.
But what about team owners?
Jerry Jones acknowledged that, despite his bravado, he's superstitious on days his Dallas Cowboys play. The owner and general manager of America's Team, speaking on his weekly radio show, told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas about his lucky charm.
"I have a pair of cufflinks that I gave my father when I was in my middle 20s, and then when he passed, momma gave them back to me," Jones explained, as reported in the Dallas Morning News. "And I have those with me all the time during these ballgames. Different pockets, different ways, sometimes they’re on French cuffs, sometimes they're just in the pocket."
So what does the Cowboys owner do with them?
"I use them as worry beads if I'm sitting there at certain times during the ballgame," he said. "But I've done that for years.”
Those lucky cufflinks might be working; the Cowboys are leading the NFC East with a 7-4 (.636) record.
Rituals and superstitions really do help athletes performance, according to a CNN report earlier this year.
"For athletes, there's this unpredictability in sports. They never know how they're going to play, how the other team is going to play, so when you do something that's superstitious, like wearing a trinket, it gives you a greater sense of control," said Gregg Steinberg, professor of human performance at Austin Peay State University.
But of course, Jerry doesn't play the games. Though don't tell him that.
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