Sports Curses (and "I'm Mr. Plow, and I'm here to say...")

[kurumi]

Curious about the topic of bad luck and curses in sports (Red Sox, SI Cover, etc.), I found a long list of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports-related_curses

Are there any you believe in that are not on the list?

For me, since the "Super Bowl Shuffle", Da Bears have not won another championship. Search for 1985 Bears Dynasty, and you'll find articles like "Mike Ditka, '85 Bears looked like NFL's next dynasty, but what happened?"

Also, I thought that song had one or more of the "I'm Samurai Mike, and I'm here to say" tropes, but no one in that song says "I'm here to say". A little more digging, and the first widespread cases of that exact phrase were not hip-hop at all: a Fruity Pebbles commercial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX_dgcSsu1Q) and Homer Simpson's Mr. Plow rap (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJwZIDaILrg). One of the earliest genuine "here to say" lines is from Grandmaster Flash (about 4:48): http://youtu.be/kdKwEVT1_9U?t=4m46s

[Takumi]

The Curse of the Colonel might be my favorite sports curse of all time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Colonel

“The curse was said to be placed on the team because of the Colonel's anger over treatment of one of his store-front statues, which was thrown into the Dōtonbori River by celebrating Hanshin fans before their team's victory in the 1985 Japan Championship Series.

In 1985, much to the nation's surprise, the Hanshin Tigers faced the Seibu Lions and took their first and only victory in the Japan Series, largely due to the efforts of star slugger Randy Bass (later a State Senator from Oklahoma), an American playing for the team.

The fan base went wild, and a riotous celebration gathered at Ebisu Bridge in Dōtonbori, Osaka on October 16, three weeks before the Japan Series. There, an assemblage of supporters yelled the players' names, and with every name, a fan resembling a member of the victorious team leaped from the bridge into the waiting canal. However, lacking a Caucasian person to imitate MVP Randy Bass, the rabid crowd seized a plastic statue of Colonel Sanders (like Bass, the Colonel had a beard and was not Japanese) from a nearby KFC and tossed it off the bridge as an effigy.”

[1995hoo]

Some people have suggested the Washington Capitals jinxed themselves to many years of futility with the famous Stanley Can incident in Oakland in 1975. Gist of it: That was the Caps' first year in the league and they were historically bad–8 wins, 67 losses, and 5 ties, 21 standings points. But the road record was worse: 1—39—0.* The lone road win came in their next-to-last road game of the season against the California Golden Seals on March 28, 1975. After the game, one of the Caps' players saw a trash can in the locker room, picked it up, went back out to the ice, and skated around with it like it was the Stanley Cup. The franchise endured many years of playoff chokes before winning the Stanley Cup in 2018 and some people have suggested the Hockey Gods were not amused by the Stanley Can incident.

It's too bad that trash can disappeared. That would be a classic item to put in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

*The road record was broken by the 1992—93 Ottawa Senators, who went 1—41—0 on the road and also had a longer road losing streak than the Caps did (38 games versus 37 for the Caps).

[SectorZ]

From my birth to Oct 2004 all I heard about was some curse due to a guy in 1919 selling a baseball player to fund some musical. Pretty sure Boston Globe sportswriter and "baseball hall of famer" Dan Shaughnesssey made a career off of it.

[Henry]

Up until the final out of the 2016 World Series I always heard about a curse that a local tavern owner had put on the North Side team because his billy goat offended everyone in the stands and he was asked to leave the park. Too bad Harry Caray and Jack Brickhouse weren't around to see it end, but I always believed that whatever current season would be the year that the curse was broken, which eventually paid off big time. Technically, Back to the Future was right about it happening, saying that the 1994 strike "caused a disruption in the space-time continuum" on its Twitter feed.

[triplemultiplex]

The Curse of the Colonel might be my favorite sports curse of all time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Colonel

"The curse was said to be placed on the team because of the Colonel's anger over treatment of one of his store-front statues, which was thrown into the Dōtonbori River by celebrating Hanshin fans before their team's victory in the 1985 Japan Championship Series.

In 1985, much to the nation's surprise, the Hanshin Tigers faced the Seibu Lions and took their first and only victory in the Japan Series, largely due to the efforts of star slugger Randy Bass (later a State Senator from Oklahoma), an American playing for the team.

The fan base went wild, and a riotous celebration gathered at Ebisu Bridge in Dōtonbori, Osaka on October 16, three weeks before the Japan Series. There, an assemblage of supporters yelled the players' names, and with every name, a fan resembling a member of the victorious team leaped from the bridge into the waiting canal. However, lacking a Caucasian person to imitate MVP Randy Bass, the rabid crowd seized a plastic statue of Colonel Sanders (like Bass, the Colonel had a beard and was not Japanese) from a nearby KFC and tossed it off the bridge as an effigy."

This sports curse is way better than any I've heard about an American sports team.
Gotta hand it to those fans making the statue take the plunge rather than have someone do "white-face" or whatever.  Because you know if the roles were reversed and it was an American team with one Japanese player, some guy would have just squinted his eyes and made the jump.

[Stephane Dumas]

The X-Files once mentionned then why the Buffalo Bills didn't won a Super Bowl championship, it's because of "Cigarette Man".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyhAJEPEHk4

[TheHighwayMan3561]

There was the Tampa Bay Curse, that no team that lost to the Buccaneers in the regular season had gone on to win the Super Bowl. Most glaringly, the 15-1 Vikings in 1998 had their sole regular season loss to Tampa Bay. This was broken in 2009 when the Saints lost one of their regular season meetings against Tampa Bay but won SB XLIV.

[Henry]

How about the Rochester Curse? The team that is now known as the Sacramento Kings was known as the Rochester Royals in 1951, the only time they won a championship. In between, they moved to Cincinnati and then to Kansas City (where they changed to the Kings to avoid confusion with the baseball team). The closest they've ever been to competing for another title is Game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals, which they lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Lakers dynasty that was en route to its third straight one.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Up until the final out of the 2016 World Series I always heard about a curse that a local tavern owner had put on the North Side team because his billy goat offended everyone in the stands and he was asked to leave the park. Too bad Harry Caray and Jack Brickhouse weren't around to see it end, but I always believed that whatever current season would be the year that the curse was broken, which eventually paid off big time. Technically, Back to the Future was right about it happening, saying that the 1994 strike "caused a disruption in the space-time continuum" on its Twitter feed.

I said this one was broken by the first closure of the Alanland thread, however I said that too late as the Cubs had already been swept by the Mets in the 2015 NLCS. But that eventually paid off.

[Stephane Dumas]

How about the Rochester Curse? The team that is now known as the Sacramento Kings was known as the Rochester Royals in 1951, the only time they won a championship. In between, they moved to Cincinnati and then to Kansas City (where they changed to the Kings to avoid confusion with the baseball team). The closest they've ever been to competing for another title is Game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals, which they lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Lakers dynasty that was en route to its third straight one.

That reminds me of that video who back then the LA Kings was in the Stanley Cup finals in 2012, they mentionned a NBC newscaster confused them with the Sacramento Kings.
https://youtu.be/b9u0nfal5qA?t=54

[JayhawkCO]

My Twins are cursed in the playoffs lately. 0-18 since 2004.

My Vikings are cursed with kicking failures. Gary Anderson against Atlanta. Blair Walsh against Seattle. Dan Bailey was the most accurate kicker in history until he played for us and then was terrible.

My Jayhawks used to be cursed by the "Killer B's", losing to Bucknell and Bradley in the first round.

[SP Cook]

Modern sports curses are no more.  Back when there were a much smaller number of teams, if a team went decades and decades without winning, you could talk about a curse or whatever.

Now, with at least 30 professional teams in each sport, assuming everything is equal (which is isn't due to market size, etc. but that is not necessary for this exercise) and assuming that a "era"  where a team is in championship form is like five years, mathematically "your"  team will probably only be a championship contender once or twice in your lifetime.

[jemacedo9]

Philly had one...the story goes...IIRC...

There was a city ordinance that no building could be taller than the William Penn statue atop City Hall.  In the mid-80s; I don't know if the law was removed or an exception granted, but Liberty Place was allowed to be built taller.  The 76ers won a title in 1983 and Liberty Place was built soon after...and no Philly team won a championship until the Phillies in 2008.  That drought was called The Curse of Billy Penn.

At one point, team jerseys were fitted over the statue...I can't remember if that broke the curse, or occurred after the curse was broken...or neither.

[cwf1701]

Lions fans believe the team has been under a curse since 1957, the last time they won a NFL title. The Lions has been 1-12 since in the postseason, and completed the first 0-16 season ever (in 2008). To add, when the Lions was sold to the Fords in November 1963, the deal was closed on November 22, 1963, which may have added to the curse of Bobby Layne.

[jp the roadgeek]

Modern sports curses are no more.  Back when there were a much smaller number of teams, if a team went decades and decades without winning, you could talk about a curse or whatever.

Now, with at least 30 professional teams in each sport, assuming everything is equal (which is isn't due to market size, etc. but that is not necessary for this exercise) and assuming that a "era"  where a team is in championship form is like five years, mathematically "your"  team will probably only be a championship contender once or twice in your lifetime.

The Curse of Rocky Colavito is alive and well in Cleveland.

Another thing that is hard to believe: the Rangers current Stanley Cup drought is now past the halfway point of their 1940-1994 drought. 

[Alps]

Modern sports curses are no more.  Back when there were a much smaller number of teams, if a team went decades and decades without winning, you could talk about a curse or whatever.

Now, with at least 30 professional teams in each sport, assuming everything is equal (which is isn't due to market size, etc. but that is not necessary for this exercise) and assuming that a "era"  where a team is in championship form is like five years, mathematically "your"  team will probably only be a championship contender once or twice in your lifetime.

The Curse of Rocky Colavito is alive and well in Cleveland.

Another thing that is hard to believe: the Rangers current Stanley Cup drought is now past the halfway point of their 1940-1994 drought. 

At least I've seen them win one   (Not in person, but definitely on TV)

[JayhawkCO]

At least you're not a Leafs fan.

[Stephane Dumas]

At least you're not a Leafs fan.

And now the Leafs drought is now more longer than the NY Rangers drought (1940-1994). The Rangers menaged to go to the finals in 1950, 1972 and 1979 during that time.

[golden eagle]

There was the Tampa Bay Curse, that no team that lost to the Buccaneers in the regular season had gone on to win the Super Bowl. Most glaringly, the 15-1 Vikings in 1998 had their sole regular season loss to Tampa Bay. This was broken in 2009 when the Saints lost one of their regular season meetings against Tampa Bay but won SB XLIV.

Speaking of Tampa Bay, the Rays probably weren't around long enough for it to be a curse, but it's rather ironic that when they dropped Devil Rays to just Rays after the 2007 season, they went to their first postseason in 2008.

[Henry]

There's also the "0 for 4 Curse", as in Super Bowls. Currently, it affects the Vikings and Bills; the Broncos had it too until they won their first Lombardi trophy after the 1997 season. It's also ironic (or interesting, however you put it) that Denver's other two Super Bowl championships came during the final playing years of two iconic QBs: John Elway (1998) and Peyton Manning (2015).

[golden eagle]

There's also the "0 for 4 Curse", as in Super Bowls. Currently, it affects the Vikings and Bills; the Broncos had it too until they won their first Lombardi trophy after the 1997 season. It's also ironic (or interesting, however you put it) that Denver's other two Super Bowl championships came during the final playing years of two iconic QBs: John Elway (1998) and Peyton Manning (2015).

But the Bills were all consecutive.

[snowc]

Also, the panthers and any cat teams was cursed due to a black cat in the giants stadium.
Went from 5-3 all the way to 5-11 after the black cat issue.

[Flint1979]

My Twins are cursed in the playoffs lately. 0-18 since 2004.

My Vikings are cursed with kicking failures. Gary Anderson against Atlanta. Blair Walsh against Seattle. Dan Bailey was the most accurate kicker in history until he played for us and then was terrible.

My Jayhawks used to be cursed by the "Killer B's", losing to Bucknell and Bradley in the first round.

It's crazy that 10 of those playoff losses for the Twins came against the Yankees. Seems like every time Minnesota matches up with the Yankees in the playoffs they are doomed no matter what.