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My friends:  allow me to tell you my pre-game tradition, and how it began.  It was the night before the 2006 AFC championship (against Denver) and I was partying with some friends of mine out here in San Francisco.  Obviously, I was PUMPED about the Steelers.  I was born in 1982, so the Steelers had never won it all during my lifetime and I had experienced numerous heartbreaking losses in AFC championship games.  By 2006 I was pretty damned tired of watching my teams lose championship games. 

So I’m sitting on a couch at this party and some friends of mine started throwing around a little nerf football.  Somebody threw it towards me and when it was in the air I noticed that it was PURPLE AND ORANGE!!!  BRONCOS COLORS!!!  Naturally, I dodged the ball and loudly proclaimed that I didn’t want to touch anything that was Broncos colored.  At this point somebody pointed out to me that my shirt had Broncos colors on it.  I looked down and they were right, my grey shirt had orange and purple letters on it.  Now I can’t emphasize enough how pissed I was about all of our previous playoff defeats.  I let out a howl and ripped my shirt off my chest, incredible hulk style.  I then ripped my shirt into little pieces and burned them in the fireplace of the apartment where we were partying.  The next day, the Steelers dominated Denver, in what was probably the most satisfying football game I have ever watched.  Obviously, this whole episode amused my friends greatly and a couple weeks later on the night before the Superbowl, I was over at the same apartment wearing a blue-green shirt, which I ripped into pieces and burned.  We all know what happened the next day.

I decided that I should only use this ritual to bring good fortune in AFC Championship games or Superbowls, so I didn’t burn any shirts for the next two years.  Until, of course, two weeks ago when I burned a purple shirt the night before the Ravens game. Right now I’m wearing a white, red and black shirt – you know what that means!  So enough about me, what are some of your superstitious rituals?