Gilroy
– Seven weeks ago, Jeff Garcia worried that he might have made
the wrong decision last March when he signed with the Philadelphia
Eagles as their second-string quarterback.
Now, he has to worry about the SI Jinx. Or does he?
Gilroy – Seven weeks ago, Jeff Garcia worried that he might have made the wrong decision last March when he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles as their second-string quarterback.
Now, he has to worry about the SI Jinx. Or does he?
The first issue of the new year of Sports Illustrated is on the streets and Garcia is on the cover. It’s amazing how things have changed in the life of the 36-year-old Gilroy native, who will lead the Eagles into the first round of the NFL playoffs against the New York Giants as the hottest team in the National Football Conference.
There is great debate about the so-called SI Jinx, which allegedly affects those athletes who grace its cover. Reality or fantasy? Sports Illustrated has helped perpetuate the subject itself by writing a story on it five years ago.
After researching all of SI’s 2,456 covers, the magazine’s investigators found 913 jinxes. That figures out to roughly 37.2 percent.
“There’s probably not too much of it in real terms,” says Dr. Ted Butryn, associate professor of sports psychology and sociology at San Jose State University. “There’s been much research about superstitions in sports.
“In extreme cases, it can lead to obsessive-compulsive behavior when you are that superstitious. Really, it’s how people respond to pressure. Some don’t respond as well to stress as others. It’s basically coping in sports.”
Butryn has never met Garcia, a SJSU graduate. He believes that Garcia, being a seasoned athlete, has had to deal with pressure and expectations throughout his career. Thus, Garcia may be more equipped to handle it than others.
And yet, there is the anecdotal evidence that was uncovered by SI’s Alexander Wolff. There was the time when Michael Jordan’s picture was on the cover during the same week when his wife filed for divorce. Or when Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch of Nebraska made the cover and failed to make it in the NFL. And to be more quarterback specific, when University of Washington QB Bob Schloredt was pictured taking a snap from center on a 1960 cover, a week later his heavily favored Huskies lost to Navy when Schloredt fumbled a snap.
The most amusing item was the magazine asking Kurt Warner to pose with a black cat on the cover for a story that appeared in January 2002. Warner, a Super Bowl-winning QB and two-time NFL MVP who is a devout Christian and who wears No. 13, refused. Instead, SI went with the black cat alone (no word on what befell the black cat).
Darren Yafai doesn’t believe in the SI jinx or that Garcia will be affected from the added notoriety. Yafai, a former Gilroy High football coach, played two years of youth football with Garcia and then one year of high school ball with him.
“I don’t ever recall him being superstitious,” Yafai says. “He was always too focused to believe something like that. The SI cover jinx is kind of silly and overrated.”
Butryn believes that the media helps to make more of it than there really is.
“The underdog story is a theme of the sports media,” Butryn says. “The decline and fall or the resurgence make for great themes.”
So what will be the fate of Garcia, the former Gilroy and Gavilan star who also achieved success in the Canadian Football League and with the San Francisco 49ers?
Stay tuned Sunday when Garcia leads the Eagles into their first-round playoff game against the New York Giants.
