Diary of a Sports Diva October 22, 2007

Something came to my attention when I watched part of the San Francisco 49er-New York Giants play. The Niners go three and out on a series, where in one play, Trent Dilfer drops back to set up for a pass and slips and falls on the turf, then on the next play he’s sacked.

It got me thinking about how much karma plays into sports. It seems when teams are down on their luck, bad things continually happen. The quarterback slides and is half a yard short for the first down. A hockey defenseman has the puck hit the back of his skate that misdirects into his own net.

Entering his 11th National Hockey League season, San Jose Sharks’ RW Mike Grier has had his taste of when things go wrong with the struggling teams while everything goes right for the winning teams.

“I’m not sure (if it’s karma). That’s just the way it seems to go. Sometimes you get in a cycle. When you’re team is in a funk, it seems you’re not getting the bounces. The calls that you’d hope to go your way don’t.”

Grier suggests when that happens, sometimes you’re not doing the little things you need to do or you might not be working hard enough. You always hope to make your own breaks.

“It’s weird how that works, though. I think some of it is confidence. When things are going well, you’re working hard and you don’t even know you’re working hard. Everyone has confidence in trying to make plays. You’re doing all the right things.”

But there is that feeling of piling on when a team is down. Every officials’ call goes against you. Passes don’t click.

“Sometimes it’s tough (to get out of a funk),” Grier admits. “Sometimes you just need kind of a fluky bounce for a goal to go in, maybe steal a win or something like that and get everyone to feel good about themselves. Then you can slowly start to right the ship.”

© 2007 Debbie Elicksen