The Messed Mojo: An Apology and Lessons Learned

Bill Belichick taught everyone who was receptive to the idea on the biggest stage possible: the mojo must not be disturbed. My first thought as the teams took the field on that fateful evening in February was, "Why is Belichick wearing that RED sweatshirt? Where's the grey hoodie?" And we all know what happened...

You just don't change horses midstream. Mojo is everything, and it must be respected. Respect the juju.

I changed up my Patriots routine in week 1 and look what happened to Tom Brady. I'm never going to another birthday party if it conflicts with a Patriots game. Ever.

And the Red Sox. Where to start?

Where was my Sox jersey? Where was the lucky lid? Not there. I was inconsistent in my application of the mojo. Didn't wear the lucky cap with any regular pattern during the ALCS and lo, the mojo was intermittent.

Game 5, the mojo came in a blast. So what did I do? The correct answer should have been wear the same garb going forward, but alas I changed it up. In fact, during game 5, just before the 7^th inning, I put on the lucky 2007 World Series locker room cap. That sucker had so much mojo stored up, the Sox were able to come back from 7-down to win the game. You'd think the light bulb would go on, "gee, maybe it is my moral imperative to wear this cap." Alas, it did not. And I failed.

The lucky cap went on...came off...on...off...you just can't do that. Red Sox Nation - I'm sorry.

I've come to some rules of the mojo game. You MUST follow these simple rules for your team to be successful.

1) Be mindful of what you're doing when your team is playing and SUCCEEDING. Are you sitting in your favorite leather chair? Over at your mother-in-law's place? Eating gazpacho? You must repeat this activity, no matter the personal cost, consistently.

2) Be mindful of what you're wearing. You MUST wear this consistently.

You MUST NOT wash your mojo clothes. Whatever is going on with the mojo may or may not have anything to do with whatever funkiness is going on with the threads, but you cannot risk changing this dynamic.

3) Be mindful of with whom you're watching the game. You're watching the game with that crazy brother-in-law you can't stand? Sorry, blood. You're stuck with the dude. He's possibly part of the mojo. If he's practicing yoga on your dining room table while junior is playing Tonka trucks. Better hope he's available next Sunday, because he's coming over and make sure junior's truck doesn't loose a wheel or anything.l

See the thing is, you just don't know the deciding factor with juju. With mojo, there's this interconnectedness of all things - not unlike the butterfly effect. You MAY be able to change any one of the factors - maybe you change up the Lay's Chips for a canister of Pringles without ill effect - but you just never know what the major determinant of the mojo is or how strong it will be.

If you team has the game well in hand, feel free to change up and add some elements. You can never - and I REPEAT NEVER - introduce a virgin item to the mix without some assurance of victory. AND NEVER NEVER NEVER allow a tainted item into the mix in some sick effort to reintroduce it's mojo. You cannot do it - once mojo has tainted or lost, it can never be regained. NEVER. Do not try. My suspicion is that as much as I went for a change for some powerful mojo in Game 5, someone somewhere in the Tampa/St. Pete area did something just as drastically different and messed with the Rays mojo.

It is my hope that by sharing this with you, that someone may gain the benefit of my mistakes. Don't do what I have done to my teams.