Sports Pranks: The reasons behind them and hilarious ones done over the years
Ever since anyone can remember, pranks have been a part of our history. No one knows when they started or who started them but it seems as if they have always been around. Slowly, as pranks became a part of our history, we started to see them emerging into the world of sports as well. The tradition of pulling pranks on people stems from April Fool’s Day that is celebrated around the world every April 1st. There have been some very outlandish and hilarious pranks over the years and people just do not get tired of playing pranks on each other. All over the internet there are stories of the top ten greatest sports pranks of all time and it seems they have narrowed it down to which is the best out of them.
Prank calls and other types of elaborate pranks have become part of the mainstream culture. It has not escaped the sports world either. A very funny prank call was done once to ESPN Sports Centre and the person calling pretended to be a very famous American football player named Brian Westbrook. The caller turned out to be someone playing a practical joke on the channel. How this happened to a big organisation like ESPN is the funny part.
Sometimes pranks can become so elaborate that we have to applaud the level of audacity taken to pull them off. In 2004, a bunch of Yale students pulled off one of the greatest college pranks of all time. During a football game which was played between Yale and Harvard, the Yale students painted signs and left them on the seats of the visiting Harvard student fans. What happened was that the Harvard students all lifted up the signs and it spelled out ‘We Suck’ in big red letters.
A very clever sports prank revolved around American football players Brian Bosworth and John Elway. John Elway was hugely popular with the fans and Bosworth decided to profit from it. He started to call Elway strange things whenever they were playing, such as horse face and other nonsensical names. This led Elway to reveal the fact to the media and the fans found out about it. They became so angry that they started to buy and wear t-shirts that said ‘Ban the Boz’, referring to Bosworth. What the fans did not know was that Bosworth had made these t-shirts and was selling them, so every time a fan bought one he made a profit.
Over the years, many more pranks emerged and two of the greatest were probably Kyle Kendrick getting traded to Japan and the hilarious Sports illustrated prank about Sidd Finch. Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick got the shock of his life when he was informed offhand by the team’s assistant general manager that he was being traded to Japan. He could not believe what was happening to him and looked rather dejected when he told reporters, who were also in on the prank, about the fact outside his locker room. He was extremely relieved when he found out it was a prank. The funny prank of Sidd Finch was actually a story that Sports Illustrated printed on April 1st in 1985. The article told the story of a young man named Sidd Finch who had been clocked pitching a baseball at 168 mph. The story got a lot of attention and the magazine had a lot of people calling in about the talented pitcher. They only realised later that it was a very elaborate practical joke.
Pranks are funny but why do people do them to their team mates? It could be that being a professional athlete is very stressful and doing these types of funny things relieves the pressure. Another could be that it brings people closer together on a team and the players bond more. A lot of the time, a lot of effort and money is spent on pranks such as the Sports Illustrated, one above where they filled pages of their magazine with a bogus story just for fun.Due to the fact that sports teams now a days teams are made up of all kinds of people from different nations, doing these kinds of funny things probably breaks down barriers and helps the new players adjust better to the team. As the years go by, we continue to see pranks of all kinds being done in sports and they will keep on getting bigger and more elaborate as time goes by.
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