Sports fans are notoriously superstitious and often have their own rituals to bring their teams luck.
There is one New Jersey man who is such a big fan of the San Francisco 49ers that he put a home improvement project on hold in order to ensure that the team went to the Super Bowl.
Lenny Cathcart of Plainfield has a home filled with 49ers memorabilia. There are helmets games balls, signed jerseys and personal photos of legendary wide receiver Jerry Rice.
“That’s Jerry calling my wife from his retirement party,” Cathcart says while showing off a photograph.
He keeps all of the items in his “49ers Cave,” a finished basement displaying all of his treasures. It is also where he watches the team play.
“When I’m watching my games, I don’t allow anyone down my basement,” he says.
But the 49er Cave is in shambles now that the team is heading to the Super Bowl on Sunday. See, Cathcart was having the place painted and renovated earlier this fall. But when the 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 29, he told the contractor to go away.
“And I haven't let them back down there since. Because we haven't lost since,” he says.
Like any sports fan, Cathcart says that he can’t do anything to blow his team’s chances of winning. He says that he wanted to have renovations done in time for the Super Bowl – but now he will delay the project.
“I can’t. I can’t touch it,” he says.
Cathcart says that he is just doing his part for a team that he loves. A team that seems to love him back. Cathcart is practically an honorary member of the 49ers organization. All of the memorabilia pieces were purchases with just Cathcart’s infectious personality.
“I have a way of getting things. I talk to people. Everybody knows my passion,” he says.
49ers owner John York befriended Cathcart and gives him good seats to the game or two he sees every year in San Francisco. Cathcart will be at all the team events and parties and of course the game itself on Sunday.
“My goal is, when that confetti is coming down, I just want to lay there. Just one time. That's my goal,” he says.
If the 49ers do win on Sunday, it may just be because of Cathcart’s efforts.
Cathcart says he became a 49ers fan in the 1980s because of his appreciation of Jerry Rice, and also to stick it to his friends who are fans of the rival Dallas Cowboys.