Tradition – Football
Captains: I smell pussy!
Team: What!?
Captains: I smell pussy!
Team: What!?
Everyone: Its time to bust these hoes! Its time to bust these hoes! Its time to bust these hoes! Its time to bust these hoes!
Captains: What time is it?
Team: Game time!
Captains: What time is it?
Team: Game time!
Captains: Where my dogs at?
Team then jumps up and down making barking noises and runs onto the field.
The informant, Manoj, reports this chant as the way his varsity football team would get pumped up before games. Manoj says the team would all gather in tight group in the end zone before performing it. The captains of the team would then initiate the chant. The pregame ritual chant was practically screamed by the team, so that they would get psyched up for the coming battle. Manoj learned the chant in his junior year of high school from older members of the team. He says the energy with which the team performed the chant could be carried over into the game. When the team really got into the chant, they always came out with a ferocious intensity. While jumping and barking at the end of the chant, the team members would bump into each other as a way of getting physically ready for the game. At the completion of the chant, manoj says the team would run onto the field through a paper banner held up by his schools cheerleaders. Manoj is unsure of the exact origin of the chant, but says it has been a pregame ritual for many years at his school.
Pregame rituals are not uncommon and occur in many sports in many places all over the world. A chant like this psychologically readies the players to engage the other team. The chant obviously makes the team feel unified and probably is at least on some level intended to intimidate the opposing squad. The barking at the conclusion of the chant seems to be an attempt to get the players to connect with their ferocious, wild animal side. Professional as well as amateur teams have rituals very similar to this, which suggest to me that rituals like this make a team play better. I think sports in general are mock combat and chants like these help ready the chanters for their mock combat. A pre-game chant similar to this one being performed by a football team can be seen in the movies Remember the Titans and Friday Night Lights.