Is There a Tabloid Hottie Jinx on NFL QBs?
First, Jessica Simpson & the Cowboys. Now, some blaming Pats' loss on Gisele.
Feb. 4, 2008— -- Now let us blame beautiful women.
Women took a beating this football season, being labeled jinxes and hoaxes — that is if you can call dating Gisele Bundchen bad luck.
Bundchen is the latest beauty to be blamed by fans for coming between them and their teams.
"Super stunner: Could Bundchen be to blame?!?" screamed the headline of Inside Track, the gossip page of The Boston Herald, looking for someone — anyone — to blame for the New England Patriots' 17-14 loss Sunday to the New York Giants.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has been dating Brazilian-born supermodel Giselle Bundchen since he broke up last year with actress Bridget Moynihan, his long-term girlfriend and mother of his baby.
"Fans are upset," Laura Riposa of Inside Track told ABCNews.com. "Boston fans are always looking for someone to blame and it is easy to blame her."
Few are holding back on their comments in gossip and sports blogs.
"Gisele is bad luck," wrote one anonymous commenter at usmagazine.com. "Gisele is such a jinx!!" wrote another.
Gisele is being compared in the tabloids to singer Jessica Simpson, who was blamed by Dallas Cowboys fans for distracting quarterback Tony Romo in the playoff game last month against the Giants.
"Some of these couples have a pretty bad track record. Just look at Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo or Eva Longoria and Tony Parker [of the San Antonio Spurs.] So it's convenient to add Gisele and Brady to that list," said Riposa.
Parker was added to the injured list after hurting his left ankle and is not expected to return to the court until at least the middle of February.
Labeling women jinxes is a tradition many times older than Jessica Simpson, said Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University.
"This is a modern version of a very old taboo. In hunting and gathering societies women were considered jinxes. There was a great deal of superstition around women touching men's hunting equipment and they were often not allowed to touch equipment or accompany men while hunting. There was certainly a taboo, because young women were thought to sap men's powers," she said.
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