How the ‘Drake curse’ became a thing in sports

There is no such thing as a “normal” curse, but the one that has Drake’s name attached to it has fans wanting him to be passionate from miles away.

The Grammy award-winning artist was in attendance of Game 4 of the NHL playoffs between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins, sporting a Leafs jersey.

Drake is a Toronto native. Showing up to support the local team isn’t anything out of the ordinary, but given Drake’s reputation of his support resulting in losses, some fans expressed concern.

Coincidence or not, the Maple Leafs lost, 6-4, as Toronto slid into a 2-2 series tie with Boston.

The loss came two days after Italian soccer team Roma posted a tweet banning players from taking pictures with Drake. He recently posed for a photo with Paris Saint-Germain’s Layvin Kurzawa. Kurzawa posted it to Instagram. Two days later, PSG lost 5-1 to Lille.

Let’s take a look back at other times fans blamed losses on the former “Degrassi” star.

Earlier this year, Drake recorded himself wearing an Alabama sweatshirt and posted it to his Instagram story. Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide were preparing to take on Clemson in the 2019 National Championship game. Alabama lost 44-16.

In 2015, Serena Williams entered the U.S. Open as the top seed and quickly ran through her opposition into the semifinals where she faced off against unranked Italian Roberta Vinci.

Vinci won in a stunning upset. Drake was in attendance cheering on Williams.

Drake was side-by-side with Conor McGregor at his weigh-in for his fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 236. Drake gave words of encouragement to McGregor with an Irish flag draped over his shoulders.

McGregor proceeded to take a lopsided loss and one of the worst beatings of his career.

Drake is a big Kentucky Wildcats fan and an even bigger fan of basketball coach John Calipari. Depending on how you look at this one, it could feed into the curse or dispel it.

Kentucky last won a national championship in 2014. Drake had already reached mainstream popularity with his music and was a vocal supporter of the team. That was five years ago. Since then, Kentucky has had amazing teams that fell short of expectations.

Finally, there’s the Canadian’s beloved Toronto Raptors. Drake regularly attends home games and became the team’s “Global Ambassador” in 2013. The Raptors have an alternate jersey that is inspired by Drake’s OVO brand.

The Raptors were victims of LeBron James’ dominance in the Eastern Conference. Sideline camera reactions of Drake witnessing all of it have become synonymous with their postseason woes.

Sports fans are a very superstitious group of people and will look for the scapegoat in every loss. Drake joins a list that includes Madden, Sports Illustrated covers and Mick Jagger among the supposedly “cursed” in the sports world.