He Hasn't Moved From That Barstool in Three Weeks. The Reason Is More Complicated Than You Think

Same seat. Same order. Same superstition. The regulars have theories.

In a neighborhood bar somewhere in America, there is a man who has occupied the same barstool for every match of this summer's World Cup across the US, Mexico and Canada. The staff have stopped asking. The regulars have started guarding it.

It began, as these things do, with a coincidence: a good match watched from a good seat. Then a second. By the third, the seat wasn't a seat anymore. It was a responsibility.

The bar has quietly adjusted around him. His order starts when he walks in. A folded napkin marks the stool between matches. One regular admitted the whole bar now believes in the seat 'a little bit, which is somehow worse than believing in it a lot.'

Superstition, sociologists say, is how fans join a story bigger than themselves. Or, as the man on the stool put it: 'I don't think it works. But I'm not going to be the one who finds out.'