At approximately 6:15 this evening, Martin Tinsley will slip into his lucky (he hopes) Atlanta Falcons T-shirt and ballcap, settle into his beige suede recliner, place his right leg under his left leg - always the right leg under the left leg at the start of the game - and prepare to watch his favorite professional football team attempt to win Super Bowl LI in its 51st National Football League season.
"In my heart, I know the Falcons can win without me," the 45-year-old Tinsley, who works at The Home Depot near Hamilton Place, said as he discussed his numerous superstitions Friday afternoon, precisely 51 hours (just luck) before the Falcons were to take on the New England Patriots in Houston.
"But if they lose, I spend the whole next week trying to figure out what I did wrong to cost them that game."
So he'll put his left leg under his right leg at the start of the second quarter, then rotate the left back on top at the start of the third, then return to the right leg on top to start the final period. He won't go to the bathroom until halftime because the players "can't go to the bathroom until halftime."
Nor will he eat anything during the game because - well, you probably already know the answer.
And Tinsley doesn't stop there. He all but demands to watch the game alone, removed from wife Melissa and daughters Emily and Katie.
"I'm just extremely unsociable during a game," he said. "I need to be left alone."
He even flips a pocket knife (blade closed) in his hand throughout the game, explaining he "flips it forward when the Falcons are on offense and backward when they're on defense."
And this isn't new behavior. Recalling the first time the Falcons reached the Super Bowl (XXXIII at the close of the 1998 season), Tinsley was asked if he practiced the same superstitions then. He recalled how Atlanta safety Eugene Robinson's arrest for soliciting a prostitute the night before the Falcons faced Denver in Miami has often been blamed for that 34-19 loss.
"Had (Robinson) done the right thing," Tinsley said, "my superstitions would have worked just fine."
There will no doubt be a lot of folks scattered throughout the Tennessee Valley and north Georgia this evening doing anything they can think of to will Atlanta to its first Super Bowl title and the Big Peach its first pro championship since the Braves won the 1995 World Series.
However, first-year Falcons defensive end Dwight Freeney won't use the ring he won as a key member of the Indianapolis Colts - with a little help from quarterback Peyton Manning - at Super Bowl XLI (2006 season) to inspire his teammates.
"It's in a safe," Freeney said late last month at the team's training facility in Flowery Branch, Ga. "I don't bring it out too often, and I don't think these guys need to see it for motivation or anything."
If anything, he said, the Falcons need to attempt to forget they're playing in the Super Bowl as much as possible.
"Guys are going to have a hard time falling asleep," he said. "Sometimes you feel yourself getting too excited."
That feeling can overwhelm you if you let it, he said. Especially in the final few minutes before the game begins.
"There are two moments that are so emotional you get goosebumps," Freeney recalled of his two previous Super Bowl appearances, one a win and the other a loss - New Orleans beat the Colts at Super Bowl XLIV to close the 2009 season.
"The first is when you run through the tunnel and they call your name. The second is the opening kickoff, and all the lights are flashing through the crowd. It's absolutely mind-blowing."
Freeney knows how special it is to play in the game, but Tinsley believes he knows how special it would be to see his team finally win the title.
"It would mean everything to me," he said.
Given that the Patriots - winners in four of the six Super Bowls coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady have reached together - were only three-point favorites to win as of Saturday evening, Atlanta certainly has a chance.
But superstitious sorts might note nine of the past 11 Super Bowl winners have worn white, and the Patriots will be in white against the Falcons. There's also the fact that not one of the 10 teams that has averaged more than 30 points a game during the regular season the past five years has gone on to win the Super Bowl, and the Falcons averaged a league-best 33.6.
And come tonight, the Patriots - particularly Brady - would like nothing better than to force NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to hand them the Lombardi Trophy after the quarterback was suspended the first four games this season as a result of "Deflategate."
None of that has swayed Tinsley's belief in his team, though he not surprisingly won't pick a score.
"I'm afraid I might jinx them," he said.
But he has thought of how he'll handle his work shift Monday, depending on the final score.
"I told them that win or lose," he said, "I might not make it in on Monday."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.