There are a bunch of pre-game rituals that most athletes have to go through. Their games get thrown off when they fail to execute them because a lot of players have been doing them for a really long time. Often, mentality plays a large part in games which is why football players do these routines. Duke football's Riley Leonard has something much different. While others eat a banana, take a nap or anything of the like, he has his mom send him a message before every matchup. Their insane win against Dabo Swinney's Clemson football program might just be because of this routine.
Riley Leonard's mom sends him a note that says, “You Suck!” You heard that right, Duke football fans. He got the exact same message before squaring off against the Clemson football squad. The Blue Devils quarterback even had to put the message on a wristband such that he would not forget the message.
The underlying reason behind all of this is that he has gotten so much attention at Duke football. Leonard gets a lot of praise in the gridiron which may make his ego inflate. He then asked his mom to text him those two words to keep him humble at all costs. It keeps him tethered to reality without any of the fame getting to his head, per The Comeback.
There are a lot of tactics that work for players and this seems to be one of them. It is just great that Riley has a loving mom that does this to him constantly.