Is a little humility in the world of sport too much to ask for?

The list of things I just can’t get my head around in life is an increasingly long one. Anything other than the first round of The Voice, people who wait until they’ve packed all their shopping at the checkout before fumbling for their card and skin-tight jeans on men are just a few of them.

But why on God’s great green earth would anyone tell the world their team is about to win.

I generally come from a standpoint which I call pessimistic-realism, the premise that if something can go wrong, it probably will do and often quite spectacularly.

As such, you will never find me ‘bigging-up’ my team’s sporting chances, no matter how confident I should be.

‘You’re not fit to play on the same pitch as Spurs, we’re going to wipe the floor with you,’ said one cock-sure colleague to a Wolves fan in the office.

I kept my counsel but grimacing through a 1-0 home defeat to relegation fodder was still one of the low points of my adult life. Karma in action, albeit karma which I had not brought upon myself – I always maintain a healthy fear/respect of the sporting Gods.

I also distanced myself from the Spurs fans proclaiming a cup semi-final against League 1 Sheff Utd was akin to a bye over two legs. Why would anyone, ever, even think that is a sensible thing to say? What possible benefit is there to saying it?

I have a friend who is a fan of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team. On Sunday night, they face the New England Patriots in Superbowl XLIX. Kind of a big deal in the world of US sports. He has spent the week proclaiming left, right, and centre, via social media, that his team are definitely going to win... so much so that now I want them to be crushed out of sight just so I can watch his salty, bitter tears of regret...

Seems like an appropriate time to include a cut-out-and-keep-guide to the big day itself for the one game a year bandwagon brigade:

The actual game kicks-off in Phoenix, Arizona, around 11.30pm on Sunday night and should be a close one – don’t expect it to finish much before 3am.

Katy Perry is doing the half-time show, also a big deal, with an audience of hundreds of millions from 200+ countries expected to tune in.

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Just how great would Diego Costa be in a pantomime?

The man has the shark eyes and swarthy complexion of a Wild West villain and even looks like he could strike a match on his chin.

His antics in the Capital One Cup semi-final on Tuesday night are sure to net him a ban from the FA and rule him out of Sunday’s visit of Manchester City. Ironically, had his team-mates not been surrounding referee Michael Oliver, baying for a caution for Lucas, in the lead-up to the second stamp on poor defenceless Martin Skrtel, the ref might have seen the incident, booked Costa and he’d have played on Sunday. More karma. This time good, though.

The biggest disappointment of the night, however, was that one more stamp from Costa and we’d have all been able to claim a free latte. Ayethangyou.