A real eagle predicts who will win the Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl

This eagle looks south from Newtown, Pennsylvania toward
Philadelphia two days before the Philadelphia-Kansas City Super Bowl.
Could it be an omen of victory?

 Some of the fun of sports is to be superstitious about your team. You wear the same smelly T-shirt while they're on a winning streak, even if it drives away skunks and garbage men. Or maybe you won't change your underwear until you become a world champion. Or maybe you'll cover your eyes and pray to Zeus while the game is being decided and hope your luck strikes the opposing team like a thunderbolt.

Whatever you do, it's incumbent upon you as a fan to be absolutely irrationally attached to your team and certain your actions determine the outcome of the game in your favor.

This is not a new idea. The ancient Greeks thought that seeing an owl was bad luck and seeing a hawk was good luck. Ancient Egyptians worshipped dung beetles and thought them gods for rolling around balls of poop. Native Americans wore the feathers of certain birds to give themselves power or charm. Ground hogs predict spring with uncanny error.

Then there is the Philadelphia Eagles fan, who is never wrong.

Perhaps nowhere on earth do fans take their role in their team's fate more ferociously seriously than in Philadelphia. Wasn't there an opponent's wife who wanted to file suit for being intimated after one recent playoff win? Opposing players might also have commented they'd rather wear their helmets while out dining in Philadelphia and have sometimes thrown cheese steaks at rabid fans as a diversion to escape attack. Santa Claus was booed here just before Christmas because fans suspected he was handing out performance-enhancing drugs to the enemy (LOL).

In any case, it is in the spirit of a true Philadelphia Eagles fan that I photographed a real eagle out in nature this morning, two days before the Super Bowl, and thought it was a favorable omen.

A very good omen - a real eagle
with its feathers blowing in the wind
two days before the Super Bowl.

You can't convince me that this wasn't a sign of things to come. The eagle, photographed in Newtown, Pennsylvania, was facing south, toward Philadelphia.

That had to mean something good.

I even asked the bird, "Oh, wise ruler of the skies, who will prevail Sunday when your namesakes battle the Chiefs in the Super Bowl?"

He had a surprising answer.

"The Chiefs?" he scoffed. "You don't believe for a moment I forgot that Chiefs used to steal my ancestors' feathers for headdresses, do you? I haven't. They were serial eagle feather thieves. We'll have our revenge Sunday and maybe even cause the Chiefs to change their nasty racist name to something nicer after we eagles whup them. The Eagles will soar, 48-44."

Excuse me. I have to call my bookie.

A real eagle picked the score and winner of this Sunday's
Super Bowl between the Eagles and Chiefs. He was pretty
confident about the birds getting their revenge.