Who Eagles Fans Should Root for in the Super Bowl

This game is going to be rough for Eagles fans just like it was 4 years ago

OK, another year, another team besides the Eagles winning the Super Bowl.

It’s something generations of Eagles fans have had to deal with.

It hurts -- nothing is worse than fans of the Cowboys, Redskins, Steelers, Raiders, Broncos, Giants, Patriots, etc. asking the question when you make fun of their team, “So how many Lombardi Trophies have the Eagles won again?”

We who bleed green all know unfortunately that none of the 45 Super Bowl trophies sit in South Philly.

Which brings me to this terrible fact -- not only will the Eagles not win the Super Bowl this year but one of Philly’s most-heated rivalry towns will get to add another silver prize to their trophy case.

That’s right either the hated NFC East rival New York Giants or the easy to hate Bill Belichek-led New England Patriots will hoist the Lombardi Trophy Super Bowl Sunday.

But as Eagles fans who do we root for? It’s not like rooting for a tie is an option (somewhere Donovan McNabb is going, “Huh?”) so we are left to pull for one team or the other.

Betting fans will let the 3-point spread for the Pats help them make the decision but for the rest of us who do we pull for?

We asked our Facebook followers who they want to win Super Bowl 46 and the results were split nearly down the middle (as of 11:59 a.m. Monday) with 119 people pulling for the Giants and 109 for the Pats.

All this writer has to say is that either we have 119 Giants fans following us on Facebook or we have some traitors in our midst! I kid, of course, but I do find it difficult to believe that Eagles fans would cheer for one of their two (along with the Boys) biggest rivals.

Mark Paul for Yahoo! Sports sums up some of Eagles fans' pain:

The Philadelphia Eagles have to be kicking themselves. How could the New York Giants be in the Super Bowl? This is a team that the Eagles beat on the road with Vince Young under center. This is a team that lost twice to the Washington Redskins. The Giants looked like anything but a title contender through most of the season. Both the Eagles and Giants got hot near the end of the year. As it turns out, the Giants got hotter. As an Eagles fan, I would have never guessed that the Giants would be in the Super Bowl. The fact they are there is more than a little upsetting.

...That is football so there's no point in complaining too much about it. Every other team can point to one wrong bounce and say it made the difference. In the end, the Giants played their best football at the right time. The football gods smiled on them a little more than they did the Eagles this time around. I just hope they stop smiling. I can't stomach another Giants championship.

Seriously -- I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror the Monday after the Super Bowl knowing I rooted for Eli Manning and company. Back when the Giants beat the Pats in Super Bowl 42 I rested easier (despite the result) at least knowing I rooted for the lesser of two evils.

So this year I will once again begrudgingly pull for the Pats.

Let me give Eagles fans a good reason (besides that they aren’t the Giants) to pull for the Pats.

Tracy White.

The linebacker played for the Birds in 2008 and 2009 and is getting his first chance to bring home a championship. Rooting for White in the Super Bowl would be like rooting for David Akers in the NFC Championship -- wanting to see the best for a former Bird.

Also, Pats CB Kyle Arrington was in training camp a few years back -- so root for him too.

And in the process root for the Pats to win their fourth title, win or lose, you will thank me when you wake up the Monday after the big game.

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