Philadelphia Eagles

Pope's visit inspires Super Bowl prayer from Eagles fan

Published Sep. 24, 2015 10:05 a.m. ET

foxsports

By Jason Rowan

Pope Francis’ celebrated tour to the United States obviously has generated an astounding amount of interest, but one Philadelphia Eagles fan sought to capitalize on the pontiff’s visit to the City of Brotherly Love by beseeching divine intervention on behalf of the city’s NFL team.

In celebration of the Pope’s visit to Philly for the World Meeting of Families, a “Knotted Grotto” was raised outside the Basilica for Saints Peter and Paul where pilgrims could write down a prayer on pieces of cloth and tie it to a fence.

More than 40,000 prayer cloths were posted, which involved the following:

Each pilgrim wrote a personal plea, tied it to a fence, then untied someone else’s prayer, carried it inside the grotto, tied it to the wood frame and prayed for a complete stranger, bound together only by a mutual Catholic faith.

Most of the posted prayers involved such sentiments as “Send your Son back soon” and “Please protect my children from harm’s way” to “I am not my disease” and “Pray for those suffering from addiction.” But one intrepid Eagles fan felt compelled to request something far different, as evidenced by one cloth spotted on the fence.

Fair enough.

Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia obviously had a profound impact on the city, not to mention a significant amount of crossover into the world of sports.

After all, the Eagles were forced to open the 2015 regular season with a grueling road schedule after the NFL was asked not to schedule a home game for the team during Week 3, as Pope Francis will conduct mass to an estimated 2 million people outside the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Not only that, it was jokingly suggested that the Pope should bless quarterback Sam Bradford’s troublesome and injury-prone knees during his visit, something the quarterback wholeheartedly endorsed.

Even the local media has pleaded for Pope Francis to help out the troubled 0-2 Eagles. It looks like some fans are trying to get in on the act as well.

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