It is not, nor will it ever be, a regular rite of passage for a Philadelphia sports fan to luxuriate in the downy soft enjoyment of success. Save that for those who follow dynasties, whether it is packed into the space of a decade or spread over the length of several lifetimes.

To follow the four professional sports teams in the City of Brotherly Love is to willingly chain oneself to the sloppy and unforgiving residue of defeat, an often-painful legacy handed down from family member to family member and best reflected by the work of their extremities: a clenched fist, cupped hands welcoming a downturned head and the occasional stubbed toe kick at a door in the wake of a horrible defeat. To them, success arrives sporadically – maybe once a decade -- like Christmas gifts from an absentee parent to a hopeful child who keeps the promise of reconnection alive with each rare present they receive.

While its professional football team last delivered a championship in the late hours of February 4, 2018, its baseball team has come painfully close to achieving the crown only to fall short over the last few seasons, and as for its basketball and hockey franchises, their last championships are resigned to the grainy video of long ago. Being a Philadelphia sports fan has become a banquet rich in promise but rarely do the invitations arrive in the mail, and while each season brings the hope of a child, almost all of those seasons end in quiet despair and each loss catapults the fan into a deeper and more unforgiving abyss.

Like beads on a rosary, these franchises have become a part of their prayers, but no team has been received more passionately and without apology than the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles’ 2024 season began with great expectations, but after a lackluster 2-2 start, their fanbase called for the firing of the head coach, but over the next several weeks – led by a rejuvenated running back given a new life after being captured from a divisional rival – the team rallied behind him, reeling off win after win. In a way that is carved out of the hardscrabble resiliency of its citizens, they overcame internal squabbles; they fought through injuries with a “next-man-up” mentality; they dominated teams on both sides of the ball; they rose above the deafening squawk of on-air critics; they finished the regular season with 14 victories -- an all-time franchise record – and they took down three worthy opponents in the playoffs.

This coming Sunday night, the Philadelphia Eagles will face the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59 for the right to bring the Lombardi Trophy back to Philadelphia.

In fellowship and in our private moments, it is common for all of us to seek a higher grace for that which we hope for and give it some degree of enunciation, whether it is to a spiritual being or a person at a pulpit or quietly, without sound but fierce in its hope, within our own mind. This Sunday morning, with the game still hours away, churches and synagogues and temples of worship from Warminster to Oxford – from Norristown and Souderton to Chadds Ford and West Grove – will become houses of hope for those who have endured the turmoil of what it means to be a Philadelphia sports fan.

Fo those who pray, they will reach up to the Gods of mercy for something they have absolutely no control of, and while it is not beyond the realm of possibility that some of that faithful flock will turn their prayers inward others, we suspect, will again return to their extremities and clasp their two hands together.