Photo by ktylerconk

In three days, the Baltimore Ravens will square off against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl XLVII. For D.C. residents, though, it’s a tough call who to root for. Even Mayor Vince Gray has admitted to divided loyalties.

Sure, Baltimore is closest. We share roads and airports. They provided us with Dangerously Delicious Pies. And yes, as some have pointed out, this year’s Super Bowl could easily boil down to which TV show you liked more: The Wire or Full House? Omar, or Uncle Jessie? Duh.

But as WTOP’s Rob Woodfork opines today, Ravens fans wouldn’t likely be cheering on the ‘Skins if they made the Super Bowl, so why should ‘Skins fans cheer on the Ravens merely because they play 30 miles up the road? (Earlier this week the Post’s Dan Steinberg laid out the dividing line between Ravens and ‘Skins fans, and it runs through Howard County.) And since we got the Nats, D.C. fans have extricated themselves from prior Orioles fandom.

Additionally, the issue of hometown loyalties is tough: as we wrote last week, 49ers tight end Vernon Davis is a Dunbar High School grad; in fact, three other All-Met athletes are on San Francisco’s roster (Ahmad Brooks, NaVorro Bowman and Cam Johnson).

But there’s other considerations. Yesterday 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver shared his somewhat odd beliefs on gay people: “No, we don’t got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do. Can’t be with that sweet stuff. Nah…can’t be…in the locker room man. Nah.” (He has since apologized.) Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, on the other hand, spoke out in favor of same-sex marriage in the lead-up to Maryland’s November referendum on the issue, and has since said that he wants to use the Super Bowl as a platform for gay rights. (A pair of Ravens players did say they opposed same-sex marriage, though.)

Maybe it’s not that complicated, though: a Facebook map of football fandom shows that the while the majority of the country is siding with the 49ers (bandwagon hoppers!), most of the Mid-Atlantic stands with the Ravens. And let’s be fair: a team named after an Edgar Allen Poe poem is pretty great. Interestingly, though, Poe died in 1849—the same year that kicked off the Gold Rush in California that gave San Francisco’s team its name.

OK, so: who are you rooting for?