You can pay attention to the sports books, the point spread or the record of wins-losses when picking a team to win the Super Bowl on Sunday, or you can just flip a coin.
At Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, a harbor seal named Orange will do the honors.
She might not know a first down from a field goal, but she knows how to retrieve items placed in the seal exhibit, and that is how she will chose either the Baltimore Ravens or the San Francisco 49ers to win the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Animals picking sports teams is usually just a fun moment for whoever is hosting the event, but an octopus named Paul became famous for correctly picking several soccer matches correctly until his demise.
Here in Connecticut, 30-year-old Orange will make her pick on Friday.
She was stranded in New England, but has ties to Baltimore because she was rehabilitated at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, according to the aquarium.
Orange is a seal, so we know her pick is about the object, not the team, but the aquarium reassures that her time spent in Baltimore will not affect her choice.
The Baltimore Colts left Baltimore for Indianapolis in 1983, when Orange was 1, and the Ravens’ first year was 1996, after Art Model moved his Browns from Cleveland. She lived at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago from 1991 until 2005, when she came to The Maritime Aquarium, so Orange had been in Chicago for five years by the time of the Ravens’ first season.
