It's not exactly a secret that Chicago Bears jokes are told 365 days a year in Wisconsin. Even on the most holiest of dates on the calendar. And there's not even a dispensation from ridicule when a native Chicagoan is suddenly chosen to be the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Already, with the New York Knicks and their Villanova-built team riding high up 2-0 over the Boston Celtics in the second round, Knicks fans think Pope Leo XIV's Villanova ties are a good omen. Of course, Pope Leo is originally from Chicago, and we had clarity about him actually being a Chicago White Sox fan, which tracks.

The pope's Creole roots in New Orleans are a source of pride among the city's Black Catholics. But the revelation also recalls a painful chapter in the city's past. “In New Orleans, everyone treats visitors as family.

Pope Leo XIV, who is the first American pope in history, has lineage among “free people of color” in the U.S. dating back to at least the 1840s, a genealogist told Forbes.

Since Robert Prevost is a Chicago native, baseball fans were eager to learn which baseball team the new pontiff supports.