The NFL's Green Bay Packers made sure Atlanta's Dirty Birds -- the Falcons -- won't be in Super Bowl XLV.
And a consistent offensive has helped ensure that Fort Worth's dirty birds -- the grackles -- won't be a factor in downtown during Super Bowl week.
"The grackles are a nonissue" downtown, said Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc. "We really don't have a problem anymore."
The birds, nuisances by any standard that seem to be engineered to make urban centers noisy and dirty, for years have taken up residence downtown from the September to May.
They, of course, are not part of the picture city leaders hope to paint when the Super Bowl festivities and ESPN's worldwide audience arrive on Monday.
And neither is the propane cannon that city workers use to scare them off, lest anyone in the ESPN audience think downtown is under attack.
"We need to do it quietly for the week that ESPN is here broadcasting," said George Kruzick, a superintendent of the Fort Worth parks department.
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