A.J. Brown kept his promise.
The Eagles won the Super Bowl, and once the team returned back to Philadelphia, the star wide receiver had a visit to go make.
Trey Howard was watching from the hospital. The 10-year-old Eagles fan had been struck in the head by flying debris in the Northeast Philadelphia plane crash the week before the game. He was shielding his younger sister, and needed to be rushed to the hospital to undergo emergency brain surgery.
Trey survived and when he woke up, as his father, Andre, told ABC News, he asked if he missed the Super Bowl and if his sister was safe.
He didn't, she was, and the story reached Brown, who wrote on Twitter/X while the Eagles were in New Orleans that he would come to see Trey when they got back, "Hopefully with some hardware."
The Eagles pummeled the Chiefs, 40-22, on Sunday night to win the title. They took the flight home on Monday afternoon, and soon after, Brown was at the hospital to see Trey and his family, with the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
"Thank you for being a man of your word," Trey's mother, Lala Sayon Hamiel, wrote in a Facebook post of Brown's visit, as relayed by the NFL's and the Eagles' own social media channels. "By great surprise on this day, my son was beyond grateful to meet you. Caught us all by surprise.
"For someone, my son, who usually talks so much, you had him smiling from ear to ear and mute. I felt his heart pounding through his chest. The amount of love and support you gave being so patient and calling Saquon Barkley for him was beyond appreciated. Thank you for everything and bringing that win home for 'TRE' the world's greatest superhero."
The wins always mean more in Philadelphia, a whole lot more.
A few more Eagles beats before the big parade on Friday…
Mic check
NFL Films and the NFL Network aired "Super Bowl LIX Mic'd up" on Wednesday night, then uploaded it to the NFL's YouTube Channel Thursday morning.
It's 41 minutes of greatness – every alternate angle and soundbite an Eagles fan could want, and that every fan should watch.
So click HERE to watch it in full, or on the embed below to follow the same path because, as always, the NFL's digital media policy is a bunch of nonsense:
A few moments have been clipped though, so we'll drop some of those right here, too.
Cooper DeJean's pick-six followed by Saquon Barkley telling him to keep doing that:
Coop and score 🎁
@Eagles | @cdejean23 pic.twitter.com/jByQGCiNAE— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) February 10, 2025
Zack Baun calling his shot:
"Imma get one."
Zack Baun called it 😏 @Eagles pic.twitter.com/2iEE4FwRNl— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) February 10, 2025
Patrick Mahomes straight up not having a good time:
Defense w̵i̵n̵s̵ won championships 🏆 @Eagles | @InsideTheNFL pic.twitter.com/8fVMD4nC0r
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) February 11, 2025
The Jalen Hurts to DeVonta Smith dagger:
Have no fear, the Mic'd Up TD is here 👀 https://t.co/LVRn7Fzbne pic.twitter.com/kVCz17pbjW
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 12, 2025
Hurts refusing to smile until the result is final:
Eagles take a 40-6 lead.
Grant Calcaterra: “You can crack a smile too.”
Jalen Hurts: “I can’t lie to you, bro — that last one changed my soul, man.”
Super Bowl 57 created a monster. pic.twitter.com/bAaBlSZY6X— Victor Williams (@ThePhillyPod) February 13, 2025
Smith letting the moment set in
The love between these two 💚@JalenHurts | @DeVontaSmith_6 pic.twitter.com/4nJyQPYsRs
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) February 11, 2025
Barkley directing Nick Sirianni's Gatorade shower:
How fitting that @saquon was the final piece orchestrating the Gatorade bath 😅pic.twitter.com/HnttFV2s2C
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) February 12, 2025
Barkley meeting with family in the celebration and seeing his daughter's crazy hat:
This moment means everything to @saquon and his family 🥹
NFL Mic’d Up: Super Bowl LIX – 8pm ET on @nflnetworkpic.twitter.com/Ob0vv1Cfl5— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) February 12, 2025
And, finally, kids amazed by confetti:
Baby birds at the Super Bowl 🦅🫶 @Eagles pic.twitter.com/Piehku5Mnf
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) February 12, 2025
There are fewer joys in life.
Sit down. Be humble.
Kendrick Lamar performed at halftime and Rap Daily over on Instagram reviewed the film.
Moving up and down the field and between clear landmarks for his stage setup, Rap Daily estimated that Lamar moved about 145 yards from start to finish.
The Chiefs rushed for only 49 yards in the Super Bowl, and Mahomes was the only one to hit double-digits on the ground for them with 25 yards. Their three running backs – Kareem Hunt, Samaje Perine, and Isiah Pacheco – never even scraped 10.
Just another way to paint how badly the Chiefs got beaten.
Parade memories, and the new ones to be made
The finishing touches are being put on the parade route up Broad Street and down the Parkway to the Art Museum steps, and a whole lot of people are going to be getting up before the sun even rises Friday morning to get down to the city and secure their spots.
I've been thinking a lot about what the parade is actually going to be like this time.
The Phillies in '08, no one knew what to do. Everyone was just happy to finally get one, after 25 years or for the first time in their lives, and the whole thing ran in reverse of the Eagles' plan, turning off Market and going down Broad to the Sports Complex and Citizens Bank Park for the speeches. I remember finding a spot by the Union League building, seeing the Phils go by, and then being able to get home in time to watch the CBP ceremony and hear Chase Utley drop "WORLD F—ING CHAMPIONS!" Jim Gardner had to apologize on 6ABC's behalf after that, probably to skirt an FCC fine.
The Eagles in '18, even at the parade, there was this air of disbelief the entire time. They actually did it. Nick Foles did it, and outplayed Tom Brady to do it. Jason Kelce was over here dressed as a mummer and going completely off (with a few more F-bombs than Utley), and Doug Pederson called it "the new norm."
It was incredible, save for the part where by a certain point, my friends, family, and I were trapped on the Parkway without a way to get to the bathroom unless we wanted to forfeit our spot. That was brutal.
But personally, it took a long time for it all to set in. For a solid two months after, I'd be going about my business only to suddenly pause and go "They really won the Super Bowl…" I went to Boston for a convention a month later. I had a Sixers backpack at the time. A guy from across the floor spotted it and called over. He was a Philly native who traveled around a lot for his job. We talked about Dario Šarić, then he pulled out his phone and said "Dude, I need to show you the cool Super Bowl stuff I bought!" He got a framed autograph photo of the Philly Special. It was sick.
- MORE EAGLES
- These Eagles were special. Now they're immortal.
- Eagles fans celebrated on Broad Street, but the Super Bowl itself turned into a party well before that
- The Eagles' dominant return to the Super Bowl by the numbers
But my overall point there is, anyone who ever had even the slightest ties to Philadelphia or the Eagles, they felt that Super Bowl win. There was happiness in the air that no one ever felt before, and it unified everyone with even the slightest tell that they were from the area or rooted for the Eagles. It was special.
This time, Friday's absolutely going to be amazing no matter what, but the vibe is different. As our own Shamus Clancy noted out on Broad after it was pretty much a guarantee the Eagles had this one in the bag on Sunday night, which was so much sooner than I think anyone ever expected, he saw the shift.
It was still joy, but without the tears or the relief of that massive weight off everyone's shoulders.
The Eagles were good, they knew they were good, and Philadelphia knew they were good.
We're not celebrating an underdog, a miracle, or what some on the outside might call a fluke. We're celebrating a team that was, without any argument now, the best team in the NFL by far, and the one that just beat the brakes off what was thought to be the league's untouchable dynasty.
Can't say Philadelphia has ever known that feeling before, but they're definitely getting the hang of it now.
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