GLENDALE, Ariz. — A Philadelphia Eagles fan and a Kansas City Chiefs fan bonded over their love for football and over a kidney. Both former marines are heading to the Super Bowl in Arizona.
Kansas City Chiefs fan John Gladwell donated a kidney to Philadelphia Eagles fan Billy Welsh two years ago after he was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, according to The Associated Press.
Polycystic kidney disease is where cysts develop primarily within the kidneys making them enlarge and not work correctly over time, according to the Mayo Clinic. It’s an inherited disease.
Gladwell and Welsh met more than 20 years ago while serving in the Marines. According to the Today Show, the two stayed connected on Facebook but didn’t speak to each other for a few years.
Welsh had reportedly posted on Facebook in 2019 that he needed a kidney. Gladwell got tested and learned that he was a perfect match, according to the Today Show. Gladwell and Welsh went through a 10-hour transplant at a hospital in Philadelphia.
“It meant the world to me. I was speechless. John Gladwell is my hero,” Welsh told “Today.”
The story of Welsh and Gladwell made its want to the Eagles’ President Don Smolenski and he reached out to the Chiefs President Mark Donovan. According to the AP, both teams agreed to send them to the Super Bowl.
Smolenski said their story symbolized “unifying aspects of the Marine Crops and the NFL,” according to the AP.
Gladwell said that he didn’t think twice to donate his kidney to Welsh because Welsh has a son that is not much older than his grandson, according to the AP.
Welsh and Gladwell got the news last Sunday around 6 p.m. via video call by the presidents of the Eagles and the Chiefs. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, both men didn’t know the other was on the call.
“The opportunity to bring these two guys together, their two teams playing on the biggest stage in sports, it’s very, very humbling and gratifying,” Smolenski said, according to the Inquirer.
Gladwell and Welsh’s trip to the Super Bowl is all-expenses paid with flying them out to Arizona, getting them hotel rooms and seats next to each other for the game, according to the Inquirer.
According to the AP, Welsh was “speechless” when he heard about the chance to go to the Super Bowl. Gladwell apparently thought it was a spam call at first.