TheVoiceOfJoyce The Super Bowl is on tonight and joins two fans of both teams, who met years earlier in the Marines. Now, these two Marines, are joined by Gladwell’s kidney, an act of kindness and love, neither anticipated. They weren’t particularly close when they met in the Marines. In 2020, Gladwell responded to Welsh’s cry for help. He needed a kidney to live. Gladwell responded immediately, wanting is friend to share the pleasures of fatherhood with his son. For this single act of selflessness and kindness, they’ve both been given a trip to the Super Bowl, to cheer for their respective teams. A Valentine for both families. The light of love and kindness will shine brightly this evening. Choices!

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www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/12/chiefs-fan-donated-kidney-eagles-super-bowl

“I cried,” Welsh told KMBC. “Never in a million years would I have ever thought that dude would’ve given me a kidney.”

Yet Gladwell said it wasn’t at all a difficult decision. He didn’t just have Welsh in mind, he said. He knew Welsh had a two-year-old son, who was close to the same age as one of Gladwell’s grandchildren.

“I don’t think I could’ve lived with myself if I could do something but didn’t,” Gladwell said to KMBC. Gladwell wanted Welsh’s child to be able to go with him to see all of Philadelphia’s sports teams play: baseball’s Phillies, hockey’s Flyers and basketball’s 76ers.

“I wanted him to be able to experience all of that with his dad,” Gladwell said.

Gladwell donated his kidney to Welsh in October 2020. The full weight of the sacrifice became clear early last year, when a Covid-19 infection sent Gladwell to a hospital intensive care unit with advanced kidney failure.

“I was in a pretty pickle,” Gladwell remarked.

It took him nearly a month to recover – but he did. And Welsh said he was grateful for that, and that both men’s kidneys were functioning well.

Neither Welsh nor Gladwell had been to the Super Bowl. So, after Gladwell’s Chiefs and Welsh’s Eagles clinched berths to Sunday’s Super Bowl, the teams worked together to arrange for both men to be in the stadium in Phoenix which is hosting the NFL’s title game.

Welsh is hoping the Eagles win their first Super Bowl since 2018. Gladwell on the other hand hopes the Chiefs can retake pro football’s crown for the first time since 2020.

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