Green and Brown: The Sweetest Super Bowl Story Out There

She's 102. She is at The Big Game. Let the fun begin.

The best place to start a story is in the beginning. So let’s go there, to Nov. 22, 1922. That’s the day that Eloise Brown was born in North Philadelphia, the neighborhood she has lived in for all 102 of her years.

It is not where she will be on Super Bowl Sunday, though. A most unexpected appointment came up, as reported exclusively by Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. A few days ago, Brown’s favorite football team, the Philadelphia Eagles, invited her to be their guest at the Superdome. Brown and two of her granddaughters, Sabrina Hall and Sakina Johnson, flew first class on the team charter to New Orleans Friday. They are staying at the team hotel, and will be at the big game, hoping to see the Eagles end the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl winning streak at two. Brown believes it will be a day that brings the convergence of the three most important things in her life: family, faith and football.

It's almost too much to take in, she told this Alex Coffey.

“I can’t believe it, a little old lady like me,” Brown said. “Usually I’m watching them so carefully, little old me, sitting in my little apartment. This is something I never thought possible, but it’s happening. It’s unreal. But it is real.”

Nobody can say with certainty that Eloise (EE-lois) Brown is the NFL’s oldest fan, but good luck finding one more dedicated. She hasn’t missed watching an Eagles game for decades, She figures to be the only one in the place Sunday wearing a green jersey with No. 102 on the back (given to her last month by team president Don Smolenski), along with green No. 11 earrings, in honor of receiver A.J. Brown.

Eleven years older than the Eagles franchise itself, Brown’s early days as a grandmother trace to the Sonny Jurgensen/Tommy McDonald years in the early 1960s. She has 27 grandkids, more than 50 great-grandkids, and more than 20 great-great-grandkids. She has been through some brutal eras of Philadelphia football, including the stretch between 1962 and 1977 when the club had one winning season in 16 years. The last three regular seasons have been much more to her liking, with a record of 39-12, even if 2022 ended with a crushing defeat to these same Chiefs.

Through it all, Brown’s passion for her team has never wavered. From Norm Snead to Donovan McNabb to Carson Wentz, she has spent Sundays with her Birds. She keeps a little, squishy Eagles football nearby to manage the more stressful moments.

“I’m happy when they win, and when they don't win, I'm sad,” she told the Inquirer. “But they're going to win (the Super Bowl). "

The woman who many in the Eagles organization have taken to calling Mom-Mom Brown has quickly become almost as big a star as Saquon Barkley. It started with a big feature story by this Coffey person in the Inquirer last month. The Eagles kept winning playoff games, and other media outlets picked up on it. Brown was on the “Today” show a few days ago. David Muir interviewed her for “World News Tonight.” Ever since state Sen. Anthony Williams got her a couple of tickets for the Dec. 29 game against the Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field, she has become a big hit with the players and staff. They loved her homemade sign, “102 years old and still cheering for the Birds!” They admired her spirit, and her encouraging words. After the Dallas game, players hugged her and took photos with her. Coach Nick Sirianni handed her the game ball and a bunch of players signed it.

“I had no clue it was that heavy," Brown said. "It almost broke my arm. I was like, ‘Oh, my poor hand!’ It weighed more than me."

Brown with the Eagles’ Brandon Graham

Before the Eagles descended on her heart, Brown worked variously as a housekeeper, social worker and then with a civil rights activist and trailblazer named Delores Tucker, who became the first African-American female to serve as Secretary of State for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She raised her kids, watched the family grow into a virtual village. She stayed in North Philadelphia. She celebrated her 100^th birthday – where else? – at an Eagles game.

The Eagles made an improbable run to their first Super Bowl championship in 2017, behind backup quarterback Nick Foles. Eloise Brown is convinced No. 2 will arrive on Sunday night. Someone asked about her philosophy about life and she said you come into the world with nothing and you leave with nothing, and you just need to choose your outlook.

“So be happy,” she said. “Treat your fellow man the way you want to be treated, and you should be alright.” The conversation turned back to the Eagles. “Fly, Eagles, fly,” Eloise Brown sang, and then she laughed.

“Laughter is the best thing for you,” she said.