The biggest fan of the “eagles” in Baton Rouge paid the final price – Philadelphia asking

Baton Rouge, La.

Growing up in Baltimore in the early 1980s, like so much in this city, he had loved Kolts, just to have their owner, Robert Irsi, the whole franchise to Indianapolis during the darkness. Okay. He would find another team. Chicago bears.

The bears were cool at the time: Walter Peyton, Super Bowl Shuffle, this Funky QB Jim McMahon. When the bears lost Peyton’s last game, in the NFC playoffs in 1987, Philip began to hate the team that ended his beloved player’s career: Washington. Then he lived in the area of ​​Chesapik Bay. Nothing but Washington fans who surround him. In sixth grade, he bets on a classmate $ 12 that the team will lose Denver Broncos at Super Bowl XXII. Washington won, 42-10. The next day he couldn’t go to school. “Have Whuppin,” he said, to lose the bet. His adolescence was so, rude. A child of divorce. Foster care for some time.

He held the bears until the age of 15, until Monday night in November 1990.

“Playing the body bag,” he said.

Eagles 28, Washington 14 at the Veterans Stadium. Buddy Ryan’s defense has knocked nine players, including two discounts, outside the game, one of the most brutal in NFL history. This made Philip fall in love with the Eagles. “How could you not?” he said. “We couldn’t boast like a champion, but we were rocky, man.” At 19, he had the eagles. He had a wife, Marty. He had a job as a tire seller. And he had an apartment … But there was no car. He would go to work. When he became a father of the same year, Matthew, he raised him as a fan of the Eagles.

Philip was 21 years old when he moved his family here. A colleague had told him: Baton Rouge is the level of land, man. Go there and you will soon manage your own storeS Plus, his marriage was shaken. Maybe the move would intensify it. He and Marty had another son, Marcus, five years older than Matthew.

They had no cable TV in their small house, there were no mobile phones. They would follow the eagles, reading USA Today and other newspapers, joining those cases when the team was presented on national television television. To fill their free time, Philip and the boys would take long walks and talk through them. Take a stroll along the sidewalks of their neighborhood. Take a walk to the fast food joint. Take a walk to Circle K. Take a stroll in the air conditioner store. Turn and walk home. They wouldn’t have to buy anything and often did not.

»Read more: With this last place for a superbowl, Jeffrey Luri shows that he is the most important eagle of all time

“The whole point was the journey,” said the 49 -year -old Philip. The question was when a tall thin man with a thick black beard spent with his two sons, talking about anything, about deep, serious topics, what it means to live a good life, what it means to have good death. How many years would you shave from your lifeOne of them asked, Being a hero? Speaking of the Eagles, what Andy Reed did an excellent coach and Donovan McNab in an effective defender. Speaking on the way to the local library, where Matthew would do his homework and Philip would read books about psychology and the American Revolution and the US military, where Matthew asked him one day.

– Dad, would you refuse to go to the library for the rest of your life if the eagles could win a superbrow?

– No, I wouldn’t.

“You’re not a real fan then.”

Strange

Matthew was a paradox. He was a great student at Woodlawn High School here, but he didn’t like school, didn’t like to sit in the classroom. “I never realized it’s out,” Philip said. In the ninth grade, Matthew told him that he would be a void -grade class. It’s not that hard, DaddyS In grade 10, he told Philip that he did not want to go to college. He joined the Woodlawn Rotc Junior Rotc program; It is clear that he had soaked something of those books that Philip had read, from the conversations he would have.

“My love for this country was attractive to him,” Philip said. He left the program to concentrate on his academics, raising his blond hair so long that his high school friends called him “Jesus”. Until the first months of Matthew’s senior year, his father and his brother told him that he looked like the rookie defender, whom the eagles had just prepared in the third round: Nick Falls.

“When Falls would hold the ball because he did not want to throw a capture,” said Philip, “I would say,” Here again, Matthew. TSK, TSK. “

A year after he graduated as a 2013 Woodlash Valesictorian, Matthew joined the Navy. He wanted to be an aviation conductor. “He sold me to this,” Philip said. “I was confident that he would do well.”

Confusing call

The date was Wednesday, November 22, 2017. Only a few weeks earlier, Matthew was home, back to Baton Rouge, walking and talking to Philip about the Eagles. They hoped. They had reason to be. The Eagles were 9-1 and rolled, they had just directed the cowboys in Dallas. Carson Wentz was the leading candidate for the most precious NFL player.

Philip and Marty divorced after Matthew got involved, but they remained in close contact. She told him that she had not received an email from Matthew not long ago that she was in Japan.

Philip was at work that day. He had heard by talking to his sister that a naval plane had crashed, but he wasn’t worried. Matthew had sent this email. Matthew was already in Japan. Matthew was safe. Then his phone rang. It was his ex -mother -in -law. She was crying so hysterical that Philip couldn’t understand what she was saying. She put her husband on the phone. He told Philip that Matthew was dead.

“Obviously,” said Philip, “The email was” going to Japan. “

The 22-year-old Airman Matthew Chialastri was one of the three sailors who died when the C2-A hound, which was on board, about to part with an aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, crashed in the Philippine Sea near Okinawa. It was a routine transport flight. The cause of the crash, unknown until later, was a double engine damage.

Philip was angry. The Eagles continued to win. Philip couldn’t understand that Matthew was gone. Wentz tore two ties in the left knee in early December and was lost for the season. Philip wondered and worried about Marcus, who had worshiped his bigger brother. Falls entered and led the Eagles at Super Bowl Lii, against New England Patriots in Minneapolis. Philip got an idea. He will receive tickets for the game for himself and Marcus.

There was one problem: he had no idea how he would take them. He called the Eagles. He called the Navy. Desperate, he sent a message to Nick Foles account on Facebook. Finally, he remembered that after Matthew’s death, Bill Kassidi had told the Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, he told Philip, If there is something I can do … Philip called Cassidy’s office and asked for anything. Cassidi received tickets for him and Marcus.

»Read more: This is 2024 Eagles vs. Eagles 2022. Who do you have?

The two flew to Minnesota scattered in a hotel room near the American Bank stadium, they couldn’t believe how close their seats were in the field. “Steph Curry was behind me,” Philip said. “Here’s how good the tickets were. Only when I lost my voice was it in this game. Scream every game. I told this man next to me, “I wish they could hear me.” He said, “They All I can hear you. “

The rest, every fan of the Eagles knows by heart. The end result: Eagles 41, Patriots 33. The most precious player of the game: Nick Falls.

Grief and hope

In May 2019, after an 18-month investigation, which included the deepest recovery of a plane-18,500 feet-to-checker ever tried, the body of Matthew Cyalastras was found. His remains were returned home to Baton Rouge in July. The discovery did not provide closure of Philip. He and Marcus had loved to watch Arrow, a television series based on a comic book superhero who spent five years on a desert island. Philip had allowed himself to imagine that Matthew was just like this superhero, and when the Navy led his son’s body, this coping mechanism was no longer available.

“Let me tell you what I learned about grief,” he said. “The first stage of grief is anger. You have to burn that energy. This is an intelligent reaction to your body. Two years later, they lift the body. There was no anger. It was my most sad path. I didn’t have a grief for grief. “

Philip Chilars were sitting at his kitchen table on Wednesday night here, telling this story in all his love and sorrow. The Eagles will play again in Super Bowl on Sunday, only 70 miles east to supero. There are several fans of the Eagles in Baton Rouge, so he and Marcus, who are now 24, will watch the game at home. An American flag folded inside a triangular box rests on a desk. Matthew portrait hangs on the living room wall, green Flies Orly flies Banner below. “I wish,” said Philip, “When I walked like a fan, it was the team we had.” This is not the only wish of this real fan and father who have lost something dear for a long time.