‘Blessings come in all forms,’ and for these super fans, it was surprise Eagles sideline passes

Marie Nee and Terrence Speights met roughly 20 years ago while working at the now-shuttered Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. Nee served as a guest services concierge for the hotel, and Speights worked as a VIP concierge for the casino, catering to the needs of guests who hoped to get lucky at the slot machines and card tables.

The duo became fast friends, bonding over their shared love for the Eagles. It turned out that some of that luck sought by gamblers rubbed off on them, too.

Nee and Speights, who have attended about 20 Eagles games together over the course of their friendship, had tickets for the Oct. 22 Sunday night matchup against the Miami Dolphins. As they made their way toward the Linc well before kickoff to watch the team warm up from their seats, an Eagles employee approached them with a white, unmarked envelope. Nee hesitated at first to take it from her outstretched hand.

“She was like, ‘What’s this?’ ” Speights told The Inquirer. “I said, ‘Open it up. You won the grand prize or something.’ She was treating it like there was anthrax in the envelope. So I said, ‘If somebody hands you something at a football game,’ I said, ‘you know it’s got to be something good. You never know.’ ”

Sure enough, the envelope contained sideline passes to watch the Eagles and Dolphins warm up before the game, a “dream of a lifetime” for Speights, who grew up in Camden County rooting for the Eagles. The last time the two attended a home game together on Sept. 14 against the Minnesota Vikings, Nee asked Speights how fans get the pregame opportunity to stand on the sideline. More than a month after he explained to her that those passes were reserved for family members and “important” people, Speights and Nee got to experience the sideline as VIPs themselves.

A video posted to the team’s social media platforms, which has since gone viral, captured Nee and Speights’ jubilation upon receiving the passes and their excitement once they arrived at their spots on the sideline. Five days after it was posted, the original video had more than seven million views on Instagram, four million on X, formerly known as Twitter, and nearly two million on Facebook.

“I almost killed the poor girl because I gave her such a big hug,” Nee said, laughing at her reaction to the gift, which was shown in the video. “And we went down to the field. And I was like, ‘O-M-G.’ I was beside myself.”

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Nee instantly thought to call her daughter, Cynthia, and tell her about their good fortune once they took the field. Nee’s exclamation of her daughter’s name while on the phone became one of the highlights of the viral video, her utter disbelief evident in her diction and the tone of her voice.

While on the sideline, Speights marveled at the height of the stadium and the perfection of the grass field, which reminded him of a well-manicured golf course. They took photos in their head-to-toe Eagles gear, including Speights’ signature oversized green Mardi Gras beads. Nee shook hands with former Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson and stood in awe over the size of 6-foot-3, 314-pound defensive tackle Jalen Carter.

“He came out and I thought, ‘My goodness, this man is like a mountain,’ ” Nee said. “He’s huge. He looks like he’s 7 feet tall and wide. Oh my goodness. And I kept thinking to myself, ‘If he’s running at a quarterback, this person coming at you, he must be going, ‘Oh my God.’ ”

Since the video spread across social media, Speights said he’s received calls from people he hasn’t seen in five years. Cynthia keeps Nee abreast of the buzz online that resulted from the video, seeing as Nee herself is not on social media.

The most popular line of commentary stemming from the video focuses on the duo being a “cute couple,” Speights said, but they both clarified that they’re just friends. Speights’ wife, he said jokingly, “doesn’t allow [him] to date.”

Even though Nee lives in Ventnor, roughly 100 miles from Speights’ home in Chester County, the two talk regularly about the Eagles. He’s her first choice of company when she gets tickets from her friend, a season ticket holder who goes to work early in the morning and can’t attend late games. When Nee and Speights are not at games together, they’re on the phone, reacting to key moments and dissecting plays.

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“Marie has always been loud and she always lets you know exactly what she thinks about you,” Speights said. “But she’s always been an Eagles fan. And I think she held onto me if she has a rule or something that she doesn’t know about, she always goes to me. ‘Hey, why did they do that?’ She’s a one-of-a-kind woman.”

While Nee and Speights “hit the jackpot,” as Speights described, on that fateful Sunday, Nee said she believes the Eagles will do the same come February when the Super Bowl rolls around.

“Oh my goodness,” Nee said. “I feel good about it. I really do. I feel like we’re all going to the Super Bowl. I really do. I feel the same way as Nick Sirianni. One game at a time. One game at a time. I feel like we can go, but I’m not really putting myself in that mode yet.”

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For now, they’re both grateful for the experience on the sideline, their friendship, and their favorite football team.

“Blessings come in all forms,” Nee said. “And I truly believe that. That was a blessing.”

For the first time in over a decade, the Eagles wore their kelly green uniforms, last seen in the hectic 2010 season. That year, the anticipated Kevin Kolb era was derailed due to his concussion and injuries to other key players — that’s until Michael Vick emerged as a surprising savior, sparking a quarterback debate. In Episode 3 of unCovering the Birds, Eagles beat reporter Jeff McLane explores this chaotic Kelly Green era and the unexpected season that followed. Listen here.