Tears flowed as Jordan Mailata’s proud family from Australia showed up in force at the Super Bowl

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Immaterial today, but you can surely remember it so easily, how hopeful the Eagles fan base felt headed into halftime of Super Bowl LVII. Certainly inside State Farm Stadium, where right before the half, the Eagles’ fight song broke out around Section 113. A man wearing a Chuck Bednarik replica and a cowboy hat was on his feet … Just another Eagles crazy? This man, a bit different. He took an Australian flag wrapped around his own shoulders and waved it in the air.

Moana Mailata, just in from Sydney two days earlier, attending the first NFL game of his life.

“There’s no words I think in the English language how to describe how we feel as a family,” said Jordan Mailata’s oldest brother, standing on the concourse at halftime. “So elated, so overwhelmed. Euphoric. So proud of how far Jordan’s come.”

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What does it matter today — a day after Chiefs 38, Eagles 35 — that the Eagles’ starting left tackle’s brother was sitting in Row 38 between his wife and mother, the rest of the immediate Mailata family filling out the row? Well, if the Eagles’ immediate future starts today, Jordan Mailata, age 25, is such a key part of it.

Have there been tears seeing all this?

“Endless tears,” Mo Mailata said.

They cried, they said, watching their brother standing on the sidelines during the national anthem.

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“He’s been adopted. Honestly, we love America, because they look after my little brother,” Mo said. “We couldn’t ask for anything more.”

In the scheme of things Eagles-related, this family matters. Brother Mo matters. Jordan once explained how pivotal Mo and his now-wife Jo were to his own athletic development, how it might have ended somewhere down the rugby ladder if they hadn’t invited him to live in their home in Sydney.

“They were my lifeline,” Jordan told me back when he was an Eagles rookie. “I reached the point, I was just plateaued. Living with my mum and dad. I couldn’t drop the weight. I wasn’t getting any game time. I almost pulled the pin. I almost pulled the pin on rugby. MoJo saved me. They said, ‘Why don’t you move in with us? We’ll get you straight.’”

“I think us being here, representing our family and our communities back home, is more than I could ask for as a family,” Mo Mailata said. “People around the world are watching.”

The game itself had been foreign to the family when Jordan left rugby and Australia behind to try this NFL thing, which seemed a fit for his massive frame.

“It’s been a learning curve for all of us,” Mo said. “My brother just under me, Daniel, he would sit there and explain the game to my dad — hey, what’s a run-play option? We’ve all become accustomed to the game itself.”

And this new fame, they see it. Mo was wearing that Bednarik jersey because Jordan gave it to him – Jordan wore it himself after one Eagles game. But the shirt offered Mo just a hint of anonymity.

“We haven’t really been able to walk around the airport without somebody calling out to us,” Jo Mailata said. “We were at In-N-Out Burger last night, a quick meal at like 11 p.m. As we left, someone came running out … ‘JORDAN!’”

Nope, that was brother Daniel.

So no Jordan No. 68 jersey for Mo?

“Under here,” Jordan’s brother said, revealing another layer.

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They see how Jordan has handled his Philly fame.

“He’s a natural,” Jo Mailata said.

This conversation had gone 10 minutes into halftime, E-A-G-L-E-S chants breaking out around them, the possibilities of this night still promising, as the stadium lights dimmed.

“We don’t want to miss Rihanna,” Jo told her husband.