A local congressman teamed up with the Philadelphia Eagles to help out a heartbroken Pop Warner football team after they were denied a trip to Disney World.
Congressman Bob Brady (D., PA) reached out to the Eagles and secured 50 tickets as well as a bus for the West Philadelphia Tarheels football team to attend Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“It means a lot,” said Jayzen Flint, a running back on the Tarheels. “It means that more people care about the Tarheels.”
The Tarheels are coming off an incredibly successful year in which they went 11 and 0.
“This was like our first season that we went all the way undefeated,” said Kal-El Durham, quarterback for the Tarheels.
With their undefeated record, the team, made up of 9-year-old boys, expected to play at Disney World. Last year, Pop Warner went with a playoff structure in order to select two teams from the Tarheels’ Mitey-Mites division that would go on to Disney. At the beginning of this season, Pop Warner officials decided to stay with that same selection system which was a huge source of excitement for the Tarheels as they dominated their opponents, going undefeated and completing nine shutouts.
During the middle of the season however, Pop Warner officials decided to change the selection system to the way it was prior to last year, an invitational in which officials decided which teams would go to Disney by picking two at random. After winning what would have been their regional games, the Tarheels learned that they weren’t selected.
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A spokesman for Pop Warner told Philly.com their reason for the change was because the division had become too competitive and there were complaints about the playoff selection system. The Tarheels were devastated when they learned the news.
“Oh it definitely hurt pretty deep,” said Stephanie Smith, a parent of one of the players. “It crushed them. Lots of them were crying. My son, he said he wanted to remain strong for his team and he fought it. And he understands that sometimes in life you don’t get what you earned. But as long as you keep working you’ll be alright.”
Congressman Brady was also upset when he found out the team wasn’t invited, which is why he decided to step in and get them tickets for the Eagles game.
“And then all of a sudden they just pull the rug out from under these kids,” Brady said. “Is that how you teach these kids character? You lie to them?”
While the team is still disappointed they were unable to go to Disney, they were still touched and appreciative of the efforts of Brady and the Eagles.
“It helps a lot,” said Duane Jones, VP of the Tarheels. “Because the end result is the boys are being shown that their accomplishments are acknowledged.”
