+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
Pop Culture

Eagles fan gets life-saving kidney from Chiefs fan. Now they're going to the Super Bowl together.

No matter which team wins, these two will be celebrating their friendship.

super bowl 2023, chiefs vs eagles
Canva

Strangers, then friends. And lifelong football rivals.

As we head into the rivalry-packed weekend leading up to the Super Bowl, a story of friendship and shared passion—and now, internal organs—between two opposing fans seems all too apropos.

Billy Welsh is a hardcore fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. John Gladwell, on the other hand, is avidly rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs. Welsh and Gladwell first met nearly 20 years ago while serving in the Marines.

They didn’t immediately hit it off. Gladwell, with years of experience under his belt and ready to come home, came across as “mean” to Welsh. Similarly, Gladwell wasn’t fond of the incoming recruit’s high energy.

Still, there was no bad blood between them. Though they didn’t actually speak to one another after going their separate ways, they did keep in touch through Facebook from time to time, as people are wont to do these days.

Then, in 2019, their friendship went beyond the occasional like or comment when Welsh wrote on Facebook, “Anyone got a spare kidney? Mine are junk.”

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Welsh was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disorder that often requires a transplant to prevent eventual kidney failure.

Without hesitation, Gladwell responded.

“I’m like, ‘What’s your blood type, I’ll check and verify mine,’” Gladwell told the Inquirer. “Two hours of looking through medical records, I finally found it. I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m a match…let’s do what we have to do to get this started.’”

Two decades apart were followed by a 1,000-mile plane ride and a 10-hour transplant surgery. For Gladwell, it was all a no-brainer. "You never leave your brother behind," he told Hoda Kotb on TODAY. "Marines are a band of brothers. You don't…don't leave someone behind."

He added: "I wasn't going to let his son grow up without his dad being there for everything.” Welsh is a father to a son not much older than Gladwell’s grandson.


Gladwell and Welsh’s story eventually made its way to Eagles president Don Smolenski, who was so moved that he instantly reached out to Chiefs president Mark Donovan to arrange an expenses-paid trip for both men to Arizona so that they could sit side by side and watch their favorite teams play in the Super Bowl on Feb 12. Both Smolenksi and Donovan gave the guys a surprise video call to deliver the good news.

“The opportunity to bring these two guys together, their two teams playing on the biggest stage in sports, it’s very, very humbling and gratifying,” Smolenski told the Inquirer.

And though the two have formed an unbreakable bond, they are still frenemies when it comes to football. Welsh has even joked about being at odds with his life-saving kidney, saying, “Now there’s a battle going on in my body like, 'Does my kidney not want to work, because if the Eagles win, it’s just going to go on strike?'"

Sounds like whichever team takes home the trophy this year, these two have already won something priceless. Sometimes, total opposites end up being a perfect match.

From Your Site Articles
sports
Science

Astronaut shares the profound 'big lie' he realized after seeing the Earth from space

This change in perspective could change humanity.

via Rubén Moreno Montolíu/Flickr

Our home, from space.

Sixty-one years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to make it into space and probably the first to experience what scientists now call the "overview effect." This change occurs when people see the world from far above and notice that it’s a place where “borders are invisible, where racial, religious and economic strife are nowhere to be seen.”

The overview effect makes man’s squabbles with one another seem incredibly petty and presents the planet as it truly is, one interconnected organism.

Keep ReadingShow less
space
Pop Culture

Special ring that tells people you're single created for folks tired of dating apps

The Pear ring is a new "social experiment" trying to connect folks IRL, not online.

Photo by Michael Discenza on Unsplash

Dating never stays the same.

Why, it feels like it was only yesterday when dating apps were the shiny new trend in the singles world. However, with life becoming increasingly more virtual, many people are looking to become less dominated by screens. As a result, folks are once again hoping to find love from an authentic connection IRL. Swiping just isn’t as romantic (or cutting edge) as it used to be.

That’s where the Pear ring comes in. Self dubbed as the “world’s biggest social experiment,” this $25 brightly colored blue ring offers something classic, with a twist. Basically, folks wear it out to signal they’re single and ready to mingle. Almost like the opposite of an engagement ring, really.
Keep ReadingShow less
dating
Family

Wife cooks nachos for 'picky' husband who refused to eat her salmon. But she has a point.

Should she be cooking two meals?

via TheMamaBrianna/TikTok

Brianna Greenfield makes nachos for her husband.

A viral video showing a woman preparing nachos for her "picky" spouse after he refused to eat the salmon dinner she cooked has sparked a contentious debate on TikTok. The video was shared on April 26 by Brianna Greenfield (@themamabrianna on TikTok) and has since earned over 2.5 million views.

Brianna is a mother of two who lives in Iowa.

The video starts with Brianna grating a massive hunk of cheese with a caption that reads: “My husband didn’t eat the dinner that I made…So let’s make him some nachos.”

“If I don’t feed him, he literally won’t eat,” she wrote. “This used to irritate me. Now I just blame his mother for never making him try salmon,” Greenfield wrote. The video features Meghan Trainor’s single “Mother” playing in the background.

Keep ReadingShow less
marriage
Family

New study shows spanking hurts kids' mental health and is less effective at teaching lessons

Why is it wrong to hit an adult or an animal but OK to spank a child?

Photo by Kat J on Unsplash

Yet another study shows that spanking isn't good for kids.

Whether to spank your child or not is one of the oldest debates among parents. Many live by the age-old wisdom that to “spare the rod” is to “spoil the child,” while others believe it’s wrong to resort to violence to punish a child when so many alternatives exist.

It also begs the question: If it's wrong to hit your spouse or pet, why is it acceptable to hit a defenseless child?

The 2021 American Family Study found that support for spanking has declined in the U.S. over the past few years. In 2015, 54% either somewhat or strongly agreed with the practice, but that number dropped to 47% in 2021. Thirty-five percent of respondents disagree with the practice and 18% neither agree nor disagree.

A new research study from the Parent and Family Research Alliance in Australia led by Professor Sophie Havighurst and Professor Daryl Higgins from Australian Catholic University makes a strong case that people should stop using corporal punishment to discipline their kids. The study “Corporal punishment of children in Australia: The evidence-based case for legislative reform” analyzed countless studies on the topic and found spanking ineffective and harmful.

The study was published to urge lawmakers to make corporal punishment in Australia illegal. Sixty-five states across the world have made corporal punishment illegal, protecting 14% of the world’s children.

The study defined corporal punishment of children as using physical force to cause pain, but not injury, to correct or control a child’s behavior.

The most startling meta-analysis published in the study found that "only 1 out of 111 statistically significant effect sizes was associated with a link between 'spanking' and a positive child outcome," while 110 were found to be associated with adverse outcomes.

The one positive outcome was in a 1972 study of children of the U.S. military living in West Germany that found those spanked showed less amphetamine and opiate use as adults.

However, the remaining 110 significant results found that spanking had adverse effects, including: “reducing trust and connection with those they are closest to, lower self-esteem, more internalizing and externalizing behavior problems including aggression, mental health difficulties, and increased risk for later substance abuse, antisocial behavior, and violence.”

A meta-analysis found that when children are spanked, they are less likely to internalize the moral implications of the behaviors that led them to be disciplined. It also found that non-physical discipline was more effective at teaching “alternative behaviors,” “developing a child’s conscience,” and advancing their “emotional development.”

Another meta-analysis cited in the story found that corporal punishment in childhood was associated with mental health problems, low self-esteem and antisocial behavior.

In the end, the studies show that corporal punishment is counter-productive when it comes to raising healthy, happy children. But it will take much more than a study to get people to reconsider their views of corporal punishment because they are deeply rooted in many cultural traditions.

Looking for some non-physical alternatives to discipline your child? Here’s a great place to start from WebMD.

From Your Site Articles
spanking children
Identity

Woman’s experience scheduling an EEG highlights the unconscious bias of textured hair

Though her scalp was exposed for the procedure, they still insisted she take her twists out, making it harder to get to her scalp.

Sadé Naima|TikTok

Woman can't schedule EEG due to unconscious textured hair bias.

Getting a medical procedure done can be scary, or at the very least nerve-wracking, no matter how many times you've had it done. It's something that's outside of your normal routine and you're essentially at the mercy of the medical facility and providers. Most of the time, the pre-procedure instructions make sense, and if something catches you by surprise, it's usually easily explained.

Sadé Naima recently had an experience while attempting to get an EEG that wasn't easily explained away. In fact, the entire situation didn't make sense to the TikTok creator who experiences migraines. Naima uploaded a video to the social media platform explaining the sequence of events that happened after her doctor referred her to receive an MRI and EEG.

An MRI uses a magnetic field to generate images and an EEG uses electrodes that stick to your scalp to create images of your brain waves.

Keep ReadingShow less
unconscious bias
Joy

Heroic train conductor spots and saves 3-year-old autistic, nonverbal boy lost on tracks

He was dangerously close to the third rail.

via MTA info/YouTube

An MTA employee rescues a 3-year-old child on the tracks.

Five Metropolitan Transportation Authority employees are hailed as heroes for their quick thinking and diligence in the April 6 rescue of a young boy. Locomotive Engineer William Kennedy was operating a southbound Hudson Line train near Tarrytown, a few miles north of New York City, when he noticed an unusual object on the northbound track.

That “object” was a 3-year-old boy.

Kennedy sent an emergency call out to all trains in the area, catching the attention of a northbound conductor, Shawn Loughran, and a trainee. Loughran slowed down his train as he approached the child, who was straddling the electrified third rail.

When the train screeched to a halt, Assistant Conductor Marcus Higgins didn't waste a second. Leaping down the tracks, he sprinted 40 yards ahead of the train, scooping up the young child like a guardian angel.

Keep ReadingShow less
rescue
Trending Stories