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Eagles fan willing to sell his knee to Carson Wentz for Super Bowl tickets

After the Eagles announced that quarterback Carson Wentz had torn his ACL, Brian Coll took a picture of his own knee and posted it on the Philadelphia "for sale" section of Craigslist.

At left, Brian Coll’s Craigslist ad for his knee and at right, Eagles player Beau Allen surprises Darren Sudman with Super Bowl LII tickets.
At left, Brian Coll’s Craigslist ad for his knee and at right, Eagles player Beau Allen surprises Darren Sudman with Super Bowl LII tickets.Read moreBrian Coll and Philadelphia Eagles

Brian "Butch" Coll's left knee isn't particularly bendy or beautiful, but it's functioned well enough over his 43 years on the planet.

But perhaps, he thought, this knee has a higher purpose to serve.

So on Dec. 11, the day the Eagles announced that quarterback Carson Wentz had torn his left ACL, Coll took a picture of his knee and posted it on the Philadelphia "for sale" section of Craigslist under the headline: "My left knee for Carson Wentz."

But Coll's title was misleading. He wasn't going to give away his knee so easily. In his post, there was a caveat:

"I'll give my left knee to Carson Wentz and the Philadelphia Eagles for super bowl tickets this year," he wrote. "Conshohocken pick up."

Coll, a father of two and owner of Coll's Custom Framing in Conshohocken, is a lifelong, diehard Eagles fan.

"I can't say the exact moment I became an Eagles fan, but it was probably birth," he said.

Coll drove to the Eagles' Super Bowl appearance in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2005. When they lost to the Patriots, it was "devastating," he said.

A few people have responded to Coll's post, mainly to express appreciation for his sense of humor, though not all respondents got the joke.

Coll is hopeful that the team will make it to the Super Bowl with backup quarterback Nick Foles. He said he believes many fans would be willing to go to creative lengths for tickets.

"I think most people in the Delaware Valley, if you gave them one Super Bowl win for the Eagles, most people would give up at least one body part," he said.

Coll isn't the the only one willing to go the extra mile for the Eagles this year. With a first-round bye, the Eagles' first playoff game won't even be until mid-January. But several fans have already gotten Eagles Super Bowl tattoos, and a 9-year-old fan who fashioned crutches for his gingerbread Carson Wentz had just one wish in his letter to Santa this year: "get carson better!!!"

Right now, the cheapest tickets to the Super Bowl on StubHub are going for more than $3,000, while the cheapest tickets through the NFL — which appears to only be offering "experience" packages — are listed at more than $6,500.

One lucky local man, Darren Sudman, already has his tickets, thanks to a big surprise from the Eagles.

Sudman, of Lafayette Hill, founded Simon's Fund, a nonprofit that educates people about sudden cardiac arrest in kids. It was founded in memory of his son, Simon, who died from a heart condition when he was just 3 months old. Sudman often works with student-athletes and local sports teams, like the Eagles and Flyers, to raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest in student-athletes.

Last week, while Sudman was donating a defibrillator to a crisis nursery in Powelton, Eagles defensive tackle Beau Allen surprised him with two tickets to Super Bowl LII.

"The minute they told me I was getting the tickets, my brain started racing and I thought, 'That's really cool, I'll probably be able to auction these off and raise a lot of money,'" Sudman said. "But Beau Allen said, 'These are for you. They're nontransferable.'"

Sudman was humbled and "a little embarrassed" by the experience, but said it will be good to be forced to get away.

"It's a lesson in taking a moment to celebrate and not always be working," he said.