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Les Mis Eagles fan makes it to the big game, after all

Joe Ambrosino, a lifelong Eagles fan who resolved a schedule conflict to watch the championship on Sunday, sees his dreams come true.

Joe Ambrosino paid nearly $1,000 to resolve a conflict between Sunday’s Les Miserables show and Sunday’s Eagles game.
Joe Ambrosino paid nearly $1,000 to resolve a conflict between Sunday’s Les Miserables show and Sunday’s Eagles game.Read moreAvi Steinhardt

You may remember Eagles superfan and super-husband Joe Ambrosino, who paid $998 on StubHub to resolve a marital conflict when his spouse's cherished tickets to Les Misérables conflicted with his own need to see the Birds play for the NFC championship.

To recap: Ambrosino's husband, Steve Wandishin, had purchased box seats for the couple to see Les Misérables at the Academy of Music. Curtain time was 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Kickoff was 6:40 p.m.

Instead of resigning himself to watching the game on DVR after the show, Ambrosino purchased a pricey new pair Les Mis tickets, for the nearly sold-out Friday evening show.  The Inquirer and Daily News featured Ambrosino's dilemma in a story last week about Eagles fans with Sunday evening conflicts. The couple loved the musical and enjoyed a relaxing night out in the city.

What Ambrosino never expected was a call from Laini DeLawter, the Eagles' vice president of ticket and fan services. The call came Saturday evening, less than 24 hours before the big game.

DeLawter told Ambrosino that Eagles president Don Smolenski had read about him in the paper. Was he perhaps interested in a pair of tickets to the NFC championship — on the 50-yard line, 20 rows up from the field?

"I rewrote the lyrics to the Les Mis song," Ambrosino said. "I just started singing, 'I dreamed a dream that I go see the Eagles.' "

Ambrosino,  a music teacher at the Wilmington Montessori School, invited his husband to come watch the game with him. Wandishin said he should take someone who loves the Eagles more, so Ambrosino took his brother-in-law, Lee David.

On game day, Ambrosino donned his Eagles sweatshirt and scarf. He tucked his Les Misérables ticket next to his Eagles ticket in his pocket for good luck.

It worked. The game had everything Ambrosino could have possibly wanted, including the flea flicker in the third quarter. He cheered, he yelled, and he saw his Super Bowl dreams for the Eagles come true.

"Everyone's always counted us out," he said. "We've always been thought of as that blue-collar, lesser team, but now people are seeing that we're good. We just have to grind Brady into dust two weeks from now."