Lifelong Eagles Fans Welcome Babies During Super Bowl Weekend

Among the babies born at Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)–Cedar Crest near Allentown during Super Bowl weekend were Sutton Benner and Sophie Dudley. The Eagles-Chiefs matchup was on the TV as Sutton Benner was delivered, giving her parents two wins to be excited about. Right next door, Sophie Dudley made it to the world a few hours before the game began, allowing her to cheer on the Birds alongside her parents.

Christian Benner is a bigtime Eagles fan, and his wife Samantha Benner became one soon after they met (similar to Saquon Barkley, she used to favor the Giants). The Coopersburg couple would have never guessed they would welcome their first child, Sutton Benner, during the Super Bowl.

“I was just like, ‘let’s just put it on,’” Samantha said about the game inside her hospital room. “We’ll put it on mute. Hopefully, it’ll be a good distraction.”

It was a good distraction, as the Birds dominated.

“We’d look away from the TV, and by the time we’d look back, it was a different score,” Christian said.

Sutton was due Tuesday, but her parents said she didn’t want to miss the victory.

“Sunday, I woke up with contractions at 7 a.m.,” Samantha said. “I ended up having her at 9:38 p.m., during the third quarter.”

“Diehard Eagles fan over here,” Christian said about his daughter. “She had to be born on this day.”

Samantha and Sutton are doing well, and Christian can’t stop smiling.  

“We were going to win, no matter what,” he said.

Diehard Eagles fans Kelsey and Donny Dudley watched the Super Bowl with their newborn daughter Sophie Dudley at LVH–Cedar Crest.

Mother Kelsey, who is a physical therapist at LVH–Cedar Crest, gave birth earlier than expected, on Saturday evening.

“She wasn’t supposed to come until the 20th, so she came a little bit early, just for the Super Bowl,” Kelsey said.

It’s what family and friends predicted would happen, given Donny’s devotion to the Eagles.

“He is very superstitious about how he watches his Eagles games, and everyone’s like, ‘it’s going to throw off your routine. You’re going to be watching it in the hospital,’” Kelsey said.

Family brought Eagles décor so the first-time parents could enjoy the game at the hospital.

“They brought us balloons. They brought us a sign that said ‘Fly Sophie Fly,’ so they changed all the Eagles chants, all the Eagles stuff on there to be about Sophie,” Kelsey said. “They brought Donny a cheesesteak too, for after delivery. She was off to a good start to being an Eagles fan.”

Donny said his newborn was calmer than he was during the game and that she was awake at the end, when Philadelphia officially secured the Lombardi Trophy.

“It was surreal,” Donny said. “After 2018 [the Eagles’ first Super Bowl win], it was hard to see it happening again, and then I don’t know, just being able to have this little baby and she’s never experienced it. I had to wait twenty-something years for it, and she gets to see it. She’s 23 hours old. It was just cool. It was just cool to share it with her.”

The Quakertown couple’s second date was watching an Eagles game.

Waiting for Sophie at home is an Eagles onesie; that was the first thing her parents bought for her before she was born.

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