Fight, Mason, Fight

Sitting beside his parents, Erica and Rich, 8-year-old Mason Spencer was wearing a Brandon Graham Eagles jersey with his glasses propped above his nose. Out of sight from the Zoom screen, Mason reached over to grab a trophy he made with a phrase engraved on the bottom: Brandon Graham awarded the Mason Spencer Man of the Year 2024.

To Mason, Graham isn’t just a player on his favorite team. He’s a “superhero,” and more important, he’s a “friend.” Mason has met with Graham four times after receiving a kidney transplant in December 2019, when he was just 3 years old. Those interactions are memories that will stay with Mason forever.

“I consider BG my friend,” Mason said. “The reason I’m awarding this to him is for his kindness and his charity.”

After Graham missed out on the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, which honors players for their philanthropy and community impact, Mason knew he wanted to do something special for him.

“He treats him like he really genuinely cares about him, and for somebody of his stature to really connect with somebody like that and make him think he is legit his best friend is very heartwarming as a parent,” Rich Spencer said.

Graham, who turns 37 on Thursday, retired last month after 15 years with the Eagles, playing more games than anyone in franchise history. When the former defensive end was told about the trophy, he immediately remembered Mason and thanked him for his award.

“I’m glad that I can be a service to him and his family,” Graham said. “Especially during a time nobody wants to go through. It’s a beautiful thing when you have support behind you and you have people that’s fighting with you. So for him to go through everything he had to go through, it’s so cool that he can still think about others. I can appreciate his selflessness, and I can’t wait to see him when I do see him.”

It should come as no surprise that Mason’s favorite movie is Rocky — he has been a fighter since he was 3 weeks old, when he developed end-stage renal failure. When his parents first went to the emergency room, they never expected to feel their little boy turn cold as his organs began to shut down.

Mason’s first year and a half of life continued to be a struggle — he took different medications almost every hour and was hooked to machines for dialysis. But his mood never changed. Mason was always happy. That’s when his parents decided to give him his new nickname: Mighty Mason.

“He was always smiling and laughing and having fun,” Erica said. “I mean, it was very scary, and we weren’t sure a few different times if he was going to be able to make it. So that’s why we felt like he had this mighty spirit about him and he was a fighter. He’s just so strong, you know. And that’s how the Mighty came.”

“I said, OK, bud, we’re going to say goodbye and he just started singing the Eagles fight song ... even at three and a half.”

When they weren’t at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the family, from Langhorne, stayed at the Ronald McDonald House on weekends. Erica was already familiar with the house — she volunteered to help families when she was 16 years old — but she never expected to be on the opposite side, asking for help.

While Erica stayed with Mason, Rich would drive back and forth from work every day while taking Mason’s sisters, Olivia and Madeline — who were 13 and 14 years old at the time — to soccer practices and games. One night, he almost fell asleep behind the wheel.

“I can’t even tell you what that did to me,” Erica said. “And it just scared me to no end.”

Mason was 3 when he received his kidney transplant. Since neither Rich or Erica had the same blood type as Mason, Erica’s best friend, Allison Marietta, offered to help. Although Marietta wasn’t a match for Mason either, she used social media — and even some traditional media — to find a suitable donor.

“She created a Facebook page herself and then from there she went on local Facebook pages, like community pages, and posted his story that he’s looking for a kidney,” Rich said. “So she ended up getting a lot of people that were interested in testing for him. She got a billboard and raised money to help us with everything.”

Through Marietta’s efforts, Mason found his donor — Pete Rodrigue, a college student from the University of Chicago. Because of their near-perfect match, Mason doesn’t have to take steroids along with his antirejection medicine.

Before surgery, Mason was his hospital gown, sitting in bed, singing the Eagles fight song.

“I said, ‘OK, bud, we’re going to say goodbye,’ and he just started singing the Eagles fight song,” Rich said. “Our family is huge into the Eagles. We have a basement downstairs with all Eagles stuff, so he just naturally loved the Eagles, even at 3½. So he just rips off the Eagles fight song.”

Five years later, Mason is still singing “Fly, Eagles Fly” every chance he gets. Last St. Patrick’s Day, Mason met Graham at an autograph signing. Wearing a matching green Eagles tracksuit, a green bow tie, and a green hat with a shamrock decorating the front, Mason led the line in the Eagles fight song.

Graham sang along with Mason, with a smile on his face, after Mason handed him a pair of lucky clover socks.

Six months later, they got together again. On Sept. 25, Mason gave a speech in front of hundreds of people at the Ronald McDonald House’s 50th anniversary dinner at Lincoln Financial Field.

“Since that night, we’ve been at other events for the Ronald McDonald House, and they always just keep mentioning that speech he gave,” Rich said. “It was just so special. I’m crazy proud of him for that speech he delivered. It was unreal. And ironically, that is when the Eagles’ season started turning. So every time we would see somebody, they would say, ‘It’s because of Mason’s speech.’ ”

Was he nervous to speak in front of such a large crowd?

“Nervous? No, I’ve had other speeches before,” Mason said.

After the event, Mason met with Graham again, along with Eagles president Don Smolenski, who invited Mason to the Oct. 13 home game against the Cleveland Browns, where he played catch with Graham on the sideline.

Seeing Graham play in person meant everything to Mason. So after Graham suffered a torn triceps against the Los Angeles Rams, an injury he suffered again in the Super Bowl, Mason wrote the veteran two letters: a thank-you note and a note wishing him a speedy recovery. A month later, Mason continued to rally behind Graham and posted a video of himself telling fans to vote for Graham for the Payton Award.

The two got together one more time before Super Bowl LIX, at an autograph signing at Oxford Valley Mall, where Mason showed Graham the video.

“He listened to the whole thing and thanked me,” Mason said.

Mason is a natural when it comes to speaking, whether he’s in front of a camera or a crowd. That’s one of the reasons he acts as an Eagles ambassador for the Ronald McDonald House — attending dinners, golf outings, and pep rallies.

“Mason is kind of our ambassador in relation with the Eagles,” said Susan Campbell, CEO of the Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia. “He’s definitely a special little boy who has a talent for public speaking.”

On Feb. 4, less than a week before the Eagles faced the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl, Mason put those skills to the test once again at a Ronald McDonald House pep rally, leading everyone in a rendition of the Birds’ fight song alongside the Eastern University pep band.

“I was on cloud nine. Like, my son and my husband are going to the Super Bowl. I cried. I was so happy.”

And as a surprise, the Ronald McDonald House and the Eagles presented Mason and his father with two tickets to the Super Bowl.

“They brought us to the back room with Eagles representatives,” Erica said. “They said, ‘We need you to do something for us, Mason.’ And it got his attention because he was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got a job.’ And they ask, ‘We would like you to come with us to the Super Bowl.’ And he was just like, ‘Is this real?’ Just to watch that, I mean, I was on cloud nine. Like, my son and my husband are going to the Super Bowl. I cried. I was so happy.”

The Spencers left for New Orleans the Friday before the Super Bowl. But there still was uncertainty about whether Mason’s favorite player would suit up after suffering a major injury only a couple of months earlier. When it was time for the big game, Mason and Rich made their way to the Superdome while Erica stayed behind, watching the game in the hotel bar. Graham played and won his second Super Bowl, with his biggest fan cheering him on.

“Mason was excited when he heard that he would be playing,” Erica said. “We didn’t think that he was going to be playing, and then leading up to that week, when he went active, it just felt like so many things were in the Eagles’ favor. The only thing that didn’t happen was BG didn’t win Walter Payton Man of the Year.”

“My goal is for the whole city of Philadelphia to vote for my friend Brandon Graham. Just click the link below and let’s bring this award home for Brandon Graham,” Mason said in a video posted on social media before the Payton Award was announced.

Despite his attempt, defensive end Arik Armstead of the Jacksonville Jaguars won the award.

“I was almost sad to tell him the next day, because he was in bed when we were watching,” Erica said. “He seemed more shocked than anything when we told him.”

Instead of accepting defeat, Mason decided to make his own trophy for Graham: the Mason Spencer Man of the Year award.

“It just makes me just want to keep going, keep working because you don’t know the impact you have on people.”

“I wanted to make this because I was sad that he didn’t win the Walter Payton Man of the Year,” he said. “Me and my family thought that he really deserved this award because of how much he does for people.”

And to cap an incredible season with a storybook ending, Graham retired after 15 seasons with the Eagles. When Mason heard the news, he looked at his father and said, “I’m sad, and I’ll miss chanting BG like we did at the Super Bowl, but I know he hurt his triceps again, and now he can heal and spend time with his family for a longer time.”

After witnessing Graham win another Lombardi Trophy in his last season with the Eagles, there’s only one thing left for Mason to do: give this trophy to his “superhero” and his “friend.”

“I can appreciate his kindness,” Graham said. “When I got nominated, we talked about how everybody nominated is man of the year. It’s not just one. And so for him to make an award for me, I appreciate him. It just makes me just want to keep going, keep working, because you don’t know the impact you have on people. Mason is one of them that I had an impact on. He’s making me an award. One that he didn’t have to do.

“I can appreciate his resilience and his kindness because he’s trying to make me feel better. I can appreciate him trying to give me that award and I want to tell him I thank him.”

Someday in the near future, one hopes, Mason can present Graham with his personalized award — and Graham can thank him in person.