Why does Grant Calcaterra return to an Eagles bar in Portland for his annual fallen firefighter fundraiser? Brotherly love.
“I just thought it was a good way to give back and return the favor for those guys taking care of my brother,” said the tight end who nearly was a firefighter instead.
Before the Eagles drafted Grant Calcaterra in the sixth round in 2022, he nearly left football to become a firefighter. He medically retired in 2019 and started training to become an EMT, but the game wasn’t done with him yet.
Now, he is a Super Bowl champion and is giving back to firefighters in a different way, through a fundraiser at Lombard House, an Eagles bar in Portland, Ore., where his brother, Nick, has become a regular.
“Since my rookie year, my brother just walked into that bar to watch the game, I think it just happened to be an Eagles bar, and they just took care of him,” Calcaterra said. “He spoke really highly of it. After the year, I just wanted to go up and hang out, and then we had the idea of auctioning some things off, hosting an event. For My Cause My Cleats, I do the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation, so I just thought it was a good way to give back and return the favor for those guys taking care of my brother.”
Grant has hosted a fundraiser at the bar every year he’s been with the Eagles. This year, they’re auctioning a signed jersey, a game-worn cleat, and a Super Bowl LIX football signed by the team. Pro Football Hall of Famer Eric Allen, who has also stopped by the bar on game days, will be at the bar on Saturday and is contributing a signed jersey and football.
He also connected Brian Koch, an Abington graduate who founded the bar in 2016 after moving out to Portland for work, with local artist Eric Kenney, better known as Heavyslime, to make custom T-shirts for the fundraiser.
During Grant’s tenure with the Birds, the Calcaterras have become family at Lombard House, and they’re hoping this year’s event will be the biggest yet. As Grant’s role on the team grew, so did their fundraising total.
“I don’t know if I can properly express not just having Grant be part of it, but also Nick, his older brother, who’s my friend,” Koch said. “Getting to watch my buddy watch his little brother go to a Super Bowl and lose and have his heart broken, and then go to one and win, I struggle to put it into words.
“I got to re-fall in love with the Eagles these last three years. I’ve been an Eagles fan my whole life, but I got this window into actual brotherly love.”
Like when Grant scored his first NFL touchdown against the Carolina Panthers in December.
And that love goes both ways.
“Just to have everyone behind me every week rooting for the same stuff and cheering the same successes,” Nick Calcaterra said in the fall. “Even if it’s just a nice block, the whole bar is like, ‘Oh, man. That block was so crucial.’ These days in the NFL aren’t going to last forever, so you just try to soak it up as much as you can while it does last because it’s so fun and so exciting. This place enhances the experience and the fun all the more.”
On Saturday, the Calcaterras once again will return the favor.