A Ukrainian refugee’s love for the Eagles helped him acclimate to his new home in Philly

After fleeing the war in Ukraine, Sergei Zherdev arrived in Philadelphia in mid-January and discovered a city clad in midnight green.

It was everywhere he looked — on flags, clothing, buses, cakes, and many other tributes to a team he found out was called the Eagles.

Zherdev had no prior exposure to American football, but the city’s fervor for the playoff-bound Birds made an enduring impression. As he became absorbed in the frenzy surrounding the team’s run to Super Bowl LVII, the 46-year-old became a Philadelphian by learning to love the Eagles.

“Now, I see the Eagles logos everywhere and I read things about them, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I know that. That’s my team,’” Zherdev, dressed in an Eagles shirt and hat, said through an interpreter.

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Zherdev came to the United States through Uniting for Ukraine, an emergency immigration program that President Joe Biden’s administration implemented after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Under the initiative, more than 125,000 refugees have been relocated to the U.S., where they can remain for up to two years.

After Zherdev settled in Jenkintown, he received support from a “welcome circle” of six Philly-area residents who work with the refugee services organization HIAS. During Zherdev’s first six months in America, the group helped with covering his living expenses, securing housing and employment, and navigating the health care system.

As the only member of the welcome circle who has lived in the Philadelphia area her whole life, Rosalind Holtzman took on an additional role as Zherdev’s cultural ambassador. She assigned herself the task of teaching Zherdev about the Eagles.

The first time Holtzman showed Zherdev around the city, she took him to Lincoln Financial Field. Though he only got a look at the Eagles’ home from the outside, Zherdev was left in awe of its size. He commemorated the trip with a photo in front of the “It’s a Philly Thing” banner that adorned the stadium.

Holtzman also began teaching Zherdev some phrases in English, including one that she called a universal Philly greeting: “Go Birds!”

“You can say to anybody, ‘Go Birds!’ and you’re going to get ‘Go Birds!’ back,” Holtzman said. “It’s really like a gateway to participating in Philadelphia and American life.”

Despite his limited English, Zherdev later tried the “Go Birds!” greeting himself as he crossed paths with a stranger dressed in Eagles gear. “Yeah! Go Birds!” the fan answered enthusiastically.

“I wasn’t expecting a reply at all,” Zherdev said. “I was a little bit in shock that it actually worked.”

Zherdev watched his first Eagles games at the home Holtzman shares with her husband, Eric Gonzalez, in Elkins Park. During their viewing parties, the couple introduced Zherdev to traditional Philly foods, including cheesesteaks, hoagies, and soft pretzels with mustard.

Zherdev didn’t follow much of what was happening on the field and still doesn’t know any of the players by name. But he was captivated by the experience of watching a game on Holtzman and Gonzalez’s big-screen TV. He could feel the unbridled passion of almost 70,000 screaming fans at Lincoln Financial Field.

“I didn’t really understand the game itself, but I understood the emotions,” Zherdev said. “I had never seen this kind of connection [to a team] before. People being so emotional and involved in something like a team was surprising and really great.”

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It was all the more compelling for Zherdev that the Eagles were winning. First, they trounced the Giants, 38-7, in the divisional round of the playoffs. Then, they routed the 49ers, 31-7, in the NFC Championship Game to clinch a berth in the Super Bowl. Soon, Holtzman had to explain why the police were busy greasing the city’s light poles.

But two weeks later, Zherdev experienced his first Philly sports heartbreak. The Eagles lost, 38-35, to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. It was a bewildering outcome for Zherdev, who had only ever known the Birds to win handily.

“It was a sad moment for me because I didn’t understand,” he said. “The Eagles are a good team. Why would they lose?”

Zherdev has since moved to an apartment in Center City, where he decorated his room with an Eagles-themed bedspread.

He also started a job at Franklin Fountain sorting cocoa beans, packaging candy, and making hot chocolate mix. He hopes to save enough money to see the Eagles play in the enormous stadium that captured his imagination soon after he arrived in Philadelphia. In the meantime, he plans to continue watching games with Holtzman and Gonzalez.

Still, there might be another way for Zherdev to see the Eagles in person this season.

“God willing, if there’s a [championship] parade on Broad Street, he doesn’t live too far from there, so he could actually go watch it,” Holtzman said.