The Middle Person: How Cristian Narino Garcia Came From Colombia to Winning the Super Bowl

SUMMARY

Cristian Narino Garcia came from Colombia, landed on a Navy base, joined the Air Force, and ended up keeping the Eagles running from the inside out. As Building Maintenance Coordinator at Lincoln Financial Field and a Tech Sergeant in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, he is the middle person between issues and resolutions, in the stadium and in life. Eleven years after enlisting, he still has not stopped.

The Movie That Felt Real

Cristian Narino Garcia describes Naval Station Mayport the way most people describe a movie they watched as a kid and never forgot. “It felt like a movie,” he says. “You’ve seen all those big ships in the movies, all the military running around. They do training throughout the neighborhood. It felt like a movie, but it was something that I liked. It’s like discipline. Good discipline.”

He was 18 years old. He had just arrived from Colombia. He did not speak English. And his first introduction to America was a military installation in Jacksonville, Florida, where his stepfather worked for the Navy. Most immigrants land in a city neighborhood. Cristian landed behind a gate where you show your ID every time you enter and stop for colors when the bugle sounds. He watched. He adjusted. He took notes.

Eleven years later, he is a Tech Sergeant in the Air National Guard and the Facilities Operations Coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles. He has deployed twice to the United Arab Emirates, survived Hurricane Michael at Tyndall Air Force Base, and stood in a Philadelphia mortuary during COVID helping process the dead when the city’s system could not keep up. He is 31 years old.

The Values You Learn Before You Know You’re Learning Them

Cristian was born in Colombia and grew up watching his family work. His mother. His father. His aunts and uncles. Nobody was afraid to do any job. “If you show me a job, I’m pursuing something that I want, just do my 100 percent, continue to strive, even though sometimes there will be obstacles,” he says. “When you see your family doing all those things where they keep trying to sustain the family, make more money, make the best experience not just for them but for the rest of the people around them. I brought that here.”

He arrived in Jacksonville in 2013. He enrolled in community college to learn English. He found a church and made friends there, the real friendships, the ones that lasted, while the base stayed more of a backdrop than a home. Learning English was its own thing. “Every immigrant, it’s a little scary, because sometimes when you’re a perfectionist, you don’t want to show that phase where you can’t express yourself,” he says. “I get what you’re telling me, what you’re asking me. I’m trying to express my response, but when I try to speak it, it’s nowhere near to what I want to say.”

What helped was being surrounded by people going through the same thing. The community college in Jacksonville had students from all over the world, all of them learning English at the same time. He still learns new words every day, he says. And his brain still switches. When he visits Colombia once a year and spends two weeks speaking only Spanish, he comes back and finds some English words have temporarily slipped. “I start forgetting a little bit of English because I start getting used to back to my language, my native language,” he says, and laughs.

The Air Force, Not the Navy

Everyone around him was Navy. His stepfather. His stepfather’s friends. The whole installation. They told him: go Navy or go Air Force. He had no idea why. He talked to recruiters from both branches. He chose the Air Force. “Now being in the Air Force, you can tell we’re spoiled compared to other branches,” he says, grinning. “In a sense, that’s what pushed me.”

He went to Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida. His career field was sustainment, the people side of base operations: lodging, food service, fitness, facilities. The infrastructure that keeps everything else running. He also served on the honor guard along the Gulf Coast, representing the Air Force at hospices, funerals, and ceremonies throughout the region. In 2017 and again in 2018, he deployed to the UAE as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. While he was there, he was already looking at schools. Already planning.

“I’ve been dreaming about working in sports since I was a kid,” he says. “I still wanted to serve, but I wanted to pursue what I wanted more from the beginning. And I knew my career field deploys a lot. If I didn’t get out, I’d probably be deploying again pretty soon.” So he made a plan. He would transition out of active duty, join the National Guard, go to school, and get himself into a sports organization.

What a Category 5 Teaches You About Plans

In October 2018, Hurricane Michael made landfall near Panama City as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the continental United States. It came directly over Tyndall Air Force Base. Cristian and his unit were about to deploy. He had already given up his apartment. The paperwork was done. Twelve of them were staged and ready to move out. Three days before departure they got the warning. The base evacuated. He drove to Atlanta. Five hundred miles away, he waited.

When they came back, the base was gone. Kitchens wiped out. Lodging gone. A brand new track, completely destroyed. Entire buildings swept away, including the one that held their deployment orders. “It was a whole good three weeks of uncertainty,” he says. “You have no idea what’s gonna happen.” Four of them decided to deploy anyway. They moved to Eglin Air Force Base and deployed from there, orders reconstructed, mission intact. “Duty calls,” he says simply.

Deployment Philadelphia

COVID hit while Cristian was in the National Guard and living in Philadelphia, where he had enrolled at Temple University to finish his bachelor’s degree. The state of Pennsylvania activated his unit to support mortuaries. The city was overwhelmed. Bodies were coming in faster than the system could process them. He was part of the team that stepped in to make sure people received the dignity the civilian system no longer had the capacity to provide.

“Those were tough times for everyone,” he says. “Even though we’re serving, we still feel it. There was a lot of deaths that no one was expecting. We were trying to help them have the proper respects.” He is quiet for a moment. “Right now, even though sometimes we get difficult times at work, which is not that often, there are times for everything. But compared to that, I don’t think anything can match it, honestly.”

Two Months, One Dream

He moved to Philadelphia for Temple and applied to the Eagles Pro Shop two months after arriving in a city he did not know. He was not even a football fan. He grew up with soccer. He had watched some games in the military but soccer was still his first love. He applied to the Eagles because they were the team in the city where he was living, and sports was the field he had been working toward his entire adult life. “Funny thing, I tell everyone, I wasn’t fully aware of the rules in football at the time,” he says. “But it was a great environment to just fully get into football and love the Eagles, learn about the history, learn about everything.”

He started in the Pro Shop. Then marketing and entertainment, running logistics for the Eagles Drumline, the cheerleaders, the mascot Swoop. The man who had maintained zero discrepancies in fitness and nutrition management for an Air Force unit was now keeping a mascot on schedule. It taught him something the military had not. “In the military, this has to happen, no excuses, whatever,” he says. “Here, it’s more relaxed. There are opportunities to adjust certain things to make events happen. People would say, slow down, it doesn’t have to be like this, relax a little.” He pauses. “I slowed down. It’s good when people tell you, right?”

He moved into facilities operations where he joined a team that felt like a unit, all working together to complete projects and repairs to ensure the facilities (“our mission”) were ready and in great condition for staff and visitors. He finished his bachelor’s at Temple while working full time and serving in the Guard. Then he went back for an Executive MBA in Sports Management at Florida Atlantic, completing his master’s degree there in 2024. “I wanted to continue to learn more about the industry,” he says. “In this industry, there is always opportunity to grow. And the connections, because you never know, one of the people you study with could be a president of an organization, could be a CEO. I’m not trying to prove anything to anyone specific. It’s personal goals.”

The Middle Person

On game day at Lincoln Financial Field, Cristian is in by 7 AM. There is a checklist. Doors to lock. The American flag to raise at the top of the stadium. Furniture to coordinate and move. An intro crew working with contractors on the field pieces that go out before the game and come back in after. And then, depending on the game, he may run command post from the facility operations side. “We’re pretty much a middle person that gets calls for issues,” he explains. “Plumbing issues, electrical, furniture, things like that. We make the note and dispatch the trade. If we need a plumber, we call the plumber. We’re the middle person between issues and resolutions.”

When there is a snowstorm, he might spend the night before the game at the stadium. Pre-treat the seats. Salt. Lead the crews doing snow removal. Make sure 69,000 people can sit down safely. After the game, when the fans leave, he walks the stadium again. One to two hours of post-game checks, because someone may have left water running in a suite, and if nobody catches it overnight, it gets worse. “People don’t know everything that’s happening during the week to have the stadium ready,” he says. “Safety and things like that. But yeah, it’s just that feeling of, all right, now it’s happening.”

Zero Discrepancies

As a Staff Sergeant, Cristian’s record shows zero discrepancies in fitness assessments and nutrition management for his unit. Not low discrepancies. Zero. He connects it directly to where he came from. “I mean, family, for sure. Family values. But also learning from the military, from my career. Integrity first, which is the core value of the Air Force. I want to make sure I do the best for my unit, the best for my work, not just in the military but here. I don’t want to let people down around me.”

He talks about leading by example and being open to suggestions, especially from younger troops who sometimes see things differently and can make the program better. “Sometimes I have a standard, I’m seeing things from one perspective, but the new generation has different ideas that can change things, make it better. So yeah, being open to communication with the people I lead.”

The Salute

On a Sunday in October 2023, before the Eagles played the Miami Dolphins, team president Dom Smolenski walked up to Cristian Narino Garcia and told him he had been selected as the team’s Salute to Service Award nominee. His mother and brother were there. It was one of the first times they had come to the stadium. He had been focused on showing them a good time, showing them what the Eagles environment felt like. They already knew. His supervisor had told them in advance. He was the only one who did not.

“It felt unexpected and awkward because I’m not a big camera guy,” he says. “It was fairly awkward, but I felt honored. I wasn’t sure what I was getting at the beginning, and then I looked more into it. I was like, oh, this is actually something super nice, especially in the NFL, being one of the people selected for that.” His mother had her own immigrant experience. She went through her own obstacles coming to this country, her own language barriers, her own uncertainty. She watched him go through something similar and come out the other side. “The reason I’m here is because of her,” he says. “If she wouldn’t have gone through all those things, I would not be where I am today, really. She’s very proud.”

One Team, One City

When the Eagles won the Super Bowl, Cristian Narino Garcia was there. Not in South Philly. Not watching from home. He was at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, in the stands with the rest of the Eagles staff, his brother beside him, watching the team he had spent countless early mornings and late nights serving bring home the title. Back in Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Field sat quiet, the same building he had pre-treated for snow and walked at midnight checking for running water in empty suites. He had done that work. And now, in New Orleans, he got to watch it all pay off.

He had never imagined a Super Bowl was part of the plan. Not when he was in Colombia. Not when he was learning English at a community college in Jacksonville. Not when he was on a deployment in the UAE thinking about what school to apply to. “Never in my life, even maybe before I came to Philly, I never thought about, hey, maybe one day I’ll get a Super Bowl,” he says. “Never.” But then he started working for the Eagles, and something shifted. You become part of the organization. You start caring about the team the way the city cares about the team, not because you are required to, but because you are in it together.

“Everyone in the organization is working on the same goal,” he says. “Just doing their own thing in their department to make sure the team is ready, the fans are ready. It becomes a part of the identity of the city.” People ask him sometimes how he thinks about the players. He does not hesitate. “They’re my coworkers,” he says. “But yeah, I’m still a fan of them. Of course. The whole organization has their back. We’re all pretty much ensuring everything is good for them to succeed.”

The parade was its own thing. The whole city in the streets. People who had been strangers on Tuesday morning suddenly standing next to each other celebrating something they had all been part of, even the ones who never set foot in the stadium, even the ones who watched from living rooms and bars and stoops all across Philadelphia. Cristian Narino Garcia was in that parade too. The man from Colombia who learned English in Jacksonville, who survived a hurricane at Tyndall, who spent nights in a mortuary during COVID, who moved to a city he did not know and applied to the Eagles two months after arriving. He was in that parade. “You see the whole city come together and celebrate that their local team won,” he says quietly. “It becomes a part of the identity of the city.”

Eleven Years and Still Counting

“The Eagles have allowed me to continue to pursue my military career,” he says. “And the military has allowed me to pursue my dream with the Eagles. Both are allowing me to do what I want to do.” He is working toward his master’s degree. The Eagles are preparing the stadium for FIFA and the World Cup this summer. He is in the middle of all of it, coordinating and dispatching and walking the stadium at midnight to check for running water in empty suites.

He goes back to Colombia at least once a year to see his family. He tries to give back to the community there too, because he knows how difficult things can be. “Being an immigrant in a different country, living it, it’s not easy,” he says. “Everything I’ve done is kind of an attempt to give them the opportunity to come and see it. We’re a very close family. It hasn’t been easy, spread out through multiple countries. In a sense, I’m doing it for them. Just to make them proud. Just to let them know, if you ever have the visa, if you want to visit, I’m here.”

He was asked what he would want people to know about working for the Eagles, about what it feels like from the inside. He thought about it. “It’s a blessing,” he said. “Honestly, it’s a blessing.”

Resources

Philadelphia Eagles

Philadelphia Eagles Official Site | philadelphiaeagles.com

Eagles Salute to Service | philadelphiaeagles.com/community

Eagles Careers | philadelphiaeagles.com/careers

Military and National Guard

Air National Guard | goang.com

GI Bill / VA Education Benefits | va.gov/education

VA Benefits and Services | va.gov

Career and Professional Development for Veterans

Hire Heroes USA | hireheroesusa.org

American Corporate Partners | acp-usa.org

LinkedIn for Veterans | linkedin.com/veterans

Immigration and Citizenship

Naturalization Through Military Service | uscis.gov/military

National Immigration Forum | immigrationforum.org

About Cristian Narino Garcia

Cristian Narino Garcia serves as Facilities Operations Coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles and as a Tech Sergeant in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, 111th Attack Wing. A native of Colombia who immigrated to the United States in 2013, he served four years on active duty in the Air Force, including two deployments to the United Arab Emirates during Operation Inherent Resolve and service at Tyndall Air Force Base through Hurricane Michael. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Temple University and an Executive MBA in Sports Management from Florida Atlantic University. He has been with the Eagles organization for six years and is pursuing his master’s degree.