In early October, just after the Eagles finished up practice, Owner Jeffrey Lurie went up to the Draft Room to make a special call.

Joined in the room by Ryan Hammond, the executive director of the Eagles Autism Challenge, Lurie connected through video with Jim and Pattie Gillece, who were unaware of what they were about to be told.

The Gilleces were among the nearly six million entries in the World Championship Ring Sweepstakes that raised more than $567,000 for the Eagles Autism Challenge. They thought they were finalists who were going to make their case to a panel as to why they should be given the final ring. No pleading was needed. Lurie was there to tell them that they were the winners.

Truth be told, the Gilleces would have been able to make a compelling presentation.

In February 2005, Jim Gillece attended Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Florida along with a group of close friends. They arrived at the game by taking a boat across the St. Johns River. ESPN was broadcasting live from outside Alltel Stadium. Gillece and his friends started doing Eagles chants and were so loud that it interrupted the show. Host Chris Berman turned to Eagles Hall of Fame quarterback Ron Jaworski and asked if he brought his friends to the game. Gillece, who was wearing a Jaworski jersey, received a flood of calls and texts from family and friends who saw him on television.

Thirteen years later, when the Eagles won Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Gillece was at the game once again. As green and white confetti fell from the rafters following the historic victory, Gillece and his wife gathered their three children – sons Trey and Griffin, and daughter Kendall – for a group selfie. Everyone was beaming with joy.

The two championship games serve as bookmarks for what has been a roller-coaster journey for the Gillece family.

Jim Gillece was a successful pharmaceutical executive who was on the verge of accepting a job overseas when he and Pattie were about to have Griffin, who is now 15 years old. They were meeting with a neurologist who told them that he believed Trey, who was almost 3 years old at the time, had Fragile X syndrome. Trey was diagnosed with autism. Griffin is on the autism spectrum as well. That meeting served as a wake-up call for Jim as he realized he had to change his career path and focus on providing the resources and support needed to raise two boys who are on the spectrum.

"I think it's made me a better person. I listen better. I empathize better. I am able to understand where people are coming from in a different way. You never know what's going on in someone else's life," says Jim, a gregarious man, who at 6-4 and 240 pounds has a heart that somehow outweighs his larger-than-life personality. "It toughens you up as a parent. It requires you to work closely with your significant other to coordinate and plan."