{"id":124304,"date":"2025-01-06T12:10:57","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T17:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/01\/06\/how-the-nfl-players-of-the-philly-specials-became-chart-and-charity-stars\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T12:10:57","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T17:10:57","slug":"how-the-nfl-players-of-the-philly-specials-became-chart-and-charity-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/01\/06\/how-the-nfl-players-of-the-philly-specials-became-chart-and-charity-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"How the NFL Players of The Philly Specials Became Chart and Charity\u00a0Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tThree years ago, no one would have predicted that a ragtag group of NFL players would put out an album of music that didn\u2019t just break into the Billboard<\/em> charts but actually sounded good<\/em>.\u00a0Yet The Philly Specials \u2014 as\u00a0Philadelphia Eagles offensive linemen Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata called themselves \u2014 did just that and much more. Over the course of three holiday albums, they\u2019ve not only become unlikely chart stars, attracting luminaries from the actual pop music world to collaborate, but they\u2019ve raised astounding sums for charity with each release.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir most recent, A Philly Special Christmas Party<\/em>, is their biggest yet: with 32,000 copies sold in its first week out in November 2024 \u2014 including 22,000 vinyl pressings \u2014 its debut had the largest sales week for a holiday release on vinyl in the modern era.\u00a0It hit No. 1 on Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Independent Albums chart, No. 2 on Holiday Albums, Vinyl and Top Album Sales, and No. 16 on the Billboard 200.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd in an unprecedented feat of philanthropic outreach, the proceeds benefited Operation Snowball, which delivered a gift to every student and teacher in the School District of Philadelphia (for a total of 1.1 million items) in partnership with the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, with the players making in-person visits to spread holiday cheer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Philly<\/figure>\n

\n\tLike its two LP predecessors, A Philly Special Christmas<\/em> features the unlikely vocal talents of Kelce (now retired from his legendary run as the Eagles\u2019 cente,r but busy as ever hosting the New Heights<\/em> podcast with his brother, Travis Kelce; ESPN\u2019s Monday Night Countdown<\/em>; and, now, the network\u2019s new They Call It Late Night With Jason Kelce<\/em>), Johnson and Mailata, along with high-profile musical guests (Stevie Nicks, Boyz II Men).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the album wouldn\u2019t have become a hit without two key behind-the-scenes forces: Connor Barwin \u2013 a longtime friend of Kelce\u2019s, who is himself a former Eagle (and also now the organization\u2019s head of football development and strategy) \u2013 and Charlie Hall, drummer for alt-rock arena-fillers The War on Drugs and the Philly Specials\u2019 producer and musical director.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBarwin and Hall spoke to Billboard<\/em> as they recovered from the whirlwind release of A Philly Special Christmas<\/em> and Operation Snowball about what football players and musicians can learn from each other, watching Jason Kelce and Stevie Nicks duet, and discovering Travis Kelce\u2019s vocal talents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTell me a bit about your individual roles in getting the album together. <\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tConnor Barwin<\/strong>: It started with being good friends with Jason, Lane and Jordan. I played with Jason from college [at University of Cincinnati] till Phill,; played with Lane in Philly for a long time \u2014 and then working for the team, obviously got to know Jordan really well. I heard Jason throw out this idea of making a Christmas record, and I knew all these guys were very talented musically. <\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m someone who really appreciates and loves music and had gotten to know quite a lot of people in the music industry through my [Make The World Better Foundation] that I started when I came to Philly. And one of the many wonderful benefit shows I\u2019ve thrown was with Charlie and The War on Drugs. Jason knows Charlie as well \u2013 he\u2019s one of the best musicians, he\u2019s an Eagles fan, he\u2019s local \u2013 so I immediately thought, \u201cThis is who we should call.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWe all got together and Charlie started asking the right questions: What songs are important to you? How do you think about Christmas music?\u00a0We sort of left that meeting all very much committed to taking it seriously. My role from then on has been\u00a0trying to keep it all together; there\u2019s a lot of busy people, a lot of different stakeholders, so making sure we\u2019re finding time to do this the right way, where it doesn\u2019t intersect with their main career \u2014 which is playing football for the Eagles \u2014 but finding a balance, because this is very fun and fulfilling for them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Philly<\/figure>\n

\n\tCharlie Hall: <\/strong>I don\u2019t think we had any idea when we started doing this what sort of shape or scope it would have. But from that first meeting, just seeing the way the guys were passing the guitar around, it was like wow, these guys are deeply connected, they\u2019re doing this thing at the highest level in their \u201creal\u201d jobs but they also approach music with that same mindset of \u201cwe want to make this great.\u201d And they did!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you set out to make this third record, did you have in mind big goals in terms of people you wanted to get on it or songs that you wanted to take on?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBarwin:<\/strong> With how old we all are, and being in Philadelphia, it made sense, like \u2014 if we could ever get Boyz II Men on the record, that would be incredible. But at the end of the day, I never really had any goals other than making something we were proud of, having fun and raising money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWho\u2019s harder to convince to participate: high-profile musicians or football players? <\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHall:<\/strong> It\u2019s scary singing into a microphone, hearing yourself that closely and in headphones\u2026 There\u2019s a lot of the guys\u2019 friends [on the team] that can sing, but I would probably argue that it\u2019s a little harder to get some of the players. <\/p>\n

\n\tBarwin: <\/strong>Yeah, I agree. But it\u2019s also been really fun watching these guys in the studio with professional musicians and seeing how they\u2019re inspiring each other. As a former athlete that still works in the NFL, it\u2019s really cool to just show everyone that these guys, who are some of the best football players in the world, are brave enough to try something that they\u2019re not completely comfortable with. It\u2019s an inspiring thing for a lot of people, whether they\u2019re athletes or not, to see: that if you or the world is putting you in this one place, you can try something else. It\u2019s cool for kids to see that\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHall: <\/strong>And for their teammates to see that, for the musicians to see it.\u00a0To see these guys out of their element just going for it and having the confidence to try and get better\u2026 I learned\u00a0so much from every single person that came through that door, musically, interpersonally, professionally.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Philly<\/figure>\n

\n\tJeff Stoutland, aka Stout \u2014 the Eagles\u2019 legendary run-game coordinator and offensive line coach \u2014 has a humorous feature on this album\u2019s cover of \u201cIt\u2019s Christmas Don\u2019t Be Late,\u201d better known as The Chipmunk Song. How did you get him involved? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tBarwin: <\/strong>Stout is known as one of the most hardcore, best coaches in the world, and it\u2019s no surprise to me that he understands how fun and important something like this is. But the Chipmunks thing was a Charlie\/Jason idea that came out of the studio. You really love that song, and Jason thought, \u201cYou know, Stout would be perfect,\u201d and he was game for it. People know how great of a coach he is, but he really looks at these guys like family, and he\u2019s so proud of them to be doing something outside of football.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHall<\/strong>: I think Stout gets a kick out of it \u2013 and [he likes] showing the guys that yeah, doing something off the field has impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe big reveal of Stevie Nicks on the record, duetting with Jason on Ron Sexsmith\u2019s \u201cMaybe This Christmas,\u201d was huge. How did that happen, and what was it like seeing her and Jason working together? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tBarwin<\/strong>: I mean, just seeing<\/em> her was amazing, and then seeing her with Jason was very cool, the respect they had for each other and how happy they were to be together doing this. The backstory is, you know, as the Kelce family\u2019s rise has happened, I think there was just some admiration [on Stevie\u2019s part] for what a wonderful family they are. And I think Stevie had met Travis at a show before, and so their teams had sort of known each other, and Charlie had this song, so we said, you know, let\u2019s ask Stevie if she wants to do it, she would be perfect for this. And she was game right from the beginning. When she came to the studio, she was so happy to be there, and she was awesome to be around.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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