Three years ago, no one would have predicted that a ragtag group of NFL players would put out an album of music that didn’t just break into the Billboard charts but actually sounded good. Yet The Philly Specials — as Philadelphia Eagles offensive linemen Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata called themselves — did just that and much more. Over the course of three holiday albums, they’ve not only become unlikely chart stars, attracting luminaries from the actual pop music world to collaborate, but they’ve raised astounding sums for charity with each release. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Their most recent, A Philly Special Christmas Party, is their biggest yet: with 32,000 copies sold in its first week out in November 2024 — including 22,000 vinyl pressings — its debut had the largest sales week for a holiday release on vinyl in the modern era. It hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Independent Albums chart, No. 2 on Holiday Albums, Vinyl and Top Album Sales, and No. 16 on the Billboard 200. And 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. Kait Pritivera Like its two LP predecessors, A Philly Special Christmas features the unlikely vocal talents of Kelce (now retired from his legendary run as the Eagles’ cente,r but busy as ever hosting the New Heights podcast with his brother, Travis Kelce; ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown; and, now, the network’s new They Call It Late Night With Jason Kelce), Johnson and Mailata, along with high-profile musical guests (Stevie Nicks, Boyz II Men). But the album wouldn’t have become a hit without two key behind-the-scenes forces: Connor Barwin – a longtime friend of Kelce’s, who is himself a former Eagle (and also now the organization’s head of development and strategy) – and Charlie Hall, drummer for alt-rock arena-fillers The War on Drugs and the Philly Specials’ producer and musical director. Barwin and Hall spoke to Billboard as they recovered from the whirlwind release of A Philly Special Christmas 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’s vocal talents. Tell me a bit about your individual roles in getting the album together. Connor Barwin: 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 — 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. I’m 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’ve thrown was with Charlie and The War on Drugs. Jason knows Charlie as well – he’s one of the best musicians, he’s an Eagles fan, he’s local – so I immediately thought, “This is who we should call.” We all got together and Charlie started asking the right questions: What songs are important to you? How do you think about Christmas music? We sort of left that meeting all very much committed to taking it seriously. My role from then on has been trying to keep it all together; there’s a lot of busy people, a lot of different stakeholders, so making sure we’re finding time to do this the right way, where it doesn’t intersect with their main career — which is playing football for the Eagles — but finding a balance, because this is very fun and fulfilling for them. Kait Pritivera Charlie Hall: I don’t 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’re doing this thing at the highest level in their “real” jobs but they also approach music with that same mindset of “we want to make this great.” And they did! When 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? Barwin: With how old we all are, and being in Philadelphia, it made sense, like — 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. Who’s harder to convince to participate: high-profile musicians or football players? Hall: It’s scary singing into a microphone, hearing yourself that closely and in headphones… There’s a lot of the guys’ friends [on the team] that can sing, but I would probably argue that it’s a little harder to get some of the players. Barwin: Yeah, I agree. But it’s also been really fun watching these guys in the studio with professional musicians and seeing how they’re inspiring each other. As a former athlete that still works in the NFL, it’s 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’re not completely comfortable with. It’s an inspiring thing for a lot of people, whether they’re athletes or not, to see: that if you or the world is putting you in
