The Philly Specials Combines Football With Music To Make Holiday Magic

Jordan Mailata had never even played football. 

Growing up in Australia, he only ever watched the Super Bowl—a secular football fan rather than practicing and fully indoctrinated.

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That didn’t matter to the Philadelphia Eagles, because you can teach someone to play football. You can’t teach someone to be 6’8”, 365 pounds, sub-20% body fat, and to run a 5-second 40.

That’s just a gift. We all have those friends who make whatever they’re doing look easy. Mailata is one of them.

So it didn’t shock anyone to find out that he can sing, too. Like, really sing.

For the third year in a row, Mailata, along with his fellow Eagles linemen Lane Johnson and Jason Kelce (now retired and enjoying life as a bit of a celebrity himself), recorded a Christmas album under the name The Philly Specials, which doesn’t need explaining to Philadelphia natives like myself, but is named for the trick play that won the Eagles the Super Bowl in 2018—itself a miracle to many. Each time it was produced with former Eagle and current Eagles staffer Connor Barwin alongside The War on Drugs drummer Charlie Hall. 

The making of… (Credit: Kait Pritivera.)

These sorts of gimmicks and novelties don’t tend to have long shelf lives. They can overstay their welcome. The sparkle fades, the joke runs dry. But the thing here is that it isn’t a joke that they’re singing. There’s humor in it, of course. No one wants to listen to depressing or hyper-serious Christmas songs. They’ll go to church for that. 

It could’ve been a one-off when it started, but it grew as an opportunity to raise some money for the community and have fun doing something different in their careers and as friends.

That, and each year they found new ways to bring in guests like Jason’s brother Travis (who at this point in this publication probably needs no further introduction), Patti LaBelle, Waxahatchee, Amos Lee, and others showing up to the Philly Special Christmas Party, the third year in a row that the guys spend their offseason putting on Christmas sweaters and maybe even practising some vocal warmups.

This year’s roster includes Mt. Joy, Stevie Nicks, and Boyz II Men.

“It still shocks me that we did it,” Barwin says. “To have Stevie Nicks on the record and have met her and see her in the studio is awesome.”

From the other side, it shocked the artists to see three huge NFL linemen, personifications of all that is manly and tough, sing together—and we mean really sing. This isn’t the jocks taking the piss out of the theater kids. The joke isn’t that they were big guys singing. 

“I can remember even Amos Lee or Matt Quinn first coming to the studio and sort of seeing what was happening, and both of them being like, ‘Holy shit. This is serious music making,’” Barwin says. “And I think when people listen to it, when people come into the studio and see the kind of effort and focus the guys are putting into this, they appreciate it and want to be involved, and it comes out when you listen to the music.”

It shouldn’t be a surprise that guys with the almost inconceivable levels of competitiveness necessary to reach the pinnacle of the sport can channel that energy and dial into this, even if it seems incongruous with their day jobs on the surface.

Barwin is a bridge between these two worlds as a former player and Eagles teammate, consummate music fan (specifically Philly music), and now member of the Eagles staff. He’s just the guy to glue all of this together. And adding music producer to the resume for a guy born deaf is no small feat either. Again, competitive “never quit” mentality and all of that.

The uniting force here for all of them, as members of the Philadelphia community at the end of the day, is the charitable outcome. 

Behind-the-scenes. (Credit: (Credit: Kait Pritivera)

“It connected with people, and it’s been successful, and we’ve sold a lot of records and we’ve raised a ton of money for charity every single year,” Barwin says. “This year we’re using the record to literally get a gift for 200,000 kids. Every kid in the Philadelphia Public Schools system is getting a gift because of this record.”

I think that warrants a “Go Birds,” right?

Kelce and Barwin know when it feels right to hang up the cleats. Mailata and Johnson are still padding up week after week, but the four of them collectively felt that it was time for the musical project to end after three albums. 

“I don’t know if the guys want to make Christmas music every Christmas or every summer,” Barwin says. “It’s really fun for a couple of summers, but maybe not for four in a row. It just feels like we’re at a good spot now at the end of the day. Talk to all of us in six months and we’re sort of nostalgic about how much fun we’re having doing this.”

Mailata will probably be in the studio again one day, though, at least if you ask his friends. 

“Jason always jokes about how Jordan’s just playing football until he’s ready to start his real career, which is being a singer and performer,” Barwin says.

Remember. The guy never played a down of football in his life until he was tasked with doing it professionally. Why not? 

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