Speaker 1: Arrow dot net. It's more than just a podcast A
r r oe dot net. It's twenty different podcasts. When
I get in the car, I'm sitting at the office,
I want to make sure the podcast I'm tapping into
is into my vibe and I'm not having to jump
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Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Listen to their story Beyond the Calling on ero dot
net A r r oe dot net. Enjoy the exploration.
Speaker 2: Hello, how are you?
Speaker 1: Absolutely fantastic and very excited to share a conversation with
you because you get it. You get that there are
so many mysteries inside the NFL, and now you're putting
the focus on even a bigger mystery.
Speaker 2: The Eagles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they I mean the Eagles. They're a fun group.
I guys spend a lot of time around them this year.
Speaker 1: They're always so willing to share the journey. What is
it about those Philly people? I mean even in baseball,
it's like, okay, you want to learn more, come on
in here, let's go for a walk today.
Speaker 3: I think I mean Philadelphia is it's an eclectic city
and it's had, you know, like it's had a lot
of heartbreak. So when it was time to talk about
something positive, I think everybody was super excited.
Speaker 1: Well how about that generation that does not understand what
the Philly special is? And first of all, God bless
you for bringing this up, because you know, the greatest
moments in sports should not be forgotten. And that's what
I love about thirty for thirty. You will not let
us forget.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this one.
Speaker 3: You know, we're eight years removed from it, and they
both have had a lot of recently, so it seemed
like the right time to celebrate it, coming off of
their second Super Bowl win last year. And you're right,
like some of the younger fans, they don't get what
we've all been through. So I was I think I
was twenty eight years old. So by the time I
saw the Phillies win a World Series, I grew up
in the area, so I'm.
Speaker 2: A Philadelphia sports fan.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I spent a long time not knowing what
it felt like to win a championship and then the
Phillies win one. But like everybody knows, like Philly is
a football town, so.
Speaker 2: We'd been there. We just lost them, So it.
Speaker 3: Was exciting, and this team was like the story is
just incredible, Like if you scripted it, you wouldn't believe this.
So it's just the real life underdog story, which goes
so well with kind of everything the city of Philadelphia represents.
Speaker 1: See and I love those underdog stories. That's like when
people say, well, who's your favorite team? All of them?
Bring them all on it one time. I want to
know who the underdog is. And I swear to God
that's the reason why so many people from Oh, you
come to a football game here in Charlotte, you're going
to see more Philly fans inside those seats than you
are Panther fans.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's true. This city is They're crazy.
Speaker 3: I think our two super Bowl teams couldn't be more
different either. It's like kind of like people say that
last year's Super Bowl team was the greatest Eagles team
ever assembled, whereas this team was the number one seed.
Speaker 2: But I mean it's like our.
Speaker 3: Film highlights a group of people who were backups. I mean,
even a guy like Jason Kelsey, who's gonna be a
Hall of Fame center someday, he was still kind of
a backup. And afterthought at one point in his career.
So that's kind of the point of the whole film
is to just show the underdog story that is the
city and was this team in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: Mister Kelsey warms my soul like Rosie Grier did when
I was a kid back in the nineteen seventies. He
is that guy in football that is the gentle giant,
the man that you know he will go in there
and do what he has to do. And that's what
I love about thirty for thirty is the fact that
you're showing us the human side of the coaches, the players,
the fans. God just says a lot about thirty for thirty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, Jason, I got to do that, and
I co directed this film with another woman, Angela Zender,
but I did get to do Jason's interview for it.
And I've been doing this a long time, and I
mean that had to be a top five interview in
my career. It was just so much fun to be
Like we were in renting Terminal, which in Philadelphia that's
like a marketplace that like we all go to everyone's
shops there.
Speaker 2: It's like the super iconic spot.
Speaker 3: So they shut it down just for us, and Jason
gave us two hours of his time and it was
just an incredible, incredible night, and he's such a great interview.
Speaker 1: What you really bring out is that is that fire,
that fuel, that that energy of a community that's supporting
their football teams, because how many times in this age,
Oh man, we lost eight games. I hate my team.
I hate my team. Ah, Philadelphia Eagles fans are forever
the Eagles, Yeah.
Speaker 2: They are, but they hate their team a lot.
Speaker 3: Can be tough, But I think that was another thing
that was important to us in this film was that
we wanted to make the city of Philadelphia a character,
and in order to to do that, we needed to
like have the fan base be in there. So it
was important to us to go to different neighborhoods. I mean,
we even went as far as we went down to
the Jersey Shore and we did a bunch of the
different suburbs just to kind of interview people at local businesses,
maybe local Philly celebrities, just so you get a flavor
of how diverse their fan base is and kind of
where everybody's coming from.
Speaker 2: So I hope everybody feels like we did a good
job of that.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Shannon Furman coming
up next ESPN thirty for thirty the Philly Special. We
are back with Shannon Furman. Don't you guys at thirty
for thirty really do play the game of there's more
to this than what you think. Let me show you
who the person is for real and make your determination
on why they are who they are and how they
got there, because I mean, before we'd have everything in print.
Oh my god. With thirty for thirty, I mean, you
give us the physical story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, this story's been told a lot.
Speaker 3: Obviously, it's one of the most iconic plays in NFL history.
So we're trying to find a different way to tell
a story that's been told alone. So it was important
for us to highlight the guys who actually touched the
ball on the play and their head coach, so that
that's the focal point of this and those guys the stories.
Like you could do a whole show on just those
guys in their backstories. Like I mean again, like so
improbable that you have like the backup quarterback in there,
the third string tight end is passing to the backup quarterback.
The coach was the backup quarterback his whole entire career.
Corey Clement was the rookie who wasn't even supposed to
make the team and ends up he not only was
he like instrumental in that play, but he was also
the leading receiver that day in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: So just a lot of.
Speaker 3: Crazy stories all coming together to make this all happen.
Speaker 1: God, I just love the way that you've got that
energy because you're right about that, because it's like, sure,
you know they took on Tom Brady and and you
know and the Patriots, But do you want to talk
to Tom? Not really, I want to talk to that
player that's on the sideline that says, just give me
thirty seconds, man, just give me thirty seconds on that field.
I swear to God, I'm gonna I'm gonna make a difference.
That's the one I want to talk to that fire.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Tom gets plenty of attention. Yeah he doesn't mean more. Yeah,
that was important to us. We wanted this to be
a Philadelphia story. So still snuck some Tom moments in there, obviously,
because who doesn't like seeing Tom Brady.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's the greatest quarterback ever.
Speaker 3: But yeah, this was about the city of Philadelphia, so
it was important to us to highlight those people.
Speaker 1: So in doing a story like this for ESPN, Now,
is this something where you walked away knowing more about
the Eagles or are they still the great mystery like
kiss was with that makeup on.
Speaker 3: Uh No, I think you learned more about them. I
think that's one of the things. Like the Philly Special
is like I think twenty I don't know the exact minutes,
but I want to say, like twenty minutes is spent
like really diving into like that play and kind of
how it all came about, Like you learn the whole
backstory of like when it was installed, when they knew
they were running it, Nick.
Speaker 2: Calling the wrong play.
Speaker 3: It was actually like he calls Philly Philly, it was
called Philly Special. So we take a deep dive into
just the whole evolution of how that came about.
Speaker 1: Not just to play here to play the season. I mean,
you clearly planted that in my soul. So now as
a fan of the game, it's like, oh my god,
I'm going to be moved here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's one of the most iconic plays
in NFL history. Even I mean, they just they debated
whether it was the most important play of the game
on that day, but like when you go back into
NFL history, it's I mean, people remember it from every
fan base and also like it kind of set the
league up for everyone going for it on fourth.
Speaker 2: Down the way they do now. That team did that
a lot that year.
Speaker 3: They would and that wasn't just that night thing in
Minnesota at the Super Bowl. They Doug was a fairly
risky play caller, and he went for it a lot
and was successful on fourth.
Speaker 2: Down that year, and that kind of started a trend
in the whole league.
Speaker 1: Well, I gotta tell you something. I was screaming the
Philly Special this a couple of weeks ago when Drake
did that move that nobody knew he was going to
do to get that first down, and I went, ah,
Philly Special. They were the first to do it. They're
the ones that did something that they didn't expect. And
I swear to God, this is coming out at the
best time, because that right there was the moment that inspired,
like you said, all these other people to do things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, as.
Speaker 3: A Philly fan, it'd be nice if the Eagles were
playing in the game this weekend and it was kind
of a tea off for that, but it still definitely works.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Wow, Where can people go to find out more
about what you're doing? Because what you do is you
bring the authentic story and that is so important to
the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: My handle on social media is firm biz. If you
are Mbi z So, I post some of my work
on there every now and again. But and you can
find my work on ESPN, Netflix, HBO.
Speaker 2: Those are the main main projects I do.
Speaker 1: Well, you got to come back to this show anytime
in the future. The door is always going to be
open for you.
Speaker 2: Awesome, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you. Have a great day.