Inside the studio: How a group of Eagles fans build playoff hype

Zoom in: Pagliei wanted a new way to connect with Eagles fans, so this season he began writing game-day speeches as if he were delivering them inside the Birds' locker room.

• Each week, he and a talented crew of fellow fans record one at a Delaware-based studio — videos that regularly draw tens of thousands of views.
• Pagliei's girlfriend, Jodi Markey, helps ensure the right people see them, using her connections in the Birds' organization to get eyes on the videos.

What they're saying: "The front office is waiting for this one," she says.

Flashback: We pile into Markey's silver Toyota Corolla — or, as her grandson calls it, "mimi's race car" — and head south on I-95 toward Wilmington, Delaware.

• On the 25-minute drive, Pagliei and Markey regale me with their love story. They started dating about a year ago after repeatedly running into each other at Eagles tailgates.
• Few people can match Pagliei's enthusiasm for playoff math, but Markey — decked out in an Eagles beanie and a Kelly green "Bird Gang" sweater— keeps pace. The two run through what must happen for the third-seeded Birds to host another playoff game.

We pull up in downtown Wilmington, park, walk a half block and slip into the back door of an old chiropractor's office.

• King Creative owner Chris Bruce moved his production company into the modest building in late 2018, drawn to the idea of creating "an incredible vibe that would support and feed our creativity."

Inside the room: The space has been converted into a recording studio. In the dimly lit main lobby outside Bruce's office, a small group of employees, including Corbyn Harris — the video editor who ensures each speech is primed, packaged and posted before Gameday — clack away on laptops.

• There's a small booth washed in Kelly green light and a soundboard station where Grammy-nominated musician and producer Herb Middleton gets to work, shaping Pagliei's 90-second rally speech.
• After he's done fine-tuning cadence and cutting it for punch, Middleton, who has worked with hip-hop royalty like Nas and Mary J. Blige, takes the track back to his own recording studio, where he writes a new score for it.

"I have it in my head," he says. "Hard beats. No claps. No party. In your face."

Behind the camera and teleprompter, Bruce channels Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, directing and pumping up Pagliei.

• The two have known each other for years, and Pagliei credits Bruce with helping shape his persona after they first worked together on a commercial.
• Bruce was drawn to Pagliei's energy and has continued to feature him in his projects — including a cameo in the mockumentary, "The Conspiracists," which drops Friday on Amazon Prime.

"If you're ready, we're ready," Bruce says. "Breathe it in, feel it, embody it, channel it. Bring it!"

• "All right, Philly. Lock in. Are you ready?" Pagliei barks, like he's breaking down a huddle. "The real defending of what is ours begins now."

"I'm getting chills," Middleton says as Pagliei finishes up.

The bottom line: The crew is now huddled in the cramped studio. It feels like their own locker room — a place where, once a week, they block out the world for a few hours and create something meaningful.

• "I like to apply what he says to life for my own journey, because I left the mainstream, I left the big bucks because I ain't like the messages that were being sent out to the world," Middleton says. "So I'd rather do this than get a lot of money sending out messages that don't help humanity."

"The simplest part of what sports is about, it's heart," Bruce says. "Inside that stadium, if you're home watching the game, from when it starts to when it ends, none of the other stuff matters. That's a beautiful thing."