Connor Barwin: MTWB Benefit Concert Turns 10; New ‘Kelce’ Documentary Details
At the end of an NFL player’s career, the all-time question of “Where do you go from here?” is surely asked. When it comes to Connor Barwin, former Eagle and our early morning guest on The Preston & Steve Show, he approached retirement ready to tackle the next project. Lots of them in fact.
He has joined the Eagles Staff, working in the Front Office and with Coaches. He went back to school, graduating from the Wharton MBA Program for Executives at UPenn, to challenge his identity and further his work with the Make the World Better Foundation.
The Make the World Better Foundation is a non-profit began by Connor in 2013, during his first year with the Eagles. They work in refurbishing and enriching public playgrounds in Philadelphia, believing firmly that every child deserves a safe place to play.
Through this work, Connor has found that public parks with regular recreation and sports can bring a community together. The playground areas have shown a reduced rate of violence and crime, speaking well to how high community morale is so important to a neighborhood. Their most recent project, Vare Recreation Center in South Philly, was a $20 million redevelopment that revitalized the neighborhood.
This year, the Make the World Better Foundation’s annual summer concert celebrates its 10th year. The series kicked off with Kurt Vile and celebrated the indie rock scene with bands like War on Drugs, Japanese Breakfast, Yo La Tengo and Hop Along along the way.
On Saturday, August 26th, Philly-born Alex G with Canadian group Alvvays will take the stage at The Dell Music Center. Tickets available for the 7pm show at Ticketmaster.com.
That’s not all.
During our conversation this morning, Connor announced that he is an Executive Producer of the highly anticipated ‘Kelce’ documentary coming to Amazon Prime.
“Philly will love it because it’s a Philly story.”
The project began two years ago when Jason Kelce started thinking about retiring. They hired a film crew to follow what they expected was Jason’s last season. Good thing it wasn’t. Jason and wife Kylie, who Connor said is a “rockstar of this documentary” became so comfortable with the crew, that they continued to follow the Kelces throughout the next season.
As you might know, Connor, along with fellow Eagle Brent Celek, have known Jason since he walked on to the Cincinnati Bearcats in 2007. So they knew the guy that we didn’t meet until the beer chugging guy from the Ocean Drive turned into the Hungry Dogs Champion on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
In the trailer, there is a scene with Jason playing poker with an all-star roster of former Philadelphia Eagles. “That was filmed two years ago!” Connor exclaimed. Mike Quick and Todd Herremans are featured prominently in the clip. But Brent, Jason Avant and others where there to provide insights to the Eagles Center.
Why do people connect with Jason Kelce so naturally? “He is just his fricking self.” That’s what helped the process of shopping the documentary around to different networks. It found a home with Amazon along with a partnership with NFL Networks.
In total Executive Producer fashion, Connor knows exactly how many minutes of in game footage are in the film. They had to pay for every second of it.
The film premieres on Tuesday, September 12th. Just before the debut of Thursday Night Football on Amazon when the Eagles host the Vikings. In the meantime, hear more details from our conversation with Connor. And grab tickets for MTWB Benefit Concert this weekend!
