Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper of Mt. Joy are diehard Philly sports fans. Now they’re singing onstage with their heroes.

In February 2018, about one month before the release of their debut album, Sam Cooper and Matt Quinn flew from Los Angeles to Philadelphia. It was a busy time. Their band — Mt. Joy — was beginning to get some real recognition within the indie folk circuit. Their first single, “Astrovan,” had gotten more than 1 million streams in a month.

Their second single, “Sheep,” had performed even better. Mt. Joy had recently begun to go on tour, and had just made their first late-night appearance, on Conan O’Brien.

This was not the easiest time to sneak away. But the Valley Forge natives knew they had to do it.

“Not being in Philadelphia for the NFC championship game was probably the top three FOMO moments of all time,” said Quinn, Mt. Joy’s lead singer. “And I just wasn’t going to let the Super Bowl go that way.”

“I remember us talking each other into it, and feeling like it was the only logical thing to do,” said Cooper, Mt. Joy’s lead guitarist. “We had to go in case they won.”

So, they booked two one-way tickets on a discount airline and arrived in town just before Sunday. They watched the Super Bowl at a bar off Broad Street, and when it ended, and the Eagles emerged victorious, they joined the thousands of fans congregating just outside City Hall.

A few days later, Quinn and Cooper went to the Eagles parade, where they saw an inebriated Jason Kelce, dressed as a mummer, scream, “IT’S THE WHOLE TEAM” on the steps of the Art Museum.

A lot can change in six years. Mt. Joy went from playing Johnny Brenda’s in 2017 to selling out the Mann Center and Madison Square Garden two months ago. They’re working on their fourth album, and have 6,138,477 monthly listeners on Spotify.

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But perhaps the biggest change is in the company they keep. Through music, they’ve met former Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin and offensive tackle Jordan Mailata. Flyers left winger Joel Farabee has gone to their shows. They’ve jammed with Sixers coach Nick Nurse, and have danced on stage with the Phillie Phanatic.

Kelce has performed with them multiple times, most recently at Lincoln Financial Field before the Eagles-Commanders game on Nov. 14.

“It’s insane,” Cooper said. “Jason will come up to me and be like, ‘Hey, Sam, how you been?’ And I’m just like, ‘This guy knows my name? What?’ He’s a legend.

“If you told me a few years ago that we’d be hanging out with Jason Kelce, and he’d remember my name, I wouldn’t believe you. Matt and I went to the Eagles parade and watched him give that speech. It’s just a different world now.”

Quinn and Cooper first met as students at Conestoga High School in the early 2000s. They shared a love of music and Philadelphia sports. Cooper spent his childhood watching future Flyers play for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Quinn’s family had Eagles season tickets.

When Quinn was young, his parents purchased an old-school bus, painted it green, retrofitted the inside, and drove it to games. The family would tailgate in the Jetro Lot. A pre-teen Matt would often linger by the player entrance, in hopes of talking to an Eagle.

“I remember Terrell Owens won over our hearts because he stopped his car once,” Quinn said. “Reno Mahe randomly stopped his car and threw the football with us one time. He was the coolest guy ever for that. Super deep-cut Eagles player, Reno Mahe.

“When you were 13 years old, that was like the coolest possible thing that could happen to you. I don’t do it anymore, I swear.”

Cooper grew up going to Eagles, Flyers, Sixers, and Phillies games. He had a special place in his heart for Allen Iverson.

“I just liked his swag,” Cooper said. “He was pretty big when I was in fifth and sixth grade. I was playing a lot of basketball then. And then in seventh or eighth grade, I didn’t grow another inch, so I stopped playing basketball. But I was still huge into the Sixers. It was when they went to the Finals, against the Lakers, stepping over Ty Lue — it was amazing.”

Both Cooper and Quinn moved to Los Angeles after college, but they never lost their Philadelphia fandom. Quinn who has since moved to Fishtown, tries not to listen to other music while he’s working on an album, so he doesn’t accidentally “steal someone’s song.”

He listens to Philadelphia sports podcasts instead.

“I’m listening to the PHLY Eagles podcast,” Quinn said. “I’m listening to Sixers podcasts, I do the Philly Special with Sheil Kapadia, I’ll do the Rights for Ricky Sanchez. I am consuming a disgusting amount of Philly sports media.

“I am aware of anyone who is writing or saying anything about Philadelphia sports.”

Cooper is wired similarly.

“When we do meet and greets on tour, people are like, what music do you listen to? All we do is surround ourselves with music,” Cooper said. “I listen to sports podcasts just to escape that. Because I love getting excited about the Eagles.

“I love reading about Cooper DeJean, or watching videos of Saquon [Barkley] doing these things that just make you say, holy [expletive], we might actually have a really good team right now.”

They never considered that their day jobs as musicians could connect them with the athletes they watched on TV. But as Mt. Joy grew in popularity, that started to happen. After Nurse was hired by the Sixers in 2023, Max Kerman, the lead singer of the band Arkells, reached out to Cooper and Quinn.

Kerman had gotten to know Nurse while he was in Toronto.

“He was like, ‘Hey, you guys have to get up with Nick Nurse, he’s the best,’” Cooper said. “Max invited us to Nick’s house in Philly and we played music with him and some of his friends.”

Nurse — who plays piano — joined Mt. Joy on stage to play “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac when the band was at the Mann this past September. Despite the Sixers’ spiraling season, he has found time to stay in touch.

“Sometimes when you meet someone, and play music, you become strangers in a way, but he’ll reach out fairly regularly and ask me how I’m doing,” Quinn said. “And I can tell that that’s just a function of being a coach. That he’s keeping in contact with people. He’s a natural leader. I’m not even on the team — I’m just a random guy that he met.

“I should probably ask him how he’s doing, but the answer is probably not good. Sort of a rhetorical question, at this point.”

Added Cooper: “I feel really bad about what’s going on right now, and I don’t think it’s his fault, but I don’t know. I just play guitar.”

Cooper said that the band met Kelce a few years ago through his lawyer, Greg Seltzer. Seltzer founded the Philly Music Fest. In October 2022, Mt. Joy performed at the festival, and Kelce introduced them to the crowd.

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A friendship was born. From then on, Kelce began showing up to Philadelphia-area Mt. Joy shows without notice. He’d sing on stage and start Eagles chants. Quinn and Cooper recently wrote a variation of “Astrovan” — “Santa Drives an Astrovan” — for Kelce’s album, A Philly Special Christmas Party.

They performed the new single with him live a few weeks ago. Sound check was scheduled early that day, so Cooper and Quinn had a few hours to pepper the former center with questions.

“I was like, ‘When you played, did you wear sleeves?’ And he’s like, ‘Nope,’” Cooper said. “And then I asked about players using Vaseline on their arms, and he’s explaining how, yes, you can cover your arms in Vaseline, but then you can’t hold the ball correctly. It’s interesting.”

“We got down to the nitty gritty of, like, ‘Man, I wish that we went under center more,’” Quinn said. “And he’s explaining to me the ins and outs of play action under center, and what that does to linebackers and stuff. And I’m like, holy ....”

None of this has felt normal yet. Cooper and Quinn don’t think it ever will. But they are going to soak in as much as they can.

“It’s breaking the fourth wall,” said Quinn. “I obviously consume so much of this stuff, and over time, there’s some sort of a peer-feeling there. But these people still feel like superheroes to me. To be involved with any of them is breaking down this fourth wall that I never dreamed would be broken.”