Philadelphia Eagles Stacy Kelleher Brings Engaging Content To Life In Role As Director Of Production

I love seeing fans engaging with our content. It is such a proud moment when you see fans commenting on features that our talented staff worked so hard on, or seeing our listenership for podcasts grow and grow.

Stacy Kelleher

Director of Production

Philadelphia Eagles

As the Director of Production for the Philadelphia Eagles, I oversee the production process of the content that gets distributed across social media platforms, the Eagles app and website, podcasts, and in-stadium. The talented staff that I manage ranges from producers and production managers, all the way to on-air talent and editors.

Every day is different in this job. We spend time planning and executing feature shoots and media availability, developing new and progressive content ideas for our fans to engage with, and even bringing our fans inside access.

Content production also creates a lot of opportunities to partner with other brands associated with the Eagles. So, in addition to spending time overseeing the creation of these things, I also spend a lot of time communicating and sharing with our corporate sponsorship and activation teams on ways to make the organization money off of the content we create.

Before joining the NFL, you spent six seasons with Ohio State Athletics as the Big Ten Network Production Manager for all 36 NCAA Division 1 sports. Did you find it difficult to balance so many things at once, and if so, what helped you stay on top of it all?

Working in a college athletics department is exciting and very difficult at the same time. There is a balance you need to maintain to make sure that you are giving the proper attention to each sport. It is important to understand that while you are thinking about the athletic department as a whole, individual coaches and staff are focused on their own programs. I think it is important to understand why you do what you do and build off of that foundation.

For me, I was there to serve students at Ohio State; not only the students who worked in our video production department but the student-athletes as well. I found that using that as a litmus test helped me prioritize. If the effort I was putting in didn’t benefit the students in some way, then it shouldn’t be my first priority.

That being said, serving that many sports is a huge undertaking. In order to stay on top of all of that, you need to be willing to put in long hours during the season and make sure you are using any downtime in the offseason to plan ahead for the next season to set yourself up for success. It is easy to want to shut down in the summer, but those couple of months when there are no sports are essential for successfully moving forward.

What are the most rewarding and most challenging aspects of your current role?

Hands down the most rewarding part of my job is getting to serve such a passionate fan base around the world.

I love seeing fans engaging with our content. It is such a proud moment when you see fans commenting on features that our talented staff worked so hard on, or seeing our listenership for podcasts grow and grow. Telling the stories about our team and bringing our fans access is so rewarding, but getting to be part of a NFL team and something bigger than yourself is just amazing in general. I love being involved in such a competitive environment in which everyone is striving to be the best.

The most challenging aspect of my job is that it is a fast-paced environment that never takes breaks. Things change daily. While it is essential to plan ahead and be organized, you also need to be ready to adapt and evolve on the spot.

Another challenge is that although you do have to be able to move fast, you also have to keep attention to detail at all times. The stakes are really high at this level. There are a lot of eyes and ears on the content we put out, so it is important for us to be efficient, thoughtful, and intentional with everything we do.

How has your current role as Director of Production evolved during COVID-19?

As we all know, 2020 has affected the sports world in an unprecedented way. We started working from home back in March. Not knowing how long quarantine would last, and how it would affect football, we scrambled to set up our staff with their technical needs and adapted our communication processes and workflow.

We pushed ourselves to increase production knowing consumption of content would be up with people staying home. We began pushing out highlights from past games and debuted a ton of new content series and features. The biggest changes for me back in the spring were finding ways to communicate, and making sure our workflow was still efficient and organized.

With just a limited number of our content staff having access to the facility to cover training camp and execute video needs, now the biggest change in my role is that I am still working from home while our team reports for camp to start the season. I

t is a strange feeling to be at home during this time of the year, and not be hands-on, but I’ve spent the last weeks and months preparing creative and safe solutions to support our staff, continue to provide our fans with coverage and provide our corporate partners with solutions for their needs.

As a woman in a male dominated industry, do you have any tips for young female professionals who are interested in producing sports?

I’ve been fortunate that my last two employers, the Eagles and Ohio State, not only had a large percentage of female employees but more importantly, actively put women in leadership roles.

My biggest piece of advice is to find women who can mentor you.

I learned how to carry myself by watching these women in leadership roles succeed. It is also crucial that you support other women in the industry as well, and not tear one another down.

That being said, it isn’t that simple most of the time. There have been occasions when men have made me feel like I don’t belong, or implied that I got an opportunity just because of my gender.

You develop an instinct on when to push back and when to just take this as fuel to get better. For me personally, I always use these interactions as motivation to get better. Just keep pushing through, doing your best, and being yourself. Those people will realize your true skills through your action and work.