Who is the Philly Sports Guy and what are his 5 favorite sporting moments of 2022?

The name Jamie Pagliei may not ring a bell but if you’ve cheered for any Philadelphia team this year, the chances are you know who he is. Be it Sixers, Flyers, Phillies, Eagles, or Union, Pagliei is there at the stadium and all dressed up!

Better known as “The Philly Sports Guy,” Pagliei is perhaps the most recognized super fan in Philadelphia.

Jamie Pagliei, 50, was born in Overbrook, Pa. He started his career, while at Ridley High School in Folsom, Pa., working at The Spectrum at 14.

“I started as a busboy at the Ovations Club and then moved to backstage manager. [I was] in charge of dressing room setups and feeding the media,” he said.

In 2019, while he ran a company that specialized in chimney sweeping and masonry, Pagliei went to an Eagles game, all dressed up. A video of him, posted on Twitter by NBCS Philly sports anchor John Clark, garnered over 10 million views and was shared by Barstool Sports and Bleacher Report. The Philly Sports Guy — in his Carson Wentz jersey and his face painted green and white, with a green mohawk — was just getting started.

Soon, Mascots for a Cure approached him to film a commercial and Pagliei began to think about doing this full-time. That’s how “The Philly Sports Guy” was born. He began dressing up for all Philadelphia sporting events and has continued ever since.

He spends an hour getting ready to go to the games; either wearing a uniform or a jersey, depending on the sport, with uniform pants. He paints his whole face with makeup and then puts his hair into a mohawk. Then he paints that as well. The make up is by a brand called Mehron, “And I use their liquid stage line,” Pagliei explained and added that it only takes about 10-15 minutes to take it all off with some shampoo and soap.

A day in Pagliei’s life, in his own words, “is fairly involved” as he spends most of his days filming sponsorship videos. During the evenings, he is dressing up for games and attending them. Almost every night is spent attending one Philadelphia sport event or the other.

Although he doesn’t favor one sport fan over another, “Eagles fans are the most passionate,” Pagliei confessed. “[All] Philly people enjoy competing,” he said, “and [they] always want to win. It’s 115% [of that] every moment of every game.” Fans of each sport are special but also the same, he thinks — “The game may be different but we all want the same outcome.”

In Philadelphia, he believes, fans reward their sports in a way that’s unmatched. “You win us a championship, you get a statue built. It is like nowhere else in the world! There are not many locations where this type of business can work,” he said, “Here, we are full of pride for our teams. You know, I couldn’t do this in LA. This just would not work. You don’t have any other type of fan this way.”

When Pagliei isn’t rooting for the Philadelphia teams, he will root for fan bases that he has friends in — “Or against the Cowboys/ Penguins/ Lakers/ Celtics/ Dodgers/ Mets / Braves.” When the Pats went undefeated in 2012, Pagliei pulled for the Giants to beat them. Beyond that, he roots for his high school sports teams, the Ridley Raiders.

And what does he do when he isn’t working? He recovers. This year alone, Pagliei has attended around 150 games. “It takes some time to come down from being as charged up as I am, and need a full 24 to 48 hours to unwind.” After the Phillies World Series run, he says, it took him over two weeks “to get my body right and voice back.”

Beyond being “The Philly Sports Guy,” Pagliei is also a dad to two children.

Sometimes his son, James, 14, will join him at a game — also painting his face to match his dad’s.

“The last game that he came to with me was pride night,” Pagliei said. He painted his and James’s face in support of his brother, who is gay — “where we normally match colors on our faces, we painted the rainbow.” “It’s a very special type of feeling that he does it with me,” he added.

As this magical Philly sporting year comes to an end, here’s The Philly Sports Guy’s top five Philly sports moments of the year, starting with number five:

“I remember I was out by the foul pole and it’s how I normally end the games. I thought the game was going to be over, and he hit that home run and sparked them for a little while.” The Phillies won 9-7 against the Angels.

“It was a very touching moment. Just the way the Flyers showed [their love]. To be honest, I don’t remember much else about the game. I don’t think he scored anything, and obviously it was his last game as a Flyer. It was just [about] looking back on the years of service that he gave to us all, in one night.” The Flyers had a 5-4 win over Nashville.

Pagliei predicted that win. “NYCFC scored that goal to go ahead one nothing. I leaned over to everybody and said, ‘We’re winning this game three to one. No doubt in my mind.’ ”A few minutes later, Union scored the first goal. And then two minutes later, scored the second one. “And you just knew that game was over.” Union beat New York City FC, 3-1.

Pagliei was at the draft when the news came out about Brown. “It took us a minute to find out what the story was because we had such bad service, and they didn’t announce [what the trade was] at the draft.”

As seen on an Instagram video, posted by Pagliei, he then walked over to Tennessee Titans fans who were at the draft and thanked them for A.J. Brown.

“That was such a miserable day. It was raining all day. It was ugly, and it was a mess. I go down to a very specific spot in the outfield, because some of the ushers would allow me to go down and get everybody riled up.”

As he was “getting people riled up,” someone in the first row called him to take an open seat.

“They [the jumbotron] showed me right next to him. We were just watching intently. Literally, [a second] before that hit, they showed me and that other guy. They showed the pitch, and the ball went out. Everybody was going absolutely nuts. I mean, by far, the best moment in 2022.”