Philadelphia Eagles VP of Marketing Brian Papson Brings Championship Experience to the Classes He Teaches at Villanova
Brian Papson, Vice President of Marketing for the Philadelphia Eagles, on the field at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, LA, where the Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.
Papson poses with the Eagles' Vince Lombardi Super Bowl Trophies from Super Bowl LII in 2018 and Super Bowl LIX in 2025.
When the Philadelphia Eagles fought their way to win Super Bowl LIX, the 11 players on the field executed the plays needed to turn dreams into reality.
Off the field, hundreds of hard-working staff members helped turn those plays into iconic moments that fans in Philadelphia and around the world will never forget.
One member of that team is Brian Papson, Vice President of Marketing for the Philadelphia Eagles and an adjunct faculty member with TV’s College of Professional Studies.
Brian has been with the Eagles since 2013, following a prolific career in sports marketing, and brings that level of expertise to the students he teaches at Villanova.
His time working in sports began when he was a college athlete, playing football and baseball at Susquehanna University. He worked in the sports information office there before starting an internship with the Philadelphia Phantoms minor league hockey team. Prior to starting that position, he’d never even heard of the team, but within a few months, was along for the ride as the Phantoms won the AHL’s top prize, the Calder Cup.
Brian first found his way to Villanova a few years later, working in Athletics. He worked closely with Wildcats across all of Villanova’s sports programs, while working to earn his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Villanova School of Business (VSB).
He completed his MBA in 2008 and began looking for opportunities to continue working in the sports world.
“It was an exciting and great accomplishment to complete my graduate degree. But with the economic challenges at the time, it was difficult to get a good handle on what could be the next path forward,” Papson said. When a former boss from the Phantoms asked him to move to San Antonio to work for the Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA), he had some initial reservations. His girlfriend at the time – now his wife – whom he had met in Villanova’s Barley Hall while taking MBA classes, encouraged him “to take an adventure together.” On that adventure in Texas, they got engaged, married and had two kids.
During his time in San Antonio, Papson worked not only with the Spurs, but also with San Antonio’s WNBA team (the Silver Stars), minor league sports teams, and various events held in AT&T Center arena. He was part of the Spurs organization when the team advanced to the NBA Finals in 2013, seeing firsthand one of the biggest stages in sports.
When an opportunity to return to the Philadelphia area and work for the Eagles arose, he jumped at the chance.
“If someone told me (when I was unsure about moving to San Antonio), that I was going to go work for the Spurs, which is a great company, and get to come back in five years and work for the Eagles, I would have walked to San Antonio,” he said.
In Philadelphia, he found a new challenge. The city’s love of the Eagles makes selling tickets a much smaller priority for his marketing team, shifting the focus to building and maintaining a brand.
“While the role has been pretty consistent,” Papson said, “the responsibilities and the opportunities have always kind of evolved to keep it really exciting and engaging.”Those opportunities have continued to remain exciting, with the Eagles’ success keeping the team in the spotlight. Papson has worked with the team during three trips to the Super Bowl, two championships (and the parades that followed), as well as games in London and Sao Paolo. He joined a team that ventured to Australia to promote the Eagles and the NFL last year.
A few years ago, Brian began teaching at Villanova, teaching Sports Management and Administration within CPS. He found the opportunity to teach students of different ages and backgrounds in a less traditional setting appealing.
“The nice part is the different angles that people bring to a classroom. They all see things from different experiences,” Brian said.
After teaching that class, and co-teaching a course in the MBA program, Papson was approached with the opportunity to be a part of the VUnited Scholars program. VUnited Scholars is designed for highly motivated young adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities, combining academic coursework with community engagement and career development experiences.It was a perfect chance to tie in his teaching with the work being done by the Eagles Autism Foundation.
Papson's view from one of the Eagles' Super Bowl Championship Buses.
Papson stands on Broad Street along the Super Bowl LIX Championship Parade Route.
“It aligned so much with what the Eagles believe in and support,” he added. “The Eagles have a very inclusive hiring process. (Inclusivity) is at the forefront of everything. Even with something like the championship parade. We had a lot of conversations. How do we make this sensory-friendly? Is there an inclusive environment that we can provide, which we made sure to do.”
He brings that level of experienced thinking to every class he teaches, making an effort to show students the “inside baseball” elements of working in sports, utilizing guest speakers and presentations from his wide network of contacts.
Ultimately, Brian Papson seeks to show the students he’s taught in CPS and the VUnited program the pathways to working in sports, using his own background and mindset as a guide.
“I think the value of being able to go and take classes and, expand your horizons and push your mind only makes you mentally more sharp for future opportunities, wherever they may lie,” he explained.
“I go to work and feel blessed to be able to work in an industry that's hard to get into, but it provides you with a lot of great experiences when you aren’t afraid to put everything into it.”