Santa is now a Philly sports fan. Meet the ‘brave man’ behind the costume.

Everywhere Rick Reilly goes on game day, he gets mobbed. That’s because Reilly attends every game dressed as Santa Claus. Even Phillies shortstop Trea Turner has taken notice.

“I just heard him do an Eagles chant,” Turner said jokingly on ESPN after a Phillies win at Wrigley Field last month, which Reilly attended. “Santa’s on our side, and I love it.”

The 68-year-old is originally from Baltimore, but he certainly knows Philly’s history with Santa. In the 80-plus times Reilly’s been showcased on TV over the last few years, it’s come up on more than a few occasions, including during last Wednesday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park.

“That is a brave man,” Cardinals broadcaster Chip Caray said of the lone Santa in a sea Philly sports fans.

People ask Reilly about it all the time — and make jokes about snowballs and batteries — but no one’s ever tried to throw one at him.

“I thought that it might happen at the Snow Bowl in the playoffs, but the snow came in a little later than expected,” Reilly said. “There wasn’t snow really in the parking lot before the game.”

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Reilly, who resides in Kingwood Township, N.J., hopes he’s helped rehabilitate Santa’s reputation in Philly through his costume, but he didn’t set out to dress as Santa because of the city’s history.

“Contrary to popular belief, the fans in Philadelphia embrace Santa Claus,” Reilly said. “That incident was blown out of proportion.”

Reilly previously was a professional Santa at Liberty Village in Flemington, N.J., during the holidays. He started wearing his Santa hats to a few concerts in the early 2010s, and in 2013 at the Liacouras Center, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong picked Reilly out of the crowd and brought “Santa” up on stage to sing with the band.

After that, Reilly started wearing the suit to Eagles and Phillies games and making more of a “spectacle” of himself. Now, adults and kids alike surround Reilly at Xfinity Live!, in the parking lot, and on the concourse at games to try to get a photo with him in full Santa garb.

“They would‘ve thought we were crazy if we said we saw Santa Claus in May,” said Candi Delp, from Reading. She was one of many who took a selfie with Reilly on Wednesday. “They would‘ve thought we were drinking too much. We needed proof.”

And Reilly was more than happy to provide the photographic evidence.

“If you put the suit on, you’ve got to expect it,” he said. “But I love people, and I do enjoy it. It makes me happy.”

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In warmer weather, Reilly will wear just the hat and a red T-shirt, but when it’s cooler, he puts on the full suit. He tries to sit as close to the field as possible for maximum visibility.

Occasionally, someone tells Reilly what they want for Christmas. Kids give him their sincere Christmas lists with toys or sports equipment.

“Kids — 5 years old, 6 years old — spot me, and they come running at me, and I put my arms out, and they just leap into the air into my arms, and that’s special,” Reilly said.

But the adults almost always ask for a championship, Reilly said. Or a starter, or a bullpen arm, or a center fielder. One fan on Wednesday asked him for a girlfriend for Christmas, although not quite as nicely.

Reilly has been dressing as Santa for events for almost 15 years, but he’s started doing it in earnest since the pandemic, after his wife died in April 2020.

“She never wanted to be Mrs. Claus,” Reilly said. “She had her own identity. She was a DJ for a nonprofit, but she tolerated me being Santa Claus. Once we came out of COVID, I kind of went off the deep end being Santa Claus and got into it more, and more and more often got into the full suit.

“It makes people happy. It just brings a smile to their face, and it makes me happy. It’s a win-win.”

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In the last year, Reilly estimates that he’s attended 80 events dressed as Santa, about 15 Phillies games, 30 concerts, and 13 Eagles games, including the playoffs and the Super Bowl, and spent about $45,000 to do so (although a good portion of that was just to get to Super Bowl LIX, which he says he doesn’t regret). He’s a staple on the rock concert circuit and has even started to follow the Phillies and Eagles on the road, including trips to Wrigley Field and to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

About half the time, Reilly attends games on his own, but he also goes with friends, intentionally or unintentionally. In Arlington, he sat down in his seats near the 25-yard line and found Jamie Pagliei, known as the Philly Sports Guy, sitting right next to him.

In his years of being Santa, Reilly has made a number of friends. People send him messages on Facebook and Instagram with photos of him from years ago, asking if the Santa they saw at a concert or a Phillies game was him. Just after telling a story about crowd-surfing over the rail at an Iron Maiden concert years ago, Reilly opened his messages to see someone asking if the crowd-surfing Santa they’d seen at that same concert was him.

On Wednesday, one of the friends Reilly made on Facebook through being Santa brought a friend, Mark Moss, to the game for their birthday. Reilly walked up from his spot in the second row behind the Cardinals’ dugout to the upper deck, stopping six times to take photos with kids who saw him on the concourse and asked politely if they could get a picture.

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Up in Section 333, Reilly walked through the rows, trying to find his friend. Two young boys stood at the top of the stairs, calling “Santa!” to lure him back over to take a picture. Fans called down from the 400 level, trying to grab Santa’s attention. Reilly still managed to surprise Moss, and led the entire section in singing “Happy Birthday,” just as the birthday messages scrolled down the big video board.

And he tries never to leave anyone hanging. Those two boys got their photo with Santa. They’re hoping for baseball cards for Christmas.

“Sometimes I wonder what’s wrong with me that I like all the attention,” Reilly said. “I think part of it is that I’m lonely, it’s just me and my dog. But when I’m at a game, or at a concert, I might be alone, but I’m not lonely. I’m surrounded by so many friends.”