Lurie’s Eagles Soar to Super Bowl Showdown
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Lurie’s Eagles Soar to Super Bowl Showdown

The Philadelphia Eagles topped the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship and will face the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

Over the past three decades, since Jeffrey Lurie assumed control over the Philadelphia Eagles franchise, few NFL teams have enjoyed such a sustained level of success // Photo Credit: Philadelphia Eagles social media
Over the past three decades, since Jeffrey Lurie assumed control over the Philadelphia Eagles franchise, few NFL teams have enjoyed such a sustained level of success // Photo Credit: Philadelphia Eagles social media

After Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts barged into the endzone from a yard out to give the Eagles a commanding 40-23 advantage with 12:26 left in last Sunday’s NFC Championship Game at Lincoln Financial Field, the FOX telecast flashed to a beaming Jeffrey Lurie in the owner’s box.

For the past decade, the Eagles’ principal owner celebrating during nationally televised postseason games in late January has become an all too familiar scene amidst his team’s run of being a perennial Super Bowl contender. Indeed, this year is no different as the Eagles, by virtue of their 55-23 pasting of the Josh Harris-owned Washington Commanders, are headed to Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans where they will face the Kansas City Chiefs, who are gunning for a three-peat.

The Eagles will make their fifth Super Bowl appearance and third since 2017, when the franchise won its first-ever title, a 41-33 win over the New England Patriots, owned by Robert Kraft, in Super Bowl 52. That the Eagles would come out of the NFC this year seemed like a pipe dream back in September when Philly dropped a Week 2 home game to the Falcons amid questions about team chemistry and potential coaching instability. But since the end of September, the Eagles have lost merely once and, after posting the most ever points in a conference championship game, loom as a legit threat to dethrone the mighty Chiefs in the Big Easy.

When he was being interviewed by FOX commentator Terry Bradshaw during the postgame ceremony awarding the NFC champs the George Halas trophy, Lurie didn’t buy into the narrative that it was shocking to see the Eagles, the franchise that he has presided over since 1994, in their second Super Bowl in three seasons (in Super Bowl 57 two years ago, the Eagles fell to the Chiefs, 38-35.)

“Well, it’s kind of expected, I think,” answered Lurie, who was raised in a Greater Boston Jewish household and received his doctorate in social policy from Brandeis University before leaving academia to assume an executive role at General Cinema Corporation, the film company founded by his grandfather, in 1983, and later, starting Chestnut Hill Productions.

“The most unselfish, humble group of players, coaches led by Nick [Sirianni], Howie [Roseman] and his staff, I mean the best fans in the world. It’s a pretty strong cocktail. I like that cocktail. It’s great to be back and we’re there to win it.”

Should the Eagles avenge their Super Bowl 57 loss next Sunday, Howie Roseman, the Eagles’ executive vice president/general manager and two-time NFL Executive of the Year and architect of the first Super Bowl championship in franchise history, will surely get his flowers for assembling what many consider to be the most stacked roster in the NFL. Roseman, who was raised in a Jewish home in Marlboro Township, N.J., and currently belongs to Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley, Penn., has garnered a sterling league-wide reputation for his outside-the-box thinking in acquiring discarded players and sound judgment in offering extensions to the right personnel.

As for this year’s Super Bowl run, Roseman campaigned hard for the organization to acquire free agent running back Saquon Barkley, who was coming off a few uneven, injury-riddled seasons with the New York Giants. Some pundits thought Roseman and the Eagles’ brass were foolish to shell out a massive contract to an oft-injured running back in his late twenties; but, of course, Barkley continues to have one of the most sensational seasons in league history. Meanwhile, during last April’s NFL Draft, Roseman seemingly fortified his roster for future years of sustained success by making all the right moves.

“We’ve gotten great contributions from our rookie class,” noted Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni in his press conference following the NFC Championship Game. “That’s a tribute to Howie and his staff and all the work they put in to get the right type of guys in, first and foremost.”

Certainly, it hasn’t always been a pleasure cruise for Roseman during his time as Eagles GM/executive VP of football ops, which started in 2010. Back in 2015, he was, for all intents and purposes, relieved of his role of overseeing personnel after losing a power struggle with ex-coach Chip Kelly. Five years later, on the heels of a disappointing 2020 campaign, legions of Eagles fans were calling for Roseman to be outright fired. But two years after each of those flashpoints, the Eagles found themselves in the Super Bowl.

And now they find themselves back for the third time in eight years.
“Great organization that we have, starting with Mr. Lurie, Howie,” reiterated Sirianni. “I don’t think I’ve shied away from how much those guys mean to me. Again, you can’t be great without the greatness of others. And it starts with Mr. Lurie. Howie does a great job of getting guys in here. Just to have that solid GM that’s been through everything is huge. A great partnership I have with him.”

Kansas City will surely go down as the team of the 2020s, but with nine trips to the postseason in the past 14 years and three NFC crowns and counting, the Eagles, backed by the leadership of Lurie and Roseman, have established themselves as the class of the NFC.

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