Jeffrey Lurie Says He Gave Chip Kelly Too Much Power, Also Annoyed by a Certain Football Topic
Great interview with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie via Sheil Kapadia over at The Athletic.
It’s titled “Jeffrey Lurie opens up about autism advocacy, analytics and 25 years of owning the Eagles,” and there are three things that really stood out to me in the wide-ranging discussion.:
1.”establishing the run”
You know how everybody on Twitter and sports radio complains about the Eagles not running the ball enough? They don’t “establish” the run or “commit” to the run. They throw the ball too much. So on, and so forth.
That talk annoys Lurie just as much as anybody:
Asked now about what he thinks when he hears announcers say a team has to establish the run, Lurie rolls his eyes and looks exasperated. He takes a long pause and makes sure to choose his words carefully.
“What’s the right way to say this?” he asks himself out loud. “It’s just not a truthful way of reporting based on all the information we now have. OK? That’s sort of a nice way to say it.”
Lurie talks about analytics in the interview and supports Doug Pederson’s aggressive nature. That’s a big reason why the Birds finally won the Super Bowl.
2. Chip Kelly
Lurie spoke about the regret of demoting Howie Roseman and allowing Chip Kelly to take over his team’s personnel decisions:
“I don’t regret the hiring of him because it was done with a really good thought process,” Lurie says.
“But, yes, I would say I regret giving him the kind of authority I gave him, yeah. That’s an easy one.”
I think we all agree on that.
3. Premier League interest?
A lot of owners have side hustles, right? Side interests and other sporting ventures outside of the organization they’re typically know for.
Lurie says he was interested in buying into the English Premier League:
During the 25-year run, only five NFL organizations have won more games than the Eagles. And there have been some fun what-ifs for Lurie along the way.
“I did look into buying other sports teams when I owned the Eagles, and I regret maybe one of them,” Lurie says. “There was probably an opportunity to be a significant owner of Arsenal. I wasn’t able to convince enough of the people that were possibly interested in selling at the time. But I saw it similar to the Eagles where it’s kind of a difficult stadium situation. And what if you build a new stadium and it’s right in London? I saw it as a refresh (to) energize that franchise, that team.”
Arsenal is owned by American businessman Stan Kroenke, who also owns the LA Rams, the Colorado Rapids, and other teams.
