Eagles

What if Philadelphia Eagles Beat Writer was an Elected Position?

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Feb 2nd, 2026 · 1:10 PM EST

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We published an award-losing blog a few weeks ago titled “Howie Roseman Suggests a Deli Counter to Streamline the Question Asking Process at Eagles Press Conferences.” It was in response to a cheeky Howie comment after the beats were talking over each other at a recent media availability.

Contained within was this paragraph:

“I actually have a different idea entirely. The beat writers represent the fans, yeah? They essentially serve as the conduit between the fans and the team. What if we made Eagles beat writer an elected position? Kind of like school board. We vote every year for 12 writers who will have the opportunity to ask questions at the press conferences and go into the locker room. We will remove them from their private sector journalism organizations and make them public employees of the Commonwealth.”

I’d like to revisit this because I think it’s a good idea. Instead of independent publications sending a hundred scribes down there – what if we the people decide who represents us? Aren’t the Philadelphia Eagles a public asset? Well, not technically, but sort of. Jeffrey Lurie seems philosophically aligned with John Middleton, that they’re private business owners but functioning as stewards of public interest. If that’s the case, then let’s run a direct line between the fans and the team and hold annual elections to determine who has the honour and the privilege of access to the region’s top team.

Benefits would include a competitive salary, healthcare, 401k and a pension, plus six weeks of vacation. We’d fund these new Commonwealth jobs by privatizing the liquor stores instead, like an alcohol-for-scribe swap, or we could cut PennDOT’s funding by 1% since they’re useless anyway. It takes years to finish a damn project and whenever you drive by a “construction” zone it’s one dude working while five other dudes stand there and watch.

For the media outlets that lose their writers to the public vote, they would be compensated with matching salary to hire a temporary replacement for the current election cycle. But that person is not allowed to go to the games or the press conferences. They can do feature stories or sit on their ass and write snarky blog posts. Then, when their writer loses their next election, they return to their original job and the replacement employee’s salary is no longer guaranteed.

That’s the basic framework. Everybody runs as an independent, by the way, no Republicans or Democrats.

Now let’s break it down:

Positives

• Fewer writers means more clarity at press conferences and in scrums, i.e. no more yelling over each other to get questions in. There will be much more order and beats won’t be telling each other to shut up.
• Since the writers are now elected figures, they must do the public bidding, and ask the questions we want asked. No more softballs or stupid-ass injury questions. Nick Sirianni doesn’t answer injury questions anyway. Those are a waste of time.
• Removing the credential collectors and posers, the people who are just there to see and be seen. “Look at me, I’m in the press box!”
• The ability to build a more complementary beat corps, perhaps 3-4 standard beats, a data and analytics guy, a film guy, etc. You could hit the Birds from all angles and eliminate redundancy.
• Since there are fewer people down there, it’s more comfortable for the players and they have an easier time developing relationships with the beats, who in turn dig up more information and do better reporting.

Negatives

• Just like politics, people will check a box without doing any research.
• Lack of diversity, perhaps 12 balding white men win all of the elected positions. Or we end up with 12 Pennsylvania-based beats and no one from South Jersey or Delaware.
• Fans end up voting in some YouTube types who don’t have any experience and don’t know what they’re doing.
• Jeopardizing team relationship with partners, for instance, if ESP doesn’t receive enough votes WIP will be iced out of the press conferences despite having the radio rights.
• Ballot rigging, hanging chads, deceased Eagles fans on the voter roll.
• Birds will want to have a say in the credentialing process / possible conflict with the PR staff.

Considerations

You could argue that there already is a public element to this because you can either support or not support a writer and their outlet. If you don’t want writer X asking stupid questions, then don’t read writer X and don’t consume any of their publication’s content. Eventually the publication decides to go in another direction.

Easier said than done, of course, like boycotting Meta and all of the scammy Asian shit that’s absolutely killing publishers right now.

There’s also the Pro Football Writers of America, who would likely be against this, so we’d have to negotiate with them. Maybe a bribe or payoff or something. This is politics, right?

As far as term limits, I’m not so sure. What if somebody is really good at the job, like Ray Didinger? Wouldn’t we want that person to serve an indefinite amount of terms? It’s a public vote anyway, so it’s not like they’re entrenched for life. What is this, authoritarian Russia? The United States Supreme Court?

disclaimer: this story is only about 85% serious