The possible transition from Jeff Lurie operating the Eagles to his son taking over appears to be one step closer to reality.
Julian Lurie, who’s in his late 20s, now has his own office at the NovaCare Complex and a formal title and has begun working in the building on a daily basis as he learns the inner workings of the franchise.
This nugget was first reported Wednesday by Bo Wulf of The Athletic.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
It’s been known for a while that Julian Lurie has been working with the team and learning various aspects of football operations. He was visible at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., in February working alongside Howie Roseman, Nick Sirianni and Jeff Stoutland.
And at the owners meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., in March, Lurie confirmed that his son shares his passion for the game but said he hasn’t had a specific conversation with Julian one day taking over the franchise and doesn’t know if that’s what he wants.
“I don't know that exactly,” he said. “We haven't fully talked about that. I can say that he has my passion for the sport and the Eagles. I can tell you that.”
Lurie said if Julian does take over the Eagles one day, he’ll be more prepared than he was thanks to his early involvement in team operations.
NFL
“Like a lot of children of families that own teams, kind of bring them along,” Lurie said. “I want to expose him to all aspects of both the business side and the operational side. The nuts and bolts and also the strategy side.
“He’s a real sharp guy, and he’s going to have so much more going into it than I ever did if he chooses to want to someday own and run the team. He’s going to have a gigantic advantage. Maybe he won’t make some of the early mistakes I made.”
According to the Athletic, Lurie has been given a title including “business and football operations strategy,” although it wasn’t clear whether he will be a vice president, director, manager or something different at this point.
What’s most interesting is that the younger Lurie is familiarizing himself with every aspect of the business and football operation, as his new title reflects, and learning to work with people in various departments in the team’s front office.
Jeff Lurie has owned the Eagles longer than anybody in franchise history.
He bought the team from Norman Braman for $185 million in 1994 and has owned the Eagles for 27 years, or nearly a third of their 89-year existence. The team is now worth about $3.8 billion, according to Forbes.
The second-longest ownership in franchise history belongs to Leonard Tose, who owned the team for 15 years before selling to Braman in 1985.
Since Lurie bought the team, the Eagles have the 9th-best record in the NFL, and they’ve reached the playoffs 16 times, 5th-most in the league (behind the Patriots, Packers, Colts and Steelers). They won their first Super Bowl and first championship since 1960 in 2017.
The Harvard-educated Julian Lurie was in the NFL’s junior rotational program from June 2017 through September 2019 learning different aspects of league operations.
Subscribe to the Eagle Eye podcast
Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | Watch on YouTube