Why A Season that Ended in Collapse Doesn’t Diminish the Strength of the Eagles in 2024.
On Tuesday, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie took to the podium for his annual meeting with the Press about the Eagles to talk about season and where he sees the team going.
For years during the mid-2000s, I would be in attendance at Eagles Training Camp at Lehigh University. Each year in the August, there was Jeffrey Lurie, watching intently in the Pennsylvania sun and eyes covered by sunglasses as he proudly observed his franchise.
His Philadelphia Eagles.
It’s Been 30 years since fourty-two year old Jeffrey Lurie purchased the Philadelphia Eagles for $185 Million in 1994. While it’s true that Lurie is not the most successful owner in Eagles history — his franchise is not only a beloved Philadelphia tradition since 1933 — but also the strongest that the Eagles have ever been.
Both nationally and internationally.
This year is another anniversary for Eagles leadership. Fourty years ago in December of 2024 — Eagles owner Leonard Tose’ plan to move the Eagles to Arizona after not getting the immediate support that he requested from the City of Philadelphia to build Skyboxes in Veteran’s Stadium — was exposed by the Philadelphia media.
Shortly after in April of 1985, Norman Braman and Ed Leibowitz bought the Eagles.
This month, the news broke that the Eagles will play Eagles to Sao Palo Brazil in the first ever NFL game in over 50 years and the first ever in South America on Friday evening, September 6th.
Lurie’s continued growth of Bert Bell’s 1933 visionary team for all Philadelphia — not just for Frankford — hasn’t seen the success of the “Happy Hundred,” a group of investors who owned the Eagles during the Championship years of 1949 and 1960 before the NFL/AFL merger.
But longest-tenured Eagles owner has won a modern-day Super Bowl in 2018, which still the crowning victory for any NFL team between the NFC and AFC Conferences.
While behind the scenes, he has accomplished much more.
When Lurie borrowed $185 Million to buy the Eagles in 1994, after contemplating owning other sports’ franchises like the New England Patriots, the Eagles were far from championship caliber. The last World Championship had been in 1960, last Super Bowl appearance in 1981, and the exileration of Buddy Ryan’s Gang Green Defense had not brought the Eagles any closer to a title.
Since 1994, Lurie has delivered on a consistent contender in Philadelphia as he promised. When the Eagles were farthest from that promise, he has always took decisive action. Rich Kotite was out in 1994, Ray Rhodes in 1998, and a rebellious Chip Kelly in 2015. He even parted ways with Super Bowl winning coach Doug Pederson in 2021.
What Lurie has delivered is a consistent, quality, on-field product. Under Eagles Coach Andy Reid (coached in the Super Bowl) the Eagles were the class of the NFC in the early 2000s. They appeared in five NFC Championship Games, one Super Bowl, and six NFC East Titles between 2000–2010.
Then we enjoyed the euphoric sensation of the 2018 season that delivered Eagles’ fans almost everything that they wanted (I said almost.) The Eagles outmaneuvered Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and the New England Patriots to to bring home the Lombardi Trophy, ran the Minnesota Vikings out of Philadelphia in the NFC Championship Game, and made a huge defensive stand against Julio Jones and the Falcons in the NFC Divisional Playoff Game. Jones now plays for the Eagles.
And last season — a year of nearly Eagles perfection — saw the Eagles lose the Super Bowl to Andy Reid and the Chiefs 38–35. If we had time left on the clock, few in the greater the greater Philadelphia area think that the outcome couldn’t have been different. It could have been another Broad Street Parade once again.
The Philadelphia Eagles, Jeffrey Lurie’s $185 Million investment — now a reported value of $5.6 Billion — are reportedly the #4 most popular NFL team in 2024 according to SportingLad.com. In 2022, the Eagles made $598 Million in revenue. The Eagles have an outstanding 34.1% international fanbase according to gambling.com, which is one of the highest in the whole NFL.
And now, they are an international sensation as well. In March of 2022, the Eagles became the 19th NFL Team to enter the NFL Global Market, securing rights in Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. Last year during the Super Bowl, the Eagles even hosted an international watch-party in Accu, Ghana sponsored by GATE Africa. In 2022, they were the first team in the NFL to enter the African market.
Certainly, the Eagles don’t as yet garnish the international the fame as the most popular international team (unfortunately the Dallas Cowboys) but with their current upward trajectory, all the reason exists to believe that eventually they can claim the the position of the NFL’s number one most-popular international team.
Looking back on those August summer days of seeing Jeff Lurie proudly on the sidelines at Training Camp, it’s no wonder why.
The post Jeffrey Lurie’s 2024 Juggernaut appeared first on Philadelphia Sports Nation.