Whatever Happened to Joe Banner?
The Eagles' president has been practically invisible during an offseason that has featured a distinct lack of strife in contract negotiations.
Whatever Happened to Joe Banner?
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
This is the column I wrote for SportsWeek, which most people don't see until a carrier pigeon posts it on the Internet, three weeks after a full moon, or something:
It was a natural question from a Twitter follower to an Eagles reporter, the follower presumably watching Thursday evening’s LeSean McCoy contract news conference live on the Eagles’ website.
“Where is Joe Banner?”
There were chairs on the NovaCare auditorium stage for Eagles coach Andy Reid, running back McCoy, and general manager Howie Roseman. To the side of the stage stood agent Drew Rosenhaus, prominently available for post-conference spin. At signings past, team president Banner has tended to assume that position, there in the wings if you wanted his background, his take on what the team had done. This offseason, you would have better luck finding Terrell Owens at a gathering of investment gurus.
Thursday, it turns out, Banner was at the annual dinner for City Year, the charity for which he serves as co-chair. But the fact remains that as Roseman settles into the GM job, roles are shifting, at least subtly. The quotes from Rosenhaus after the conference announcing the five-year, $45 million extension were fascinating to parse. Rosenhaus trumpeted how important Reid was to getting a deal done with McCoy, who was heading into the final season of his rookie deal, what a pleasure it was dealing with Roseman.
“I think so,” Rosenhaus said, when asked if Reid’s role was larger this time than it would have been in a similar negotiation several years back. “Certainly I can’t speak for him, but in the multitude of deals we’ve negotiated with the Eagles, which are in the dozens since he’s been the head coach, this is the most involved I’ve seen him.”
Rosenhaus added that he “had a chance to visit with Joe Banner, I had a chance to visit with [chairman] Jeffrey Lurie. Both those guys were very involved, too. The meat and potatoes negotiations were with Howie, but this was a team approach.”
A “chance to visit” with Joe Banner? One of the league’s most feared negotiators is now the equivalent of Aunt Sophie, a person you “visit with” when you’re in town? Did Joe serve tea cakes? Was there punch?
A little background. Two months ago, respected NFL writer Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times reported that two league sources had told him that Reid demanded and got more say in personnel matters this offseason. Reid responded to Farmer’s report by issuing a statement saying he had always had complete personnel control – which is sort of true and sort of not true, as I see it. I think the Eagles don’t sign players Reid doesn’t want. Do they always sign every player he wants, though? I’m less sure of that. And there are gray areas of personnel control, such as, say, sitting in on contract talks with key players, pushing for a resolution. That is not something that happened with, say, Bsrian Westbrook, Or Brian Dawkins.
Of course, the idea of a “trending” graphic that features Andy with an “up” arrow beside his name and Joe with a “down” arrow is simplistic, and ignores a few inconvenient facts. The biggest is that it is Reid who is working in the next-to-last year of his contract, which will have to be addressed after the 2012 season, at the latest. And it is Banner who said, more than a year ago, that Reid needed to win a Super Bowl to get another deal.
I don’t think ownership is eager to part with Reid, to start over with somebody else and undo all the stuff that would need undoing -- Jim Washburn, Howard Mudd, Michael Vick, etc. I think one way to look at what’s going on this offseason is that they’ve agreed to do everything Andy’s way, to give him everything he says he needs, to make that one last push. This time, if the Eagles falter, there won’t be a lot of excuses.
But I also think something IS up with Banner, and with Lurie’s angst over how his organization is perceived, by the public and by the players. This offseason, we’ve seen Reid and the folks who handle Reid make an effort to present the coach to reporters in candid, off-camera moments, where there is less throat-clearing and more real conversation. We have seen a lot of former Banner protégé Roseman, who clearly is being marketed as the face of the front office. And we have seen Banner, everyone’s favorite antagonist, not at all.
“We’ve had success working with Howie,” Rosenhaus said Thursday. When I asked the agent if he thought the process of doing a major deal with a returning Eagles player was different now than it was several years ago, his answer began with “Yeah, there’s no question.”
But from that point, Rosenhaus started talking about how aggressive the Eagles are in retaining talent, which, in fairness to Banner, is not a new thing. While the public always noticed the high-profile departures, usually of 30-plus vets, Banner could always quote you stats on how good the team was at maintaining continuity, overall. (Hence, the long-term, below market deals for overachieving youngsters who had years left on their original contracts.) If there had been a 23-year-old Shady McCoy on the team 5 or 10 years ago, when Banner was running all the contract talks, you would have seen him retained, one way or another, for as long as he was at the top of his game. Probably the closest parallel would be the 2002 Donovan McNabb contract extension, which was not bitterly contested.
But under the old thinking, would the Eagles have also signed Evan Mathis, Todd Herremans and Trent Cole, not to mention DeSean Jackson, to splashy new deals this offseason, with a remarkable lack of bruising and stress? I don’t think so. I think for whatever reason, Roseman is running contract talks now, with Banner in the background, and Roseman just comes off as less adversarial than Banner, even if the money he has to work with is roughly the same. You used to hear disappointed departing stars and their agents complain privately that they felt Banner made the dispute personal, that in pushing his perspective, he disrespected and devalued the player. I’m not hearing that complaint about Roseman.
Rosenhaus said he knows the Eagles could have made the McCoy contract a tougher slog. They could have stuck to their guns on the fact that Houston’s Arian Foster, whose deal proved to be the benchmark, had negotiated that contract as a restricted free agent, a crucial difference. They could have made McCoy choose between either signing a contract that was a solid financial notch below Foster or risking injury this season, to possibly end up being franchised, with no long-term commitment at all. They could have pressed their advantage a lot harder.
“He’s part of the family,” Roseman said of McCoy, sitting elbow-to-elbow on the stage. That’s not an image I’ve heard a lot over the years from the Birds’ front office, when talking about those fungible assets that throw, run, catch and kick the football.
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To me this feels more like the Eagles where AR's word held sway. Who cares why ? Happy players, better results than unhappy players. Let Joe B do his thing he does it well. Let AR and Howie do theirs. Go Eagles !— oldBird
What I got from this was the notion that Reid will replace Banner as team president either after the season or when his contract is up— dmac3792- What I got from this was the notion that Reid will replace Banner as team president either after the season or when his contract is up— dmac3792
- What I got from this was the notion that Reid will replace Banner as team president either after the season or when his contract is up— dmac3792
- Soulman is right, but in a company that 'annoying guy' is never the face of the company, so the Eagles have done the right thing in minimizing his face time with the media. Roseman is actually much better at telling you nothing, he does it with a smile on his face , and in a very non confrontational way.— drbob1
- Great piece, Les.— CrotchetyOldMan
- The only reason I read this column was the report that the Eagles had signed the QB they drafted and that the only draft pick left unsigned was the #1 pick.Wow,how refreshing it was to see the Eagles getting all their business done,player wise,so early without the usual controversial holdout.Just a little interesting tidbit.— homer2811
- Anyone, and I mean anyone who has dealt with Banner and his office as a fan (who are paying the team big bucks for these suites) will understand that the guy is a weasel and want no part of him. He has no interest in the fan except for their money and I'm sure he does the same to players. Is there any surprise why this front office staff is totally disliked by this town including the owner. Hello Joe Banner. The image will improve once this guy leaves town.— alwaysphil1
- Give credit where it's due: Banner has been the best cap guy for years; but I gotta' think that within five minutes of meeting him you'ld wanta' punch him in that sneering mouth of his. Roseman, and his smile, seem much more likeable; 'course he might be the guy who smiles while he's slipping the knife in.— Warhound
Banner has as much to do with the Eagles failure to win a Super Bowl as do Lurie and Reid. Yes, his is a thankless job. Yes, he's done it very well. Yes, the Eagles have always had ample cap room to acquire players. But the Eagles have only been a competitive team. It's been an organizational failure - meaning top to bottom - to not only declare themselves the Gold Standard, but to also fail to live up to it.
Banner? He's small potato's. He's a bean-counter for christ's sake, what does he know about football? If Lurie wants the guy out of the public discussion then great. But he needs to do better than that. He needs to cut out the cancerous tumor known as Andy Reid because all he shows me is a propensity for repeating the same mistakes.
The Eagles are a joke of a franchise, more concerned with their philanthropic endeavors than winning the big game. More concerned about their bottom line than the people who shell out hard-earned money only to see the same results over and over again.
I'll be so glad to see Lurie get out of owning the Eagles. Just when I thought we couldn't do worse than Braman.....— Atomic Fury- Hey bedpan (and I think yours is full), save your ALL-CAPS FLAMING for a forum which might be impressed.— NM Eagle fan
- Roseman has been more prominent this offseason because the major deals were all with Rosenhaus and those two are pretty much the same guy.— bc3030
- why would Joe need to be out front, he can easily just count the money and upset people from the back room.— CharlieGarner25
- It's about time Lurie wised up. I always said that if I owned the Eagles, I would not allow Banner to speak to the media at all. The guy just can't help himself, and always says something arrogant or abrasive. He may be a good businessman, but Banner has no people skills whatsoever.— phink
- No more excuses Andy, you got EVERYTHING you wanted. If this team underachievers it is ALL on you.ninjuries happen to every team, so that excuse won't fly either
- No one is closer to Lurie than Joe Banner. Not Roseman. Not Reid. Let's not try to inject intrigue into what appears to be a new way of the Eagles conducting business. Banner has never received credit for doing a thankless job. Somebody in every NFL organization has to say "No" and mean it. When that happens, guys like Dawkins move on. Was he really worth $11 mil to the Broncos? He wasn't to the Eagles and I agree with the decision to let him walk. Just enjoy the recent extensions, the signings and the draft. The rest will take care of itself. If Reid wins, he's here for the long term. If he doesn't, he's gone.— 1republican
- Really? republican, Reall?. You're happy with the trash they have thrown out there since Dawkins left? Even the guy you are defending is on record of saying he should have re-signed Dawkins. I get Banner has a tough job, I think he is pretty good at it, but this organization needed to evolve, looks like they are finally doing that!
Sets up Reid for failure. If the Birds fall flat on their butts again, Reid and Roseman will take the fall, not Banner. Lurie is protecting his long time pal and confidant.
If Birds win it all.......Banner will be there.- It's about FLIPPIN" TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!— Justicek
- I really dont care about this stuff . Almost seems like chick gossip. I just want the birds to win a super bowl. Period.— Corey301
- Please run for office, sir! — Manwees
- Joe Banner makse sure we are profitable so every years since he as been here. We have always had cap space. I also think that Banner has learned to back off some.— dmanphilly
- Don't be fooled, Joe Nickels is still very much part of the Accounting Firm. The Eagles organization has simply wised up to the fact that the public has caught on to their shenanigans. Mailroom Howie is Joe's monkeyboy while he lurks in the shadows. Hollywood guy still cares mostly about dollars than championship wins.
— Trashcan_Man - Joe Nickels was over at Jeffrie Lauries house mowing the lawn and cleaning the toilets. Times yours.— kelprod2
- Yes soulman,Banner is like the annoying guy in accounting and he has annoyed himself out of the picture...thankfully.
Lurie deserves credit for removing him from the public eye and allowing Reid and Roseman to be the faces for the franchise.
Fans,reporters and players agents have all breathed a sigh of relief with this change...some are best appreciated from afar.— greenbloodVAEagle - @Soulman386 - eh, what? Or should I say: eh, what? x 3.— reek3232
- Joe Banner doesn't pick players. He runs the business side of the franchise and manages the cap. He has done excellent job at managing the cap. I don't understand why fans don't acknowledge that and give him credit. The blame for not winning a superbowl should rest on Andy Reid and who picks and coaches the players. Joe Banner is like the annoying guy in the accounting department who requires people to conform to processes and rules. But you need people like that.— soulman386
- Joe Banner doesn't pick players. He runs the business side of the franchise and manages the cap. He has done excellent job at managing the cap. I don't understand why fans don't acknowledge that and give him credit. The blame for not winning a superbowl should rest on Andy Reid and who picks and coaches the players. Joe Banner is like the annoying guy in the accounting department who requires people to conform to processes and rules. But you need people like that.— soulman386
- Joe Banner doesn't pick players. He runs the business side of the franchise and manages the cap. He has done excellent job at managing the cap. I don't understand why fans don't acknowledge that and give him credit. The blame for not winning a superbowl should rest on Andy Reid and who picks and coaches the players. Joe Banner is like the annoying guy in the accounting department who requires people to conform to processes and rules. But you need people like that.— soulman386
- So soulman386, if Banner is the one managing the cap, who is determining the players value to the team? Reid or Banner? If Reid says he wants player "X" to be signed, but Banner says player "X" is not worth his asking price, does Reid take the blame when player "X" turns into a pro-bowler at a spot where the Eagles end up having a need? — BeFrank
- Amen Mr soulman386, amen. — Manwees
