Jeffrey Lurie says he's awed by expressions of emotion from Eagles fans since Super Bowl
The Eagles' owner says he's watched his team's Super Bowl triumph seven times, and still gets nervous when the Patriots take the 33-32 lead they held late in the game.
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ORLANDO — Sometimes it feels as if every week is the week after the Super Bowl for Jeffrey Lurie, when the Eagles' chairman encounters fans whose lifelong dreams he helped fulfill.
"It wasn't just the parade, it wasn't just on the field with the confetti, it's every day since. And the stories — I can't tell you how many times people come up to me wherever it is, there's always Eagles fans everywhere — and they may just see you and start crying," Lurie said Tuesday evening at the NFL meetings. "They may see you and start hyperventilating. The stories they have with their mothers, their fathers, who they got to experience it with.
"I don't know if you could explain it to fans everywhere in the country, but those of us who know the passion and the love for this football team, and how much they've wanted the Eagles to win a Super Bowl, it's like it gets played out every day in a real emotional, personal way."
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Of course, the quest was personal for Lurie as well, having pursued a championship since he bought the Eagles from Norman Braman in 1994. At age 66, he finally was able to share the moment he'd dreamed of with his 90-year-old mother, Nancy.
"One of my dreams was to be able to win the Super Bowl while my mom could still enjoy it, and she's 90, it's the first time she's been out of her house and out of her neighborhood in a couple of years. She was able to make it on Saturday to Minneapolis and be with me for the Super Bowl, and afterward, she partied till 2 in the morning. … It meant just so much to me personally … the team, in so many ways, represented the best in her. Resiliency is a huge part of her life, and to give trust and unconditional love to her kids," who lost their father, Morris, at age 44, in 1961.
Lurie talked of how proud he was of his organization, of Howie Roseman and Doug Pederson, in particular. And he acknowledged how nervous he was on Feb. 4 at U.S. Bank Stadium, as the outcome teetered in the balance, even on the final play.
"On the Hail Mary pass by [Tom] Brady, when the ball dropped to the ground, I had to look at the clock, because I didn't know if he had one more throw, had to see if there were zero seconds left," Lurie recalled. "It was just an enveloping, emotional feeling of, 'We just won the Super Bowl.' And then I quickly got into this thing of, 'You know, we're going to have to rush down there for the trophy presentation, and am I going to be able to sort of hold of hold it together, or am I going to be the first owner to be tearing up and not even be able to raise the trophy? I didn't want to do that."
Lurie said he has watched the NFC championship rout of Minnesota four times, but rewatching the Super Bowl is different.
"I've probably watched the game now seven times … every single time when we go down 33-32, I still get nervous," Lurie said. "It's like I want to watch the rest, but I'm not completely sure."
Kelly green progress?
Lurie said the Eagles have intensified their quest to get the NFL to allow teams to wear two sets of helmets, which would pave the way for his team to wear their traditional kelly green uniforms on occasion. But they haven't yet succeeded.
"They very much know we want this and we want it badly. We're waiting," Lurie said, who said he spoke to league officials on the matter on Monday.
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