Category: Sports

Julian Lurie wanted to push the Eagles beyond their normalities. Two years into his nebulously titled role in “business and football operations strategy,” the owner’s son had immersed himself in all facets of the team, but he had taken particular interest in — and authority over — original content and social media.

For NFL teams’ multimedia departments, schedule release day is their Super Bowl, and the Eagles’ creators had come up with a concept that was off-color by team standards. There would be censored curse words and jokes made at the expense of opponents.

Lurie loved the idea — which called for passionate Eagles fans to undergo psychological evaluations — and saw it as cutting edge. But a few senior leaders weren’t comfortable with the swearing and ridicule and liked it even less after watching the first cut. Lurie still advocated for the video, but he listened to counterarguments, and edits were made.

“There was a compromise,” a senior leader told The Inquirer.

Obscenities and insults were taken out — but not all of them. Asked how Lurie could hold that much sway without having an official executive role, a high-ranking team source gave the following explanation:

“His last name.”

Lurie is not just Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie’s only son, he is his successor. And while that reality has caused occasional challenges since he took a formal role in the family business four years ago — and as management navigates his increasing influence — many key figures within the organization believe the younger Lurie already has been an asset.

“He is really smart. He’s very creative. He’s very empathetic,” an Eagles source said. “He’s really good at putting himself in other people’s shoes. He’s fair, and he listens and is making a real attempt to understand everything about the organization.”

The Inquirer spent the last several months talking with nearly two dozen Eagles sources, past and present, as well as other NFL sources familiar with the team’s inner workings, about the 31-year-old Lurie. Many sources requested and were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the subject or felt they couldn’t speak freely if named.

The Eagles declined interview requests for the Luries and other key members of the organization for this story.

The interviews with sources revealed Julian’s already considerable prominence. They also depicted an intense but thoughtful young man who was born not only into great privilege, but with a shared civic passion for the football team his father bought in 1994, the year before Julian was born.

“If I lived in Philadelphia and I was an Eagles fan, I would feel really good about him as a steward of the franchise in the future,” a team source said. “I really do think he cares about the team and the city and the players.”

To prepare for his eventual birthright, Julian has delved into the nuts and bolts of operations. From affairs as expansive as spending on the business and football sides to matters as minute as the strains of grass on the practice fields, he has asked the “why” behind the “what.”

His 74-year-old father remains chairman and CEO and has said he has no plans of ceding control, even if he now spends less time in Philadelphia than previously. But Julian has been a part of decision-making for some time now, which may come as a surprise to outsiders who know next to nothing about the Eagles’ future owner.

Inside the Jefferson Health Training Complex, his standing — if not his title — is clear.

“I didn’t even know he had one,” an Eagles staffer said about the younger Lurie’s job description. “To everyone here, he’s an owner.”

And as an owner, Julian can sit in on every high-level meeting. On the business side, it might be about the exploration of a new stadium concept or corporate sponsorships. On the football side, he may be present for team meetings or sit-downs on free agency and the draft. And he’s often in the building.

Jeffrey Lurie has final say and still exerts control when it comes to major decisions. But he has longtime direct reports in team president Don Smolenski and general manager Howie Roseman, whom he has empowered. The same applies to sixth-year coach Nick Sirianni.

In his first few years with the Eagles, Julian might have sat in the corner and said nothing. But as his understanding of the team has grown, so has his voice. Like his father, he is a questioner.

“He likes to ask the opinions of people,” a high-ranking team source said of the younger Lurie. “Some people here don’t like to be questioned. But he’s a smart guy, and he doesn’t think he has all the answers. He’s willing to change his mind.

“He says, ‘I’m not right all the time, but I want people to be real and be honest with me.’”

The initial ambiguity about his role and his relatively speedy inclusion into decision-making, however, led to an adjustment period and occasional bumps in the road. The biggest sticking point, according to several sources close to the situation, was over the budget.

“When you add another dynamic to that, there’s always growing pains,” a team source said, “but not to the point where relationships have suffered.”

The Eagles have been one of the most successful NFL franchises over the last decade, having won two Super Bowls and gone to the playoffs in eight of the last 10 seasons. Smolenski, who has overseen business operations since 2012, and Roseman, who was given full authority over football in 2016, have built a robust enterprise.

That growth has mirrored the increase in wins. But there has been some bloat, and Julian took it upon himself to examine the Eagles’ expenditures. Some of that was for his own knowledge in preparation for when he succeeds his father.

But the Harvard graduate also wanted to explore more efficient ways to allocate spending, team sources said. “Honest conversations” were had, according to one source close to the situation, and Julian eventually came to appreciate much of the existing process. He also was credited with making suggestions that contributed to on-field success.

“From where he’s started to now,” a team source said, “it’s like night and day.”

His more significant contributions have come in presiding over fan-facing parts of the franchise, like original content and image and likeness. Julian spent two years working for Overtime, a sports media company based in New York, before joining the Eagles. And before that, he was a member of the NFL’s Junior Rotational Program, a two-year undergraduate internship.

His bosses at both outlets said Julian was serious-minded, hardworking, and brought zero entitlement to the job.

“He’s quiet, but he has a sense of humor and he laughs, and he’s willing to use that constructively,” former Overtime CEO Dan Porter said. “It’s not like he fits hardcore into some archetype like that. He’s honestly just a young person wanting to add value and learn in the world.

“And he also just happens to, a) be really smart, and, b) his dad owns the Eagles.”

Jeffrey Lurie is widely considered one of the NFL’s best owners after his three-plus decades in the league. His son will have big shoes to fill when the time comes. Julian is an outside-the-box thinker like his father, but he also wants to bring a younger sensibility to the Eagles — as he did with the schedule release video — sources close to him said.

He’s also become the more visible Lurie at team headquarters. But the elder Lurie, who spends most of his time at his West Palm Beach, Fla., estate, said his absences aren’t representative of a loosening of the reins.

“Maybe I still have a lot of gray hair, but I am probably more involved than ever, ironically,” Jeffrey Lurie said in March. He added, “It’s not that it’s behind the scenes. It’s very overt. But I will talk to my executives more often and probably with more intensity because I have a son that’s growing and learning everything.

“And, so, he can both watch how focused and intense I am still and yet, at the same time, learn from all the executives we have.”

Be a learner

Jeffrey said he has no plans to retire soon. When he talks about his good health in private, he often mentions his mother, Nancy Lurie Marks, who recently turned 99. But that hasn’t stopped some team leaders from wondering about a timeline regarding Julian’s succession.

“There’s no timeline, but I love the way it’s been going,” Lurie said three months ago at the league meetings in Phoenix. “He’s quite involved in the business operations, the football operations, philanthropic operations, marketing. He’s getting a great, great sort of feel for everything, and that’s the best way to do it.

“It’s not to speed it up.”

NFL owners recently approved succession plans for two teams. Last year, the Colts transferred Jim Irsay’s ownership to his three daughters following his death. And in March, the league affirmed the plan for Raiders owner Mark Davis, who doesn’t have children, to give a minority owner, Michael Meldman, the option to purchase a majority stake.

NFL ownership has long been a family enterprise. More than half the league’s 32 teams remain under family control, with prominent last names like the Rooneys, Maras, and Hunts having owned prosperous franchises for 60-plus years.

There also have been family-run teams that haven’t thrived or experienced generational decline.

The 49ers have not been one of them. Team owner Jed York, like Julian Lurie, was brought into the fold of his family’s franchise in his mid-20s. As “special projects manager,” he worked in every department of the 49ers and recalled that one of his first stints was in the equipment room, where he helped sew players’ names on jerseys.

By age 30, York had become CEO. While his Ohio-based parents, John and Denise York, remained principal owners until 2024, he effectively ran the organization.

“It was Undercover Boss without the undercover part,” York said.

He said his transition to power happened organically.

“I think the organization sort of accepted it and sort of dictated when it was going to happen more so than me or my parents,” York said in an interview with The Inquirer. “Like, it just became clear when people started coming to me for answers and not necessarily waiting until my parents came out from Ohio to be able to make decisions and move forward.”

Jeffrey may not be in Philadelphia as often, but he still returns for games, favorite events like the draft, and various other days. He was present for most of the workouts that were open to reporters this spring — at a much higher rate than last season.

Either way, team employees still look at the elder Lurie as being the boss.

“Julian is here every day, so we do see him more,” a team source said. “But Jeffrey is still viewed as the owner.”

Julian’s office at “the Jeff” is situated near his father’s and Smolenski’s. That is by design. Among senior leaders, he spends most of his time with Smolenski. But he has conversations with many staff members, even if he is described as naturally introverted.

He’ll drop into any office, not necessarily with a purpose, but just to chat, often about every staffer’s favorite team. Some sources consider his way with people one of his strengths.

“You got to be a learner,” said Porter, who recently stepped down as Overtime’s CEO. “You have to understand that as soon as I am the CEO, I’m in a bubble. I only know what the people who talk to me tell me, right? You [have to] make people feel seen and heard because you want them to give their all to an organization.

“But you also don’t want your experience of the company to be in a very small echo chamber.”

So while Smolenski continues to make final decisions on the nonfootball side, Julian will gather intel on his own. That might include talking to facility manager Chris DeBellis about operations at Lincoln Financial Field or vice president of grounds Tony Leonard about how to install heaters under the practice surfaces so they no longer freeze.

The Eagles’ practice facility, previously known as the NovaCare Complex, is undergoing renovations with an expansion of the training room and eventually the locker room. Julian has been a part of planning, but he’s also explored other possible changes like a full-length indoor field.

Many of his inquiries have been about the Eagles’ expenses.

“I don’t see what he’s been doing as any different to anyone whose dad said, ‘Here are the keys. Go in there. See what you think,’” a team source said. “This is going to be his team someday. He wants to understand how it works from a fundamental level.”

Productive conversations

While it’s unclear if Julian’s budget analysis was a Jeffrey directive or not, some staffers felt the team’s accounting could have benefited from a fresh set of eyes. In some cases, spending was cut. It could have been something sizable like the budget for food and beverage or something less significant like the number of hats ordered for employees.

The money often was then redistributed into other resources, such as the facility expansion. But other sources for revenue were explored as well, like selling naming rights to the cafeteria.

“I don’t think the goal was necessarily to cut costs. I think it was to understand what we’re spending on,” a team source said. “NFL teams — we’re not perfect in our spending. Things can get distorted over time. They can get out of whack. I think it’s healthy to evaluate that.”

The Eagles are always looking to be prudent. Jeffrey has long entrusted his lieutenants with fiscal responsibilities. But his son’s increased involvement and “probably being more into the bottom line,” according to one source, faced resistance from some staffers.

“The easiest way to impact the bottom line is by cutting expenses. And that is great in the short term, and you definitely improve margin,” an NFL source familiar with the Eagles said. “But if you have unlimited resources and the business is successful on the field, off the field, is that really a common-sense approach?”

Some of the excess could have been people. For instance, why have X number of full-time employees in the ticket office when it’s mostly a seasonal job? Did the Eagles really need to send as many staffers to the Senior Bowl and the NFL combine as they had for years?

On the football side, the Eagles have had considerable growth. That’s not exclusive to them among teams in the booming and hypercompetitive NFL. But Roseman has constructed a multifaceted operation that has depth in many departments.

Julian’s new oversight meant that staffing and salaries were questioned, like having three highly paid senior advisers in personnel when the Eagles brought back former Jets general manager Joe Douglas last year.

But Roseman’s modus operandi has been to have a deep bench in case there are departures. When former senior adviser Dave Caldwell left for the University of Florida in December, Douglas already was in the fold. Just recently, he was promoted to senior vice president of player personnel.

Last month, assistant general manager Alec Halaby stepped away from the Eagles, and the well-regarded Adam Berry was promoted into his position. Two years prior, vice president of football administration Jake Rosenberg left the Eagles, and Roseman had Bryce Johnston waiting in the wings to manage the salary cap.

Rosenberg sought other opportunities after seemingly reaching his ceiling with the team, but some Eagles sources wondered if his exit was precipitated by Julian’s deconstruction. The Atlanta Falcons poached Johnston in May. His replacement, Grant Reiter, is a relative unknown with far less experience.

Two sources compared staff reductions to playing Jenga.

“If there’s a high headcount, it’s hard to pull it apart and say, ‘This is responsible for this, this is responsible for that,’” one of the sources said. “You never know which thing you pull is going to be the thing that causes it to fall down.”

Rosenberg declined to comment. Johnston didn’t respond to an interview request.

It’s hard to argue with Roseman’s approach, considering the Eagles’ success, which has come with multiple head coaches and starting quarterbacks. Roseman hasn’t been perfect, of course, but Jeffrey Lurie has given him ample room to take big swings and make corrections when there are misses.

Julian made inquiries based partly on the Eagles’ staffing vs. other organizations. There was an acclimation phase with some give and take, and ultimately an understanding of Roseman’s process that has improved over time, team sources said.

“I think they have a productive relationship,” one source said. “I think they can walk into each other’s office and have productive conversations.”

The Eagles’ largest expense is on player contracts. There’s a salary cap, but no team has spent more on their roster over the last decade. According to Jeffrey Lurie, that aggressive mindset won’t change.

“This is where the emotional part probably gets in the way. I can’t help myself,” Lurie said in March. “Try to have every edge you can and willing to spend the cash. And I think we have a chance to win multiple more Super Bowls. There’s nothing I want more than that third Lombardi.”

Jeffrey remains integral to Roseman’s major roster decisions. After years together, the two can communicate in shorthand. The general manager still has his direct line to the owner, and their process is “overall, similar,” a team source said. There’s just now an additional layer.

“When it comes down to final decisions, I still feel like that’s totally Jeffrey,” a team source said. “But Julian has been a part of all of it.”

Roll up sleeves

When Jeffrey Lurie purchased the Eagles in May 1994, he was 42 and a longtime New England Patriots fan. He had tried to buy his boyhood team just the year before. But the Hollywood executive, who had worked for his family’s movie theater company, shifted his attention to the franchise located roughly 300 miles south of his native Boston.

Jeffrey and then-wife Christina Weiss Lurie, married for two years, arrived in Philly with daughter Milena when he bought the team. Julian was born the following year. When Jeffrey was first publicly asked about his son in March 2022, he focused on Julian’s inherited passion for the Eagles.

“Obviously, he grew up in the family that owns the team,” Jeffrey said then. “He’s an avid Philadelphia sports fan. He loves the Eagles, loves the NFL. He really has a great feel for many aspects of the sport.

“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.”

Jeffrey had exposed his son to various aspects of the family business for years, but in January 2021, he had him participate in interviews for a new head coach. Julian handled questions related to analytics.

While it might have seemed peculiar at the time that he would be involved despite not having a formal role with the Eagles, associates describe Julian as an “analytical thinker.” At the league’s junior program, he rotated through four groups focused on strategy and development.

Grace Senko, currently vice president of media strategy and business development at the NFL, was one of Julian’s managers. They worked closely on the league’s licensing of media rights and spent time tracking performance in the burgeoning digital streaming of games. It sometimes was menial work.

“There was a lot of nights the two of us were here, the only people working to pull together very large amounts of data,” Senko said. “Because of how much we were pulling in together, we made a lot of mistakes. And Julian — he has a lot of integrity. If something is wrong or he makes a mistake, he owns it. … He is willing to roll up his sleeves.”

After the completion of the two-year rotation, Julian went to Overtime, a media company that says it “builds disruptive” content “at the next generation of sports fans and athletes.” The company is perhaps best known for Overtime Elite, its developmental basketball league for high school-age players. Porter, the former Overtime CEO and a Philly native, heard through an intermediary that Lurie was interested in his startup.

Their first meeting was brief.

“Julian’s very intense, but he’s also very reserved,” Porter said. “He’s just very deliberate. And so, in our first conversation, I was like, ‘Oh, he’s clearly extremely smart and very, very focused, but he’s not that kind of person in an interview who’s going to, like, talk for 10 minutes straight.’”

Julian reported to Porter as senior manager of business strategy. He focused on analytics and helped create, for instance, a free-to-play app that took aspects of betting apps and was designed for consumers under 21, Porter said.

All told, Julian spent four years working in New York. Senko, who also had gone through the NFL’s junior program, said she worked with other family heirs and that Julian, like many who had connections, overcompensated to avoid claims of nepotism.

Porter said Julian was unassuming at Overtime’s Brooklyn office.

“He’s got a different burden, maybe, than most people,” Porter said. “He’s a serious guy, but he’s not unfriendly. Smiles. He’s just serious about his job. He was integrated in the culture. He wasn’t like some weird guy in the corner. He was a part of the company.”

Julian was in some ways shielded by his protective parents. When The Inquirer did a feature on Weiss Lurie in 2010, the names of her children were withheld from the story at her request.

Milena and Julian attended the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr. One teacher, in a school website post, recalled a junior-senior football rivalry game in which Julian and other seniors wore fake bushy mustaches like then-Eagles coach Andy Reid as Jeffrey watched from the sideline.

When Julian attended Harvard to study philosophy, he watched Eagles games at the Baseball Tavern, a local bar whose owner had been a fan of new coach Chip Kelly. Julian might have been among the progeny of one-percenters who went to the elite university, but he didn’t carry himself that way, a fellow student said.

“You’re around a lot of kids from billionaire families that are out of touch and act like their s— don’t stink,” a former Harvard classmate, who asked not to be named, said. “That wasn’t Julian. That card never got played.”

Going to the Eagles

Julian’s destiny was different from most, though. In early 2022, he decided to leave Overtime for an official post in the family business.

“One day he just called me and he said, ‘Thanks, it’s been amazing. It’s time to move on. I’m going to the Eagles,’” Porter said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, of course.’”

Julian already had been spotted at offseason NFL events like the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., that January, but the Eagles didn’t announce his role until June of that year. His listed title, which reads more like a department — “business and football operations strategy” — reflected the duality of his position as he went about learning both arms of the organization.

It took Julian some time to find his footing, team sources said. He initially latched onto the decade-older Halaby, a fellow Harvard graduate who oversaw the analytics department at the time. It was a natural entry point considering his mindset and experience.

But Julian also took an active interest and lead in Eagles media content. He began to flourish.

“He’d come in, sit in the corner, not say anything, so a few people felt uncomfortable,” a team source said. “But the more that he got comfortable, the more he got involved, he started to throw out ideas and people saw it.”

Julian oversaw promotional videos that captured the local zeitgeist. He heard quarterback Jalen Hurts use the phrase, “It’s a Philly thing,” and made that a rallying cry for the 2023 playoffs. And he was behind the “Yo” hype video ahead of the 2024 opener in Brazil.

He has become, in some ways, the point person for the Eagles’ social media team.

“He wants it to be a really good fan experience. He wants people to enjoy using the Eagles app or seeing their posts on Instagram,” a source close to Lurie said. “Social media is a big part of an NFL footprint these days. It’s how a lot of fans connect with the team.”

He is, after all, one of them. Porter, also an Eagles fan, said he knows not to text Julian after losses. Like his father, Julian also has a passion for football. Last season when the Eagles played the Packers at historic Lambeau Field, he opted to watch from the bleachers rather than in a suite with team executives.

“He wanted to experience the game from that vantage point,” a team source said.

Julian watches a lot of games and has an interest in all its intricacies. He’s a part of strategic meetings when it comes to personnel and scheme. He might ask why a certain draft prospect has a red flag for character concerns, for example, or why the Eagles have made certain schematic choices, sources who have been in those meetings said.

Julian has a keen eye for X’s and O’s and he will query coaches. He often does his own research and he comes prepared, a team source said.

“It’s never like, ‘I have answers,’” a coach said. “It’s like, ‘I want to understand this.’”

During interviews with offensive coordinator candidates this offseason, Julian handled questions pertaining to player performance. His father has allowed him to sit in on head coach interviews dating back to 2016, knowing how important that responsibility is for an owner.

But for some in the organization who have been around since Julian was young and may have viewed him through that lens, there was apprehension about his presence. Although most have appreciated his development, a few believe he’s overstepped at times.

“There’s growth that still needs to occur,” a source said.

Not only does Julian have to balance his increasing involvement with any perception that he’s meddlesome, but he also has to walk the delicate line between his long-term goals and the shorter-term thinking of current leaders.

There is a generational strain that can exist in succession plans. York said he had a mentor in Patriots president Jonathan Kraft, son of owner Robert Kraft, who has been his father’s right-hand man since 1994. York said he has spoken to Julian on occasion and wants to be a sounding board for him, like Kraft was for him.

“I know there aren’t many people in these positions that can help you think through, ‘Well, how do you tell your dad or your mom that you want to do something a little different than they did, and do it in a way that’s respectful?’” York, 46, said. “How do you handle those things?

“How do you see something as a younger person in the NFL that you want to take the league in a different direction than … a bunch of guys that are in their 60s or 70s or 80s?”

Own path

Julian, like his father, is willing to push boundaries to gain advantages. Jeffrey likes having different perspectives in a senior leadership team that now includes his son. Jeffrey still mostly defers to Smolenski and Roseman in major decisions. He often just wants to see the finished product.

But Julian has been more hands-on than his father when it comes to details, for instance examining the blueprints of the practice facility expansion into the former NovaCare rehab center.

“He has a mindset for how he wants to lead and that’s going to be different in some ways,” a team source said. “He’s not trying to be exactly like his father because that’s not entirely his personality. He is his own person.”

Julian is a foodie and avid golfer like his father, but he does not flout his privilege, those who have observed him say. He might have the second-best parking spot at the “Jeff,” but he doesn’t ask for police escorts or special accommodations on game days, sources said.

He may engage in “casual conversation” with players before or after games, a veteran said, but he isn’t overly chummy. That is in part deliberate. He knows his limitations. But it’s also Julian being true to himself. He’s not as outgoing as his father.

“You can’t read Julian as well,” a team source said.

That can make more unsure members of the organization at times uneasy. Many value his brevity.

“I think he has a very kind of quiet confidence around him and when he says things they have a lot of weight to them,” Senko said, “because he’s not one of those people that just like speaks to be heard. He speaks when he has something important to say.”

His voice carries weight because he’s viewed as an owner, even if he’s not yet the Eagles’ principal owner. Some senior leaders expect Julian to eventually have an executive role in the front office.

The 59-year-old Smolenski could stay aboard until the next stadium deal is in place. There are other internal candidates to succeed him, like former Eagles player Connor Barwin, who currently is head of football development and strategy.

It doesn’t matter what title Julian is given. He already is involved at a senior level. And while the Eagles have absorbed his inclusion — and won a Super Bowl in the process — there is some question of the future as Julian advances.

“It remains to be seen how that goes,” a team source said.

If he were to become president, would he, like Smolenski, stay exclusively on the business side? Would he cross over into football, like predecessor Joe Banner did during his roughly 20-year tenure? Would the title matter?

Jeffrey signs off on all major football decisions. He has, on rare occasion, pushed for his preferences in the draft, sometimes with great results (e.g. Hurts), sometimes not (J.J. Arcega-Whiteside). But he has by and large delegated to Roseman.

For years, Jeffrey and his general manager standing together on the sideline before games or at practices conveyed their abiding partnership. They still strike that image, but Julian might also be in the picture, or alone with his father.

Few Eagles sources expect the dynamic at the top to change as long as the Eagles keep winning. Jeffrey has given the 50-year-old Roseman as much autonomy as any general manager. But if that power were to be curtailed, the two-time NFL executive of the year would have obvious options elsewhere if he wanted to leave.

“We’ve been successful. We’ve done things the right way. Sometimes maybe not in the most traditional way,” a team source said. “But as long as Jeffrey’s in charge and likes the direction of the team, he’s going to think, ‘If it’s not broke, we don’t need to fix it.’”

And Jeffrey has no apparent plans of abdicating his power. There may be some uncertainty about how often he’ll be in Philly once work is completed on a yacht he is having built near his Florida home, but he has been more present this spring, team sources said.

“If you want to live a long time, I was always told don’t ever retire and keep that intensity going,” Lurie said in March. “I love owning the Eagles. I love trying to make us even better in every way and that’s what I’m focused on.

“That’s why my energy’s high.”

But Julian, as the NFL-approved heir, remains only a heartbeat away from the throne.

There will be no Succession-like maneuvering for future control among family members. Weiss Lurie stepped down as director of the Eagles Charitable Foundation in 2019 — seven years after the Luries’ divorce — although she remains a minority owner. Jeffrey married Tina Lurie in 2013, but she has no official role in the organization, nor does the 32-year-old Milena.

Few, if any, within the franchise believe it will suffer the decline that can occur when families bequeath assets. Julian himself is unmarried and without children.

His devotion, for the time being, is to the Eagles.

“I respect the way he’s grinding and going about it,” York said. “It is not easy to be in his position, in his situation, especially with how successful his father has been. He’s trying to make his own path, and he’s working as hard as he can, and I respect the heck out of that.”

His ownership is written, if not his future. But Julian continues to show maturation. In the Eagles’ most recent schedule release, senior leaders again didn’t like the direction of the video. Alternative ideas were offered, one of which Lurie agreed was better.

“He is open to listening,” a team source said, “open to evolving.”

There was cursing from players in the video that wasn’t bleeped out, but it generally was wholesome entertainment. It wasn’t as inoffensive as the 2023 version that predated the controversial psych evaluation concept, though.

The 2023 video featured an Eagles employee listed directly above Julian, deep into the staff directory, and the only one other than the leader of “business and football operations strategy” to work in his own department:

“Director of joy” — mini goldendoodle and team pet — Reggie White Lurie.