After the Eagles beat the Houston Texans last Thursday night, head coach Nick Sirianni flipped a game ball to owner Jeffrey Lurie and thanked him for giving the team all the resources necessary to overcome a short week on the road.
Dan Snyder isn’t getting a game ball anytime soon.
Heck, first the Commanders would have to know where his yacht is.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
As the Eagles and Commanders get set to meet for the second time this season, the gap between the two owners has never been wider. The Commanders continue to be a laughingstock of the NFL, while the Eagles have reached the peak of stability in the NFL.
“I think this is the best organization I've ever been at, and to me it's not particularly close,” Sirianni said on Saturday. “It's just [Lurie] does everything and anything to give us the resources that we need to be able to do our jobs. When you're in a profession where the parity is so tight amongst the 32 teams, I mean, that's what makes the NFL great, there is great parity. Every little detail matters.
“He gives us every resource we need to be able to do our jobs, whether that's a great facility that we have, whether that's the equipment that we have, whatever it is in the training room, if we want to redo something with the hot tubs or the cold tubs, I mean, it's just endless.
“That's special. That's unique and that's unique to this place. I think it was on full display on Thursday night. I would give him a game ball after every win, because obviously those things are important after every win, after every week.”
NFL
Meanwhile, the Commanders will clearly be better off when Snyder finally gives into the pressure and sells — an end that feels inevitable.
In the meantime, the Commanders can overcome some stuff. They can win some games. They have a strong leader in head coach Ron Rivera and players who still have pride and play hard for him. But this is just so much to overcome and as long as Snyder is the owner it always feels like they’re constantly running uphill in quicksand. It’s never-ending.
In both franchises the owner sets the tone. In Philly that’s a good thing. In Washington, not so much.
There’s been a lot going on with the Washington football franchise in the last last few years and not much of it good. Even a name change couldn’t help the franchise outrun the stink coming from the ivory tower … or a yacht in Europe.
But this week, things finally spilled into the locker room when the Commanders invoked the shooting of running back Brian Robinson in a preemptive defensive strike before the D.C. Attorney General announced a civil lawsuit against Snyder. Even though Commanders president Jason Wright later released a damage-control statement, it was too late.
On the list of missteps from the Washington organization in recent years, this statement using a rookie for its own gain isn’t anywhere near the worst. But it’s not great and it’s just yet another blunder by the most dysfunctional franchise in the NFL.
So the next time you want to complain about Lurie, remember all this.
The next time you think Lurie shouldn’t be giving his input on players in the draft or free agency, remember this.
The next time you grumble about Julian Lurie taking a more active role in the organization, remember this.
And instead celebrate it.
Because if the younger Lurie is half as good an owner as his father, he’ll still be leaps and bounds better than Snyder.
Lurie, 71, bought the Eagles from Norman Braman in 1994 and quickly turned them into one of the most stable franchises in the NFL. He built a new training facility, opened a new stadium and turned the Eagles into a winner.
The Eagles are one win away from guaranteeing their 18th winning season in 28 years with Lurie as their owner and they’re well on their way to their 17th playoff appearance.
Snyder, meanwhile, is in his 24th season as the owner in Washington. His teams have had winning records just five times and haven’t had one since 2016. Washington hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2005 season and have just two playoff wins in Snyder’s tenure. (The Eagles have 14 playoff wins in the same span.)
Washington’s attendance numbers are also the worst in the NFL and that probably has a lot to do with the dumpster of a stadium they play in.
If you’re a free agent, where would you rather go?
None of this means the Eagles are guaranteed to win on Monday Night Football at the Linc. They’re double digit favorites but they play the games for a reason. But no matter the outcome of this one game, there’s no question which franchise is in a better big-picture position and it’s not close.
There are a lot of reasons for the huge disparity. But let’s be honest. It starts at the top.
Subscribe to the Eagle Eye podcast
Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | Watch on YouTube