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Speaker 1: Welcome to a special edition of Bloomberg Business of Sports.

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Speaker 1: I'm Jason Kelly. For our latest documentary, I spent some

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Speaker 1: time with Jeffrey Loring. He's the owner, chairman, and CEO

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Speaker 1: of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL. Never heard of him, Well,

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Speaker 1: you're not alone. Unlike some of his fellow owners, looking

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Speaker 1: at you, Jerry Jones, Laurie has kept an exceptionally low

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Speaker 1: profile during his almost thirty years owning the team. His

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Speaker 1: tenure has been a fascinating one from lots of perspectives.

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Speaker 1: In addition to delivering Philly a Super Bowl win, in Laurie,

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Speaker 1: along with general manager Howie Roseman, has delivered a consistently

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Speaker 1: competitive team in a league design for parody. By the way,

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Speaker 1: He's also an Oscar winning producer, most recently for the

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Speaker 1: movie Summer of Seoul. Laurie doesn't talk much, so it

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Speaker 1: was especially fun to have this wide ranging conversation with him,

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Speaker 1: and it happened much earlier in the season. He was

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Speaker 1: confident then, and it turns out for good reason. As

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Speaker 1: I record this, the Eagles are twelve and one. In

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Speaker 1: quarterback Jalen Hurts. Two years ago, a widely criticized draft

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Speaker 1: pick is the front runner for m v P. Here's

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Speaker 1: my conversation with Jeffrey Lury. Well, it's really good to

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Speaker 1: spend some time with you and so delighted to be here.

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Speaker 1: And you know, as I was thinking about you and

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Speaker 1: preparing for this, it struck me, given all the things

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Speaker 1: you have on your plate, how do you think about yourself?

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Speaker 1: How do you define yourself in your sort of day

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Speaker 1: to day life. I guess that's that's a hard question

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Speaker 1: because I don't think I ever literally wake up and

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Speaker 1: define myself or at the end of the day define myself.

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Speaker 1: But you know, it's it's kind of like wanting to

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Speaker 1: make the most of every day. I do see life

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Speaker 1: as fragile. You don't know when it's going to end,

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Speaker 1: and you just want to try to maximize the moments,

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Speaker 1: the relationships, the goals, the dreams, um and enjoy the

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Speaker 1: gift of life. That that's that's really uh kind of

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Speaker 1: how I define myself. And if I'm not enjoying the

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Speaker 1: gift of life, then I kind of blame myself, like

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Speaker 1: why aren't you appreciating all this? You know, and that

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Speaker 1: includes all the problems in the world to appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: That things can be done, and so you've taken some

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Speaker 1: really interesting steps building on that through your ownership of

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Speaker 1: this franchise. As a filmmaker, you've evolved all of those

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Speaker 1: things over the years. Let's go back, okay if we can,

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Speaker 1: because you now have this family business. But but your

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Speaker 1: family business was different when you started out. Tell me

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Speaker 1: about that. So when I was a little boy, my

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Speaker 1: grandfather was a struggling entrepreneur and my grandmother was cashier

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Speaker 1: at his movie theater he had, and he kind of

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Speaker 1: had the idea to change movies every single day to

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Speaker 1: try to get more people to show up. Then he

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Speaker 1: kind of came up with the idea for the drive

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Speaker 1: in movie theater and then the shopping center movie theater,

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Speaker 1: and it kind of revolutionized the way we watch movies

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Speaker 1: UM in those days and expanded across the country. So

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Speaker 1: I always saw him as this really struggling entrepreneur that

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Speaker 1: found a way to entertain, you know, UM, entertain the public,

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Speaker 1: not just in downtown movie theaters at the time, but

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Speaker 1: all over in suburbs wherever people are, and try to

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Speaker 1: expand the the popularity of movies. And so were you

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Speaker 1: drawn into that business and why I was because It

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Speaker 1: was all focused on making the enjoyment of watching like

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Speaker 1: the fan of movies, or to try movies enjoy their experience.

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Speaker 1: So big, beautiful screens, clean bathrooms, easy parking. This was

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Speaker 1: his way in to try to get people to appreciate storytelling.

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Speaker 1: At first, it didn't succeed. I mean, he opened up

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Speaker 1: the first Au Bourbon movie theater and Framingham, Massachusetts, nobody

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Speaker 1: showed up. What do you do. You have this whole

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Speaker 1: thing planned, you invest in this, you know, giant screen,

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Speaker 1: and you think you're gonna change the way people are

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Speaker 1: able to go to movies, and nobody shows up. So

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Speaker 1: what he did was he flew out to Los Angeles

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Speaker 1: and he brought some of the biggest stars to Framingham,

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Speaker 1: may West, Marlon Brando, and had them be live on

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Speaker 1: the stage so that people in the suburbs could realize

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Speaker 1: you could be entertained, Uh not just by going into

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Speaker 1: a downtown movie theater. But he wanted to satisfy the fans.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's in bred in me. It's like,

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Speaker 1: in the end, you own a sports team, do you

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Speaker 1: want to be a great example for your community? Do

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Speaker 1: you want to satisfy your avid fans, your your casual fans.

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Speaker 1: Do you want to be a great representative of that

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Speaker 1: NFL franchise or you know, or be run of the

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Speaker 1: mill and shoot for the stars, shoot for being not

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Speaker 1: only a great team, but a great community. And if actually,

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Speaker 1: and I want to take a beat in and talk

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Speaker 1: a little bit about your multi decade love affairs that

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Speaker 1: were with the movies, because then you sort of flip

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Speaker 1: the script as it were, and you start making them.

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Speaker 1: But what what was tell me about that? Well? You know,

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Speaker 1: I think as a boy, I had to crazy passions.

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Speaker 1: Sports was number one and movies was number two, and

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Speaker 1: I just ate it up. I loved with movies. It

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Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, this is unbelievable to experience

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Speaker 1: some of the great movies. And so, you know, at

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Speaker 1: a young age, my family went through some stuff. My

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Speaker 1: dad died when I was very young, and I think

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Speaker 1: I retreated in a positive way into things that I

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Speaker 1: truly loved sports and movies, and so things evolved, and uh,

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Speaker 1: I started to make movies and and really understand the

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Speaker 1: movie business, and that allowed me actually to sort of

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Speaker 1: value the football teams. I am nderstood I think the

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Speaker 1: television business and where it was headed, and it allowed

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Speaker 1: me to um bid for a popular professional NFL team

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Speaker 1: and not feel it was overvalued. And this was a

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Speaker 1: time when satellites were emerging, pay TV was emerging, ESPN

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Speaker 1: was emerging, and there were so many ways of being

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Speaker 1: able to distribute sports, very similar to hit making with movies.

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Speaker 1: And so it allowed me to probably not over analyze

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Speaker 1: the buying of the Eagles and not get paralyzed by it,

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Speaker 1: but just go for it. Sitting here, it's an obvious investment.

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Speaker 1: It's a very popular sport, but nothing like it is now.

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Speaker 1: So tell me more about that decision, because even with

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Speaker 1: that conviction, this is much more of a risk than

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Speaker 1: it feels like now. Well, I will always remember the

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Speaker 1: front page of the Wall Street Journal after I the team,

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Speaker 1: which was the highest price ever for an American sports team,

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Speaker 1: and they ridiculed me and said, you this must have

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Speaker 1: been a passion purchase, one that was just emotionally driven

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Speaker 1: and had no basis in value. And I'm, you know,

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Speaker 1: pretty young at the time, forty two, and I thought,

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Speaker 1: she's you know what, They're probably right. You know, it

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Speaker 1: was seen in those days is mostly male. Why it

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Speaker 1: didn't make sense now we know, you know, gigantic audience

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Speaker 1: of women love football. So it was sort of, um,

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Speaker 1: you could say it was a little irrational, but it

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Speaker 1: was based on, I guess, just a tremendous joy and

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Speaker 1: an analysis that was pretty pretty spot on. But who knew.

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Speaker 1: And so tell me about your first impression. So you know,

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Speaker 1: there's there's you know, speaking of movies, I think about,

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Speaker 1: you know, that scene in the Candidate right where it's

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Speaker 1: like he wins and now what right? So, you know,

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Speaker 1: because I wanted to keep the quiet and the seller

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Speaker 1: one to keep it quiet, and Philadelphia's a major market.

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Speaker 1: I never came here to evaluate or look at the facilities,

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Speaker 1: um or anything, just you know, evaluate the the opportunity

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Speaker 1: from afar. And so the first day I get to

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Speaker 1: the offices in Veteran Stadium, in the bowels of Veteran Stadium,

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Speaker 1: no windows, gloominess everywhere, not a particularly good football team.

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Speaker 1: And I go to the weight room and see where

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Speaker 1: the players are and it's like, um, not enough from

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Speaker 1: more than three people at a time, maybe no place

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Speaker 1: for one to talk to the organization or the players.

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking this is the NFL. And then I'm picturing

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Speaker 1: wiring all that money and borrowing money to the seller,

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Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, oh my god, what have I got

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Speaker 1: myself into? So what's the first thing you have to do? Then?

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Speaker 1: With all of that, like, yeah, presumably as a smart

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Speaker 1: business men, you start to prioritize what's your first priority.

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Speaker 1: So the first priority was something has to give with

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Speaker 1: the facilities. You just can't convince players and free agents

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Speaker 1: at the time and coaches or anybody to why come

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Speaker 1: to the Philadelphia Eagles. Um, You've got the worst facilities

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Speaker 1: in the league. You've got a dreary of training complex,

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Speaker 1: you've got the worst surface in the NFL, the old

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Speaker 1: astro turf at Veteran Stadium. We had to cancel a

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Speaker 1: game once, a preseason game because it was so poorly maintained,

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Speaker 1: lots of injuries. Um, everything about it was please don't

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Speaker 1: come to play for us. And you know almost right

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Speaker 1: away with We're gonna do anything we could to build

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Speaker 1: the best facility at the time in the NFL. And

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Speaker 1: you know we were able to. It took us a

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Speaker 1: while to get the facilities, but it didn't take us

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Speaker 1: that long to become a very good football team. So

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Speaker 1: how soon in into it did you think, Okay, we

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Speaker 1: we can do this, Like I have confidence you're looking

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Speaker 1: at those pillers and thinking I can sleep at night

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Speaker 1: at least, right, I would say Jason that I did

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Speaker 1: have the confidence from being sort of an obsessed sports

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Speaker 1: fan and watching organizations across different sports and how they

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Speaker 1: how they did it, and how they interacted with their

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Speaker 1: own community, and um, the ones that were perennial winners

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Speaker 1: in on and off the field, those were my models,

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Speaker 1: and um, I kind of thought, yeah, this is doable.

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Speaker 1: Now we're going to have to deal with the politics

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Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, We're gonna have to deal with the

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Speaker 1: reputation within the NFL, We're gonna have to change a

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Speaker 1: lot of things. But I thought it was all doable. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so let's talk about Philadelphia. This is a unique place,

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Speaker 1: to say the least. And certainly if you google fans,

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Speaker 1: um uh, you know, some things come up about Philadelphia fans.

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Speaker 1: How soon did that really start to resonate with you?

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Speaker 1: And and and tell me about that? Is slee As

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Speaker 1: you described this notion of you know, a customer and

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Speaker 1: a fan, a movie goer and and and someone who's

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Speaker 1: you know, sitting in a seat in a stadium. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think you know, I made a point early on

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Speaker 1: I was going to move here site unseen, and I

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Speaker 1: was going to embrace the strengths of Philadelphia and try

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Speaker 1: to really the most passionate fan base maybe in America

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Speaker 1: for sports, certainly for NFL football, and embrace it. Don't

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Speaker 1: like worry about it, don't see it as any kind

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Speaker 1: of negative, Embrace all the positive aspects, but improve it.

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Speaker 1: So I was able to, like, you know, it's kind

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Speaker 1: of a combo thing of embrace it, but realize you've

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Speaker 1: got a lot of work to do. I think the

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Speaker 1: fans and the people of Philadelphia really appreciated, you know,

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Speaker 1: an owner or a CEO that was willing to give

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Speaker 1: his all, that really wanted to have a great franchise

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Speaker 1: that they could be proud of. They've embraced me ever since.

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Speaker 1: So I've you know, I feel like it's been incredible

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Speaker 1: relationship between the city and and myself for twenty odd years.

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Speaker 1: And uh, you know, devoting every day to try to

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Speaker 1: make the team or the organization better and stay humble

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Speaker 1: and that that's kind of I don't be in my approach. Well,

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Speaker 1: and and to that point of humility. If I'm tuning

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Speaker 1: into sports radio, which is not for the faint of

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Speaker 1: heart in Philadelphia, as you know, you're not doing a

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Speaker 1: w I P call in show you are. I mean

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Speaker 1: this in and of itself is pretty rare for you

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Speaker 1: to sit down and have an extended conversation. Is that

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Speaker 1: your personality. Is it a business choice like, it's much

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Speaker 1: more wanting to embrace the fans directly, not through gatekeepers.

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Speaker 1: So I always saw sports talk radio as interesting, valuable

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Speaker 1: to UM you know, for fans. But it's a very

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Speaker 1: different business. We're in the business of trying to win big,

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Speaker 1: have a great organization, represent the community in a great way.

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Speaker 1: We're not into wanting to monetize drama, or monetize conflicts,

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Speaker 1: or monetize UM disagreements or things like that. You want

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Speaker 1: a well run organization with diversity of thought, and I

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Speaker 1: always encourage diversity of thought. And you didn't want to

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Speaker 1: just react to sort of local needs with an industry

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Speaker 1: sports talk radio that was trying to just boost viewership,

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Speaker 1: you know, on on a short term basis. Sports teams

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Speaker 1: that run themselves on a short term basis typically fail,

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Speaker 1: and you've got to balance the short term, the medium

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Speaker 1: and the long term. We pay very very UM little

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Speaker 1: attention to the outside noise and recognize some of it

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Speaker 1: is true, some of it's not true. You're you're just

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Speaker 1: gonna operate as a as a football franchise and the

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Speaker 1: best thing you can do is do what you think

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Speaker 1: is right at all times and balance things and hopefully

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Speaker 1: the fans appreciate that and not the interpretation through gatekeepers.

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Speaker 1: The numbers don't lie. You have built a successful franchise,

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Speaker 1: won a Super Bowl, But maybe more importantly, this is

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Speaker 1: not a franchise that has these massive highs and then

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Speaker 1: like stunning lows as it were, there's a consistency to it.

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Speaker 1: How do you create both a culture and an organization

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Speaker 1: that is able to sustain So not easy, and I

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Speaker 1: think what we were able to do early on is

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Speaker 1: establish that culture. That culture is very intense, hard working,

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Speaker 1: blue collar culture within an organization um that's very focused

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Speaker 1: on the key things that drive success and planning strategy,

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Speaker 1: not focusing just on the short term or not focusing

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Speaker 1: just on the long term. But you're able to create

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Speaker 1: a culture, whether it's on the football side on the

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Speaker 1: business side where everyone works together. Early on, you guys

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Speaker 1: were all teammates. Football success helps the business side business

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Speaker 1: success helps the football side and reinvest in in the

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Speaker 1: football team. So um, there's an opportunity to create a really,

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Speaker 1: really solid culture. That's what we've been able to do.

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Speaker 1: And I credit that ability to have that culture as

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Speaker 1: part of why we've been able to sustain. If we're

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Speaker 1: gonna have to change a coach, it's gonna be changed

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Speaker 1: for a great reason. For a coach that can provide

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Speaker 1: something that's been missing. If it's a player mistake, don't

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Speaker 1: continue to make that investment in that player mistake, but

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Speaker 1: move on. Have a humblenus to have a sort of

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Speaker 1: a self critical nature about that's part of the culture.

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Speaker 1: And so and with some of the people that have

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Speaker 1: you know, worked with me for now eighteen twenty years,

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Speaker 1: are President Don Smolensky or GM Howie Rosamond. They know

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Speaker 1: that the stability creates a freedom and we're not risk averse,

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Speaker 1: and we never want to be risk averse, whether it's

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Speaker 1: on the football field or off. And there's an opportunity

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Speaker 1: for them to be as dynamic as possible because they're

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Speaker 1: not worried about short term mistakes or things like that.

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Speaker 1: They're they're able to go for it well. And and

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Speaker 1: it's interesting you talk about that, and you mentioned some

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Speaker 1: very important people to this organization and people who with

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Speaker 1: you make decisions sometimes unexpected, sometimes in the wake of

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Speaker 1: great success, the greatest success winning a super Bowl, and

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Speaker 1: within a very short amount of time, the key personnel

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Speaker 1: are turned over completely. Tell me about a decision like that. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, you could, actually some of us might say

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Speaker 1: we kept some people too long, players because we were

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Speaker 1: so emotionally attached to them, because we just want a

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Speaker 1: Super Bowl. And we did that and we you know,

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Speaker 1: made the playoffs virtually every year doing it, but we

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Speaker 1: we didn't feel like we were getting better. We had

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Speaker 1: a tough decision was to change coaches because our coach,

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Speaker 1: Doug Peterson did a great job, won a Super Bowl

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Speaker 1: and um, great to work with. I've worked with Doug

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Speaker 1: for probably twenty years. UM. And that's tough because you

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Speaker 1: have to separate the emotions from what I think is

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Speaker 1: best for the franchise or what we thought was best.

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Speaker 1: And I thought we needed a change and we needed

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Speaker 1: you know, certain certain things handled differently. Tough because you know,

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Speaker 1: you've gotta dismiss your own emotional attachment to somebody. The

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Speaker 1: success you just had the human being involved. So you've

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Speaker 1: got to make tough decisions, and I've never shied away

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Speaker 1: from that. I've never wanted to make popular decisions, and

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Speaker 1: so that that's carried me doesn't mean you're always going

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Speaker 1: to make the right decisions. One of the most interesting

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Speaker 1: personnel decisions that you have to make as the owner

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Speaker 1: of an NFL franchise alongside your your football folks, is

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Speaker 1: a quarterback, either trading for drafting a quarterback. And if

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Speaker 1: I look across the history of this organization, there have

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Speaker 1: been a number of notable and somewhat urgue iconic quarterbacks.

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Speaker 1: Tell me about that position and how it factors into

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Speaker 1: the business decision and even some of the community elements,

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Speaker 1: and it gets into issues of representation in many ways,

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Speaker 1: which I know are important to you. Yeah, it does. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's very important that whoever is playing quarterback for us

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Speaker 1: represent the team and the community really well. On the

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Speaker 1: other hand, do I wish we drafted Tom Brady in

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Speaker 1: the fifth round? Uh? Yeah, I mean we talked about him. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Do I wish we drafted Russell Wilson in the second round? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I do. Uh, You're you're gonna you know, miss out

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Speaker 1: on on certain players, but you've got to be resilient.

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Speaker 1: But we have always tried to get really superior people

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Speaker 1: that have a lot of physical talent, and so yes,

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Speaker 1: I do value mobility in a quarterback, especially in today's

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Speaker 1: game where you've got so many great athletes on defense

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Speaker 1: and Um, I think we've been very lucky to have

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Speaker 1: you know, the quarterbacks we've had and how they've represented us, Jason,

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Speaker 1: as you said, it's very important to us as a

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Speaker 1: brand how they represent us. UM and Jalen Hurts right now,

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Speaker 1: you can't ask for a better representative of of a

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Speaker 1: franchise in terms of his character and focus and all that.

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Speaker 1: As I look across your your football work and also

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Speaker 1: your film work, the notion of representation takes on a

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Speaker 1: different characteristic get in many ways because you have invested

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Speaker 1: heavily as a filmmaker, and I would argue as an

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Speaker 1: owner in representation, especially for the black community and having

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Speaker 1: a number of notable black quarterbacks who have had a

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Speaker 1: very high profile, not just in this city but beyond.

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Speaker 1: How does that figure in and what are your observations

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Speaker 1: about that. You know, first of all, we're trying to

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Speaker 1: get the best possible quarterback on the other hand, whatever

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Speaker 1: I'm involved in, I think there's a feeling of sort

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Speaker 1: of undervalued. So like with with film, the last film

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Speaker 1: we did, Summer of Soul, the Harlem community tremendously undervalued

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Speaker 1: in history. All the wonderful things, um that we're going

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Speaker 1: on in that community, amongst all the poverty and difficult processes, um.

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Speaker 1: The the incredible Black musicians and Latino musicians of the

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Speaker 1: late sixties. It was a chance to really elevate how

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Speaker 1: important and how talented they were. I think I feel

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Speaker 1: some of that with football players too. People don't realize

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Speaker 1: the resiliency and the struggles and the backgrounds that some

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Speaker 1: come from, and it's that they've they've done so much

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Speaker 1: for themselves to achieve what they've achieved, and the battle

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Speaker 1: has been unbelievably difficult. Certainly felt that with Donovan McNabb,

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Speaker 1: nobody had ever drafted a black quarterback that high in

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Speaker 1: the history of the NFL at the time, number two.

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Speaker 1: We were lucky to get him. I mean, we were

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Speaker 1: so lucky that the team who had the first pick

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Speaker 1: undervalued them, and goes on and on. With Michael Vick,

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Speaker 1: it was more this man deserves the second chance, The

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Speaker 1: things he got involved in were awful. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: I described him as as heinous, uh with dogs, and

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Speaker 1: I'm a dog lover and so um and so is

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Speaker 1: Andy Reid. But we felt in America at that time

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Speaker 1: and still to to day, often black people don't get

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Speaker 1: second chances. And this was a man who was very talented.

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Speaker 1: That's why he was getting a second chance. But also

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Speaker 1: because we believed his desire to make good on some

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Speaker 1: of the you know, things that he caused a lot

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Speaker 1: of pain. We're real, Yeah, Jeffrey is interesting. I see

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Speaker 1: this picture that over here, which I feel like there

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Speaker 1: is so much underneath that tell me about those guys, Randall, Donovan,

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Speaker 1: Michael Vick. Three incredible athletes. I inherited Randall outstanding person personality,

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Speaker 1: dramatically wonderful quarterback to watch. But we you know, had

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Speaker 1: the opportunity to look at quarterbacks um in Donovan's year.

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Speaker 1: The opportunity to give Michael Vick a second chance was

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Speaker 1: a difficult decision, probably one of the most difficult decisions

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Speaker 1: I've had to make as the the owner CEO of

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Speaker 1: the club. And what Michael and his friends you know

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Speaker 1: did was was heinous and terrible. You also have to

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Speaker 1: sort of look at America at the time and now

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Speaker 1: and say, this was an opportunity to give somebody who

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Speaker 1: had served two years in jail, who recognized, you know,

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Speaker 1: what he got into with his friends, and an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to really change his whole community involvement, let's call it.

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Speaker 1: And he did everything we ever asked. We didn't even

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Speaker 1: have to ask. Michael led the way. And it strikes

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Speaker 1: me that that outlook, philosophy, ethos however you want to

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Speaker 1: describe it, you know, comes into sharp relief in the

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Speaker 1: summer with the murder of George Floyd. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of your work that starts to come to a very

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Speaker 1: fine point. At that moment, your world's are colliding to

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Speaker 1: to some extent in terms of what you've done as

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Speaker 1: a filmmaker and what you're doing as the owner of

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Speaker 1: this branchise take me back to that summer. So obviously

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Speaker 1: very difficult summer, but not a typical there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of gunning down or you know, taking down of black

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Speaker 1: citizens all across the country every every day, every week.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, we're in a position as

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Speaker 1: whether you're in film movies, whether you're in sports, able

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Speaker 1: to be able to present a whole other, more human

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Speaker 1: image of the value of all these human beings. And so,

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Speaker 1: you know, we have a culture, as do other NFL

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Speaker 1: teams where we're all family. So you know, I think

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Speaker 1: we always take it on as a challenge what can

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Speaker 1: we do to to really make our team and others valued,

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Speaker 1: whereby the community uses us and others as a model

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Speaker 1: of how to get along without fear. But there there's

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Speaker 1: definitely an intersection between sports, entertainment and popular culture, and um,

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Speaker 1: it's up to us, the leaders in those industries, to

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Speaker 1: be able to celebrate the beauty that we have and

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Speaker 1: attack the problems that we have because there's real problems

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Speaker 1: of poverty, inequality, social injustice. These are real. At the

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Speaker 1: same time, let's celebrate the wonderful people that we have.

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Speaker 1: So that's that's kind of what goes into adjacent and

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Speaker 1: so building on that. It strikes me as I think

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Speaker 1: about even individual players that you have had in this franchise,

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Speaker 1: and Malcolm Jenkomes helps to mind as someone who I

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Speaker 1: know you're very close with, who was integral in a

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Speaker 1: lot of these discussions. Tell me about him specifically, but

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Speaker 1: also this notion of the relationships you have with players

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Speaker 1: in terms of celebrating, and I would argue it seem

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Speaker 1: like seeking to elevate them in maybe a different way

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Speaker 1: than happens elsewhere. Well, I don't know if it helps

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Speaker 1: elsewhere or not, but I do know that I literally

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Speaker 1: treat it like an extended family, and I see there

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Speaker 1: see players, coaches, everyone's opportunity to maximize themselves in this

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Speaker 1: little window they have on the you know, in terms

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Speaker 1: of whether it's three years, five years, ten years, Tom

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Speaker 1: Brady esque, whatever it is. And they're human beings. They

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Speaker 1: have children, they have problems, they have pressures. So if

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Speaker 1: we can be kind of like a safe family and

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Speaker 1: be a model of how to interact and how to

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Speaker 1: engage each other, I cherish having, you know, players like Malcolm.

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Speaker 1: I encourage players to be really community involved, think through.

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Speaker 1: I always really enjoyed his ability to think through what

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Speaker 1: he wanted to pomplish and then set a series of

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Speaker 1: short term mechanisms to do it. I love that, and

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Speaker 1: I think for now Jalen hurts with gun violence. It's

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Speaker 1: I'm a social policy nerd or nut. That's my academic background.

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Speaker 1: I'm not truly interested in the politics behind it. It's

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Speaker 1: much more for me the data and when you have

430
00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:31,040
Speaker 1: so many excessive deaths caused by gun violence, you've got

431
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 1: to do something about it. People are dying because of it.

432
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,719
Speaker 1: It's not a political you can call it political, but

433
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:40,880
Speaker 1: I'm concerned with the excessive deaths. You know, we got

434
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:44,520
Speaker 1: to try to be at the forefront of challenging the

435
00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:52,639
Speaker 1: norms here. This is not right. So when you're sitting

436
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:56,520
Speaker 1: around the table and you have seen an amazing evolution

437
00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 1: of NFL ownership, in some cases not luction, you know,

438
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, long term ownership, I think

439
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: you are now in the in the senior of that.

440
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 1: How did those conversations play out in two around teams roles,

441
00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:17,920
Speaker 1: the NFL's role, the sports role, individual players roles in

442
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:22,639
Speaker 1: these societal issues. As owners, we only get together maybe

443
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:25,080
Speaker 1: three or four or five times a year, and they're

444
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:30,640
Speaker 1: usually focused on the key business decisions or player decisions

445
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:33,960
Speaker 1: or things like that. There isn't a lot of opportunity

446
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:36,680
Speaker 1: because the meetings are very boom bom bom b moment's

447
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 1: one presentation after another. You gravitate to certain owners where

448
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 1: you have common goals and yet you can respect others

449
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:53,240
Speaker 1: for um engaging in their priorities and all that. So, um,

450
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:56,760
Speaker 1: I don't think it's it's real judgmental. It's much more

451
00:28:57,200 --> 00:28:59,800
Speaker 1: there isn't really an opportunity. It would be a great

452
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,040
Speaker 1: couple of days to just be able to focus on that.

453
00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:06,440
Speaker 1: I think in addition to winning Super Bowl one a

454
00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:09,520
Speaker 1: few oscars, and the most recent of course was Summer Souls,

455
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, tell me the story of how that

456
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:16,480
Speaker 1: came about it and sort of how that all evolves. Well,

457
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:19,520
Speaker 1: So we have play Action Pictures, which is a kind

458
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 1: of a hobby of mine, but it's a it's a

459
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 1: documentary film company, and it allows us to get involved

460
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:28,239
Speaker 1: in projects where I feel like we can make a

461
00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 1: difference in terms of both what it's about, what we'd

462
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 1: like to communicate out into the world and have them

463
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 1: have access to in terms of understanding what happened, and

464
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 1: often we will take stories that happened, history that happened

465
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:49,239
Speaker 1: that has a very very real present day relevance, and

466
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: so Summer of Seoul just the story itself. I grew

467
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 1: up in the sixties pretty much and love the music,

468
00:29:57,080 --> 00:30:01,200
Speaker 1: and it resonated at a time when the United States

469
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: was going through an awful lot of discordance and protests

470
00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:09,760
Speaker 1: and a war that was very unpopular in Vietnam, and um,

471
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 1: you know, bombings in Cambodia and race riots, and there's

472
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:15,960
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of poverty, a lot of

473
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 1: things going on, and yet I didn't feel some of

474
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:25,360
Speaker 1: the similarities that were happening today. We're recognized that this

475
00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:28,120
Speaker 1: was very similar to what was going on in the

476
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: late sixties, and I remember talking to some players about that,

477
00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:37,560
Speaker 1: and then we got wind of of a documentary project

478
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 1: that quest Love wanted to direct his first time directing

479
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 1: on the music of the late sixties with black and

480
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:49,840
Speaker 1: Latino culture and musicians in Harlem, and wanting Harlem to

481
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: be seen as the vibrant creative force it was, because

482
00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:57,239
Speaker 1: you know, it was, and and it's so resonated with

483
00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 1: what is going on in the twenties, you know, just

484
00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:04,400
Speaker 1: just it's almost like a direct parallel. And so you

485
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:08,760
Speaker 1: can learn from what took place fifty years earlier and

486
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 1: see the same struggles sometimes the same lack of progress, um,

487
00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:18,480
Speaker 1: the same fears, the same polarizations politically, a lot of things,

488
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 1: and the fact that we that very very few people

489
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,640
Speaker 1: even knew that that happened, not that that that that

490
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,720
Speaker 1: that some of those concerts even happened. Was that pretty remarkable?

491
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:30,000
Speaker 1: That's right, at least as a viewer. No, that's right.

492
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 1: When you see that the work that you're doing there

493
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 1: in the in the work that you're doing with this franchise,

494
00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:38,680
Speaker 1: and you think about yourself in this very small cohort

495
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 1: of professional football owners, do you feel a little bit

496
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:47,280
Speaker 1: different from those other guys, you know what, as a

497
00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 1: human being? No? Um, I know some of these guys really,

498
00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 1: some of these men and women personally, and they've got

499
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,840
Speaker 1: big hearts. But there's an awful lot of of of

500
00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 1: good people involved here, and they it in other ways.

501
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:03,520
Speaker 1: They're not doing it through filmmaking, but they're doing it

502
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:07,360
Speaker 1: through community development or you know, real estate development that

503
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 1: helps the town they're in or other towns, and there's

504
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:13,560
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. So I don't set myself apart whatsoever,

505
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 1: uh not at all. Do you feel the expectations have

506
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:21,400
Speaker 1: been raised for for ownership during the during your tenure

507
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:23,880
Speaker 1: as an owner? I do, I do in a good way.

508
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 1: I think we're really challenged to be good, really good

509
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 1: community examples and yet at the same time be ultra competitive,

510
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:36,280
Speaker 1: which I think most are, and at the same time

511
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:42,520
Speaker 1: understand the problems of urban America especially. You know, there's

512
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 1: a lot of problems um as we know, and we

513
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:49,440
Speaker 1: have a great country, incredible opportunities, but we also have

514
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:53,600
Speaker 1: great problems. And let's not just be worth the NFL.

515
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 1: We're so successful, we dominate television, our valuations are gigantic.

516
00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 1: Let's apps resolutely be the best citizens we can be,

517
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:06,480
Speaker 1: and let's judge ourselves not just on the field, but

518
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 1: off the field. And so I think that's a healthy

519
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:13,320
Speaker 1: challenge and a healthy view. Think about the family business

520
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 1: that you came from, and now this is the family

521
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:19,080
Speaker 1: business right in many ways, very much your son. You know,

522
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:22,200
Speaker 1: Julian has sort of come into this business. He's done

523
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:24,840
Speaker 1: a lot of work in the league. Tell me about

524
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: that that process and your thought process and doing that. Yeah,

525
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: I mean, it's you know, I always thought one of

526
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 1: the great things about owning an NFL team was the

527
00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 1: chance to pass it on and the opportunity to be

528
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:41,720
Speaker 1: able to have him learn from me, learn from all

529
00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 1: of us here, and at the same time be really

530
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:49,040
Speaker 1: well prepared if if it happens that he takes over

531
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:51,600
Speaker 1: the team someday. It gives me a lot of pride.

532
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 1: I'm very proud of both my kids and just being smart,

533
00:33:56,600 --> 00:34:01,239
Speaker 1: humble and their own people, their people comfortable in their

534
00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: own skin. And when you and I visited before, you

535
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:09,200
Speaker 1: did a really nice job explaining to me how it

536
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,719
Speaker 1: becomes not just something personal for you, which it clearly is,

537
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:18,399
Speaker 1: but something that then the team and the players and

538
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:23,080
Speaker 1: the franchise essentially like rallies around, walk me through that.

539
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 1: So you know, I hesitated for a long time, integrating

540
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:31,759
Speaker 1: my wanting to try to make an impact in the

541
00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:35,960
Speaker 1: world of autism because of my brother and the family business,

542
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:40,279
Speaker 1: so to speak. When it became so obvious that one

543
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:43,919
Speaker 1: in forty something births were on the autism spectrum, how

544
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 1: underfunded it is, how it affects um everyone in society,

545
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:53,520
Speaker 1: regardless of their background. Um, it became something where I

546
00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:57,200
Speaker 1: wasn't needing to like push it aside, but saying, you

547
00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 1: know what, we could be a sports team that absolutely

548
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: identifies with a underfunded condition that affects millions around the

549
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:10,840
Speaker 1: world and have it be so authenticated in the branding

550
00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 1: that every fan of the Eagles you know, and every player, coach,

551
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:18,319
Speaker 1: executive that works here knows we have it. We have

552
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:20,920
Speaker 1: a path to try to make an impact on a

553
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:28,920
Speaker 1: condition that's incredibly, unfortunately, extremely common, and it's deserving. It's

554
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:32,399
Speaker 1: always been underfunded because it's not a terminal disease, it's

555
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:37,439
Speaker 1: you know, neurodevelopmental disorder by far the most common. As

556
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:40,520
Speaker 1: you notice at the end of every end zone, UM

557
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 1: we have Eagles autism foundations. So every time there's a

558
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:46,560
Speaker 1: TV shot of a score, a field goal, whatever is

559
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:50,400
Speaker 1: going on, the Eagles and autism are synonymous. That was

560
00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: my goal because that allows us terrific fundraising. And at

561
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:58,400
Speaker 1: the same time we have a very disciplined approach two

562
00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 1: with a peer view pay annal every year to pick

563
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:06,239
Speaker 1: the very best innovative projects to funds. So we're very

564
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:10,040
Speaker 1: kind of disciplined and scientific, yet at the same time

565
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 1: very conscious that the popularity of of the Eagles can

566
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:20,480
Speaker 1: drive that synonymous identification. So it's been about four years

567
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,319
Speaker 1: now and sixteen million dollars later, and you know, it's

568
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:27,760
Speaker 1: a massive success. We still have to parlay the research

569
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:32,520
Speaker 1: into breakthroughs and and I'm sure we'll contribute to it,

570
00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:37,400
Speaker 1: and but it's it's both personal and societal at this

571
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:40,719
Speaker 1: point in a great way, and our it's amazing to

572
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 1: see our our players and everybody want to be part

573
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:48,560
Speaker 1: of it. You know, you've referenced history, you know American history.

574
00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:52,919
Speaker 1: This city is as rooted in American history as as

575
00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:55,480
Speaker 1: is possible. You know, all I have to do is

576
00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:58,640
Speaker 1: walk through town to to get us into that. And

577
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:03,560
Speaker 1: yet you also have this sense of the inequalities in America.

578
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 1: So as someone who is so engaged in that, who

579
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:12,720
Speaker 1: has literally studied this and academically, you think about something

580
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:16,400
Speaker 1: as seemingly simple as the Ring of Honor, how do

581
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:22,160
Speaker 1: you honor history and keep it consistent with the present

582
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:25,839
Speaker 1: and future goals of this organization. I do want us,

583
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:29,440
Speaker 1: all players, myself to be reminded when we walk in

584
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:34,480
Speaker 1: the building that there are heroic people, um that have

585
00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:41,520
Speaker 1: done unbelievably humanitarian deeds in our in our history. Uh.

586
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:45,080
Speaker 1: And whether that's you know, Martin Luther King or Dr

587
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:48,040
Speaker 1: Paul Farmer who we just put up there. I want

588
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 1: us to have perspective. I want players, I think it's

589
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:54,360
Speaker 1: part of their growth, my own growth, my own humility,

590
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 1: to walk in to this iconic football building and franchise

591
00:37:59,680 --> 00:38:03,200
Speaker 1: and know there's a bigger world where we can ultimately

592
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:06,200
Speaker 1: compete on every level. We can try to win Super

593
00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:09,480
Speaker 1: Bowls and be family and at the same time impact

594
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:14,200
Speaker 1: the world around us, and it always gives me perspective.

595
00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:16,600
Speaker 1: Maybe it's more for me, but I don't think so.

596
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:20,239
Speaker 1: I've talked to players about it, and they always sort

597
00:38:20,239 --> 00:38:28,480
Speaker 1: of thank me for having that. Thanks for listening to

598
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:30,680
Speaker 1: my conversation with Jeffrey LORII. Be sure to check out

599
00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:33,759
Speaker 1: the full documentary. It features some insights from none other

600
00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:37,560
Speaker 1: than Eagles fan and Lurie collaborator Quest Love. You can

601
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 1: find it at Bloomberg dot com YouTube or check it

602
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:42,960
Speaker 1: out on Bloomberg TV. And check out our past docs,

603
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:45,800
Speaker 1: where we've dived deep into everything from Formula one to

604
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:49,279
Speaker 1: women's soccer to the post pro sports ambitions of a

605
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:52,480
Speaker 1: Rod and Steve Young. I'm Jason Kelly. See you next time.