PHILADELPHIA _ From the moment he purchased the Eagles from Norman Braman in the spring of 1994 and spoke of winning "multiple championships," it was clear that Jeffrey Lurie didn't spend a then-record $185 million to be a one-hit wonder.
He was intent on building an organization that would be the league's "gold standard." He wanted a team that would compete for the Lombardi Trophy year after year after year.
What he wanted to be was the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners, who were owned by Eddie DeBartolo Jr. at the time and run by team president Carmen Policy, dominated the NFL in the '80s and early '90s. They were the kings of sustainability.
They had won five Super Bowls from 1981 to 1994, and made it to the NFC Championship Game four other times. In 18 seasons from '81 to '98, they made the playoffs 16 times.
About a year after buying the Eagles, Lurie and his top lieutenant, Joe Banner, made a trip to the West Coast to spend some time with Policy and DeBartolo and pick their brains. For Lurie and Banner, it was like traveling to Tibet to learn the meaning of life from the Dalai Lama.
"Carmen said something that influenced me dramatically, and that I would later pass on to (current Eagles general manager) Howie (Roseman)," Banner said. "Carmen said, 'I view the (salary) cap like a poker game, where everybody sits down with the same amount of chips to start, and the winner is decided by who makes the biggest bets on the right hands.'
"That was, to me, brilliant insight. For the years that I managed the (salary) cap and the years that I worked with Howie, we talked about that story regularly and lived by that story. It was a crystallizing analogy that I can tell you, 25 years later, still is affecting the way the Eagles manage the cap.
"The question for us always was, what's the best allocation? Because if you go into a poker game and bet a lot on the hands you lose, you're going to lose your money quickly. If you bet a lot on the hands you win, you leave the table with the most money."
The Eagles used that approach to become one of the league's most successful teams in the early 2000s. In an 11-year span from 2000 to 2010, the Andy Reid-coached Eagles, with Banner expertly managing the salary cap, made nine playoff appearances, won six division titles, and made it to the NFC Championship game five times before the Super Bowl window of opportunity finally slammed shut.
Much to Lurie, Banner, and Reid's chagrin, they never were able to win a Super Bowl during that period. But they found a little bit of solace in the fact that at least they were in the hunt nearly every year.
