Howie Roseman: He’s no failure, but his team was

January 29, 2024 Andy Furman

Philadelphia Eagles' Howie Roseman listens to a question during a news conference with Nick Sirianni at the NFL teams' practice facility, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Philadelphia. AP Photo/Matt Slocum

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Quite simply – the Philadelphia Eagles collapsed this season.

And there’s more than one reason – but it’s not Howie Roseman.

Howie Roseman – make that Brooklyn-born Howie Roseman – is a two-time NFL Executive of the Year and architect of the first Super Bowl Championship in franchise history.

Yes, there are teams out there that would die for a Howie Roseman, who serves as Executive Vice-President/General Manager for the franchise.

The 2023 edition of the Philadelphia Eagles started 10-1 and that was followed by losing six of their last seven games.

How? Why did it happen?

Well, back in August, ESPN ranked Philadelphia’s roster as “The Best in the NFL.”

Yes, the team had one of the league’s best – and youngest quarterback stars – Jalen Hurts, a top offensive line and a better-than-average receiving group.

Pro Football Focus also ranked the Eagles’ roster as the best in the league, writing in early September: “The Eagles have the best quarterback in the NFC. They have dynamic weapons on offense. Nobody in the league is better in the trenches. There are sore spots in the middle of their defense, but they have as good a chance as anybody to get back to the Super Bowl.”

Ugh – didn’t happen. But you can’t blame the so-called experts. After romping to last year’s NFC championship and coming up three points short of winning the Super Bowl, they’d raced out to the league’s best record at Thanksgiving and appeared on course for a return trip to the sport’s biggest stage.

And from that 10-1 start, the Eagles dropped five of six entering the Monday night wildcard playoff – a 32-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers –a team they thrashed in October.

But back to Roseman. It’s somewhat amazing that a man who had never stepped on a football field, or worked with a team at any level, could have success at the highest level of football.

He led the Eagles to their second Super Bowl appearance in five years with a different head coach and quarterback, becoming the first GM to accomplish that feat since 1980.

Before joining the Eagles in 2001, Roseman sent hundreds and maybe thousands of letters to NFL executives over the course of a few years until he landed an interview.

Joe Banner, who was the Eagles president at the time, told the story of Roseman’s persistence during an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show podcast.

“I started getting letters from this complete stranger who identified himself as a recent graduate of Fordham Law School and the University of Florida undergrad about his desire to work in the NFL. He was absolutely sure that given the opportunity he would be a great general manager,” Banner said on the podcast that was reprinted in Philadelphia Magazine.

“He sent these letters every single day, for a couple of years,” Banner said. “I got a letter from Howie Roseman every day.”

A lot of writing – and a lot of postage.

Banner wasn’t alone – he learned that Mike Tannenbaum, the New York Jets director of contracts at the time, was also getting Howie Roseman letters.

Roseman was hired by the Eagles as an intern to work on salary cap issues in 2000. He was promoted to salary of football administration in 2003 and was later promoted to vice president of football administration in 2006.

He was named the Eagles general manager on January 29, 2010; so how did a guy from Brooklyn with no football experience on any level end up, at 37, become the youngest GM in the NFL?

Roseman opened up to Philadelphia Magazine, and said when he was eight-years-old he met John Elway’s dad on an airplane flight. He talked the guy’s ear off for two hours. The elder Elway was so impressed by the boy’s acumen that he said he should be on TV.
According to the magazine report, Howie said someone finally believed in him. He’d long been telling people he wanted to one day run a football team.

In his biography, Roseman states he’d watch the NFL draft on TV, and kept binders stuffed with player stats and a draft board in his college apartment.

Perhaps that’s one way to enter the NFL.

It worked for Brooklyn’s Howie Roseman.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR