In the days leading up to the big game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, Super Bowl LVII is bound to take on a lot of different nicknames.
The Kelce Bowl will likely top the list because the Eagles’ Jason and the Chiefs’ Travis will be the first brothers to ever play against each other in the Super Bowl and that’s just as cool as their podcast.
The Andy Reid Bowl will no doubt gain some traction because Chiefs coach Andy Reid spent his first 14 seasons in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 2013. Between the two stops, he has won 13 division titles, appeared in 10 conference championship games and is now making his fourth Super Bowl appearance, including three of the last four with the Chiefs.
We could also call this the Progress Bowl because for the first time in NFL history the quarterbacks for both teams are Black, a feat that was once impossible during the Super Bowl era because it was difficult to find one Black starter at the position, let alone two. This might be the first of several Super Bowl meetings between 2022 MVP candidates Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts.
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But there’s another potential name for this Super Bowl that a lot fewer people know about.
To those who were around during the Reid era in Philadelphia, this is the Banner Bowl.
Shortly after buying the Eagles from Norman Braman in 1994 for the bargain-basement price of $195 million, Jeffrey Lurie installed Joe Banner as his right-hand man and together they built the team into a Super Bowl contender. The best decision they ever made together was hiring Reid in 1999. At the time, Reid was only 41 years old and had never been an offensive coordinator.
Tom Modrak, the general manager and a highly successful talent evaluator during a long career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, wanted to hire Jim Haslett, who was the Steelers’ defensive coordinator.
Modrak was overruled and Reid spent the next 14 seasons coaching in Philadelphia and working side by side with Banner on personnel and salary-cap issues for the majority of his time as head coach. For the record, Haslett is also preparing for a big game later this month: the Seattle Sea Dragons’ season opener the week after the Super Bowl will be his first game as an XFL head coach.
During Reid’s second season as the Eagles’ coach, Banner hired an intern to help him with salary-cap issues. After being rejected time and again, Howie Roseman had found his first NFL sponsor and his mentor. The then 25-year-old native of Marlboro was about to make a fast and impressive rise.
“It’s two people I helped at the earliest levels of their careers,” Banner said after laughing at the idea that this year’s title game was the Banner Bowl. “Andy certainly would have been successful no matter what. He just needed the opportunity, but you knew he was going to get it. This was a guy who had the ability to coach every single position on the team as well as the person who was actually coaching it. He’s somebody that is relentlessly positive and I don’t think it ever crossed his mind that he would be anything but successful. None of that has changed.”
And Roseman?
“Howie had a background that hasn’t necessarily been openly successful at climbing the ladder in the NFL, so I really feel like maybe he wouldn’t have had the opportunity if we hadn’t given it to him,” Banner said. “This makes me think a lot about the interviews that even got them in the door and now they are playing against each other in the Super Bowl. I think it’s fairly clear that they are the top two teams in football, so I’m excited about it. At the same time, I would rather they were playing somebody else so they both could win instead of one of them having to lose.”
So will Banner have a rooting interest as he sits at home in South Florida?
“No, I won’t,” he said. “But what usually happens to me is I turn on the game and find myself rooting for a team even though I decided I wasn’t going to root for either team. I spent so much time in Philadelphia that it’s hard not to a feel a connection to that and how passionate the fans are.
“On the other hand, Kansas City is not just Andy who I worked side by side with for 14 years. I think in the modern era that’s as long as any two people have worked together as partners at the top of an organization without killing each other at the end. But Andy has a lot of other people on that staff that I worked with in Philadelphia. They are people I really care about.”
That list includes Chiefs general manager Brett Veach, who was 27 when he joined the Eagles as a coaching intern in 2004. He remained with the team until Reid left to become the Chiefs’ head coach in 2013. Chiefs president Mark Donovan worked under Banner for six seasons in Philadelphia. Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo got his first NFL job with the Eagles in 1999 and remained with the team for eight years before becoming the defensive coordinator of the 2007 Super Bowl champion Giants.
For a time after leaving the Eagles to become CEO of the Cleveland Browns, Banner’s relationships with Lurie and Roseman became strained, but time has healed those wounds. Banner said he doesn’t talk to Lurie very much any more, but that “it’s very friendly and consistent with the relationship they had 40 years ago” when they do.
He said he exchanges texts with both Reid and Roseman quite often. It’s clear that he takes great pride in the success they both have had in their NFL careers.
“I do think Andy is someone who deserves comparisons to Bill Belichick,” Banner said. “For me, it’s hard to put one ahead of the other, but I know you have to put Bill in first place because of all the Super Bowls he has won. But I don’t think Andy isn’t finished winning Super Bowls and I think that gap will close between now and the end of Andy’s career. Andy has now taken two different franchises to championship games four straight years. That’s amazing, and it’s more because of the person he is than because of the plays he calls, although both matter.”
As much as Banner loves Reid, he clearly has a special connection with Roseman. Like himself, Roseman was never considered “a football guy” because he did not play the game. But Banner believes Roseman has become the point man for the Eagles’ success just as Reid is that person for the Chiefs.
“Most organizations have at least one person that overwhelmingly drives the success of the best NFL teams,” Banner said. “I think Howie is growing in terms of trusting the people around him and collaborating. I worked very closely with him when he was learning the cap and when he was learning how to watch tape and like anybody in his position he has made some mistakes. But there are people in the Hall of Fame who made mistakes 50 percent of the time as general managers.”
Banner described the Eagles as being “lucky” for not losing Roseman when Lurie opted to give former head coach Chip Kelly the chief decision-making power following the 2014 season, essentially driving his general manager into a weird limbo for an entire year.
“He certainly had the chance to go some place else,” Banner said. “I don’t mean that in the sense that he got another offer that I know about. I just mean he had achieved enough that he could have had another job. I think his hope was to return to the seat he had in Philadelphia.”
Two years after his return, Roseman’s Eagles won the Super Bowl. Two years after that, Reid won his first Super Bowl with the Chiefs.
Now, they are both going after their second titles.
Banner believes this Eagles’ team is better than the 2017 Super Bowl winners.
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“I can’t say they are the best Eagles team ever because I only go back about 30 years,” Banner said. “But they are the best Eagles’ team I’ve seen since that first day I walked into their offices. You have a quarterback that’s making a big difference and you have two lines that are dominant. There is no team in this league that is going to consistently get pressure on the quarterback because the offensive line is too good and there is no way to stop the Eagles from consistently getting pressure because the defensive line is too good.”
Banner offered a prediction, but not in the form of a final score.
“The Chiefs usually play a defense that is pretty basic,” he said. “It’s four down linemen and two linebackers. That’s the defense Hurts has had the most success against. For me, that’s the question of this game. If the Kansas City Chiefs come out and play the defense they have normally played … I think Hurts will continue to have the success that he’s had and that the Eagles become likely to win the game.
“If Kansas City crosses them up and goes to a defense more like what you saw the 49ers playing in the first half last game … I think it will be a close. game that can go either way. I think what the 49ers were doing was the best defense you can play against Hurts.”
Banner does have one wish for this Super Bowl between his old friends.
“I hope nobody has the scar tissue that comes with a gut-wrenching loss,” he said. “I want both teams to play really well.”
Bob Brookover:
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