Jeffrey Lurie’s measured statement is rather shallow

The Philadelphia Eagles ower’s measured statement is rather shallow.

On Tuesday, June 2nd, Philadelphia Eagles chairman/CEO Jeffrey Lurie released an official statement on behalf of his team on the state of race relations in our country.

In the statement, which you can read below, Lurie shared that after a great deal of self-reflection, he wanted to expressly show support for the plight of the black community, and vowes to use his platform to elicit change moving forward.

First and foremost, I’d like to give credit to Lurie for speaking out and speaking up when he could have just as easily remained silent, or worse, pulled a Jim Dolan and effectively issued a statement that his team wouldn’t be issuing a statement. That took a ton of courage, especially when a decent swash of the fan base surely won’t agree with it, but at the same time, the substance of his words are rather… empty.

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Now for those who don’t know, Lurie is a die-hard liberal. He gave money to Hillary Clinton in 2016, gives money to progressive issues, and is very active in ushering in social change in the community. Lurie is also the owner of a billion-dollar organization that has fans of every possible political belief under the sun, from leftists to libertarian and every shade in between. Similarly, Lurie is a big supporter of the troops, as evidenced by the Eagles’ commitment to military awareness throughout the season and during the team’s annual open practice. He even runs a charity, the Eagles Autism Challenge, that helps to raise money for, well, people with autism.

In a league where some owners are more or less anonymous, Lurie is very forward-facing and more than willing to put himself out there and talk on the record about causes he believes in.

And in 2017, Lurie did just that, about Colin Kaepernick.

Immortalized forever in a piece by Marcus Hayes at the Philadelphia Inquirer, when asked about the Eagles’ potential interest in the former-49ers quarterback, Lurie effectively called the quarterbacks’ particular brand of non-violent protest a non-starter. He then took matters further, proclaiming that he’s all for trying to reverse social injustice, but “It certainly has to respect the military and the people that serve, the women and men that serve our country, emergency responders, whoever that is.”

Okay, fair.

At the time, there was very real backlash from all over the league, nation, and world on exactly how Kaepernick chose to use his voice. As the chairman of a billion-dollar organization, I can understand wanting to avoid a media circus if for no other reason than to prevent putting undue pressure on second-year signal-caller Carson Wentz, who would surely hear ‘Kaep’ chants anytime he threw an errant pass, or failed to make a comeback in a losing effort.

Personally, I can’t get behind comparing Kaepernick’s situation to that of Michael Vick, who perpetuated and as jailed for very real crimes, but objectively, I wasn’t too surprised to see the Eagles pass on Kaepernick over and over again.

Lurie did, however, support Malcolm Jenkins in his efforts to pursue social change, helping the veteran safety secure $90 million for the Players Coalition for “projects dealing with criminal justice reform and law enforcement relations”. Even if he didn’t agree with the manner of protest, Jenkins’ on the grounds activism is exactly the kind of protest Lurie was willing to stomach, and in hindsight, his endorsement of the cause has been more or less universally lauded.

As has his most recent statement on race relations.

As athletes, actors, teams, and corporations the world over post solid black squares in solidarity, Lurie pointed out his own flaws, opened himself up for criticism, and presented a strong outward front for his organization. Who knows, after participating in a ‘powerful‘ dialogue with team leaders like DeSean Jackson, Malik Jackson, Carson Wentz, Rodney McLeod, and Zach Ertz, maybe Lurie really did have a change of heart, or felt that the best way to use his privilege was to release a statement from the heart and hopefully open up a dialogue about how to move forward together as a society?

For what it’s worth, a quick Google search shows that may view the Philadelphia Eagles’ owner’s statement as ‘powerful’ too, so in that regard, I guess it was successful, but honestly, what does the statement really say?

There are no substantive changes proposed in the statement. There is no mention of how Lurie was wrong in the past about his views on Kaepernick’s non-violent protest or why his views have changed. Heck, Lurie didn’t even mention any specific names in his statement, leaving a certain level of plausible deniability for anyone who wants to twist his words for their own purposes.

If you are going to release a statement in such a politically charged time, why not make a definitive stand? I get being ‘repulsed‘ by injustice, by what can you do as a billionaire sports franchise owner/movie producer to be the change you want to see in the world? Wouldn’t admitting past mistakes for the world to see have served as a positive example that even NFL owners can learn from their mistakes and take active steps towards progress?

Now I’m not saying Jeffrey Lurie’s statement is wrong, bad, or inappropriate. If anything, he deserves credit for using his privilege to bring light to a topic he clearly feels strongly about. Still, when Nickelodeon, a children’s TV channel, runs an 8 minutes and 46 seconds tribute paired with a very touching statement on using their platform to elevate the voices of unheard people, it’s worth wondering if the Philadelphia Eagles’ statement reads rather, safe, measured, and unfortunately exhibitionary.