The Super Bowl is always an occasion for a bit of Fordham spirit, especially when the NFL presents the winning team with the Lombardi Trophy—named after legendary NFL coach and proud Fordham grad Vince Lombardi.
But this year, the Ramily was treated to a double dose of pride when law school grad Howie Roseman—general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles—lifted the trophy following the team’s 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX on February 9.
Roseman has arguably been the team’s most important member off the field in the past decade. His uncanny eye for talent and skill at offseason roster building has led to three Super Bowl appearances and two victories for the Eagles in eight seasons.
During this year’s playoff run, broadcasters seemed to mention his name nearly as much as the players.
“The guy is the best in the business,” Fox NFL Sunday analyst Howie Long said during the Super Bowl pregame show. “He is the MVP of this team.”
A Fordham Law Degree Kick-Started His Career
Roseman’s story is marked by a nearly mythic level of drive and determination. He never played organized football, but as a kid he dreamed of becoming a general manager in the NFL. After a league executive suggested gaining expertise on salary cap regulations, Roseman enrolled at Fordham Law and gained an edge over applicants whose experience relied on football knowledge alone.
In a 2014 interview with Bleacher Report, Roseman estimated that between his senior year of high school and his third year of law school, he wrote more than 1,000 letters to NFL teams (one letter to each team, several times a year) in hopes of landing a job. After earning his law degree in 2000, Roseman took an unpaid internship with the Eagles and worked his way up to general manager in just 10 years.
“Fordham Law taught me how to think,” Roseman said in 2019, when he returned to Fordham to deliver the keynote address at the annual Fordham Sports Law Symposium. “Getting a law degree and learning how to think deeply and analytically meant I wasn’t just a college kid who wanted a job in the NFL. … Now I had something to sell.”
The Value of Taking Risks
Roseman’s fearless style led to bold moves that proved crucial to the Eagles’ historic success this year. At the beginning of the season, he brought on rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean and inked a one-year deal with journeyman linebacker Zack Baun. Both had huge interceptions in the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory.
“If you don’t take risks,” Roseman said at the 2019 symposium, “you have no chance to be great.”
Most famously, Roseman persuaded star running back Saquon Barkley to leave the New York Giants and come to the Eagles. Barkley went on to set the record for the most combined yards in a single year for the regular season and playoffs.
When a reporter asked about his pride in the team’s accomplishment, Roseman reflected on the persistence and grit that has long been part of his ethos.
“Everyone on this team has stories of determination and persistence, being questioned…and [now] being a world champ.”
A Fordham Super Bowl Legacy
Fordham’s ties to the big game date back to the very first one, when Lombardi led the Green Bay Packers to victory on January 15, 1967, in what later became known as Super Bowl I. He repeated the feat the following year.
One of Lombardi’s Fordham classmates, Wellington Mara, FCRH ’37, also had a share in two Super Bowl victories, in 1987 and 1991, as longtime co-owner of the New York Giants. Wellington’s son John Mara—a 1979 Fordham Law grad and the Giants’ current president, CEO, and co-owner—also hoisted the Lombardi Trophy twice, in 2008 and 2012.
“When you do it once, sometimes people think it’s a fluke,” Roseman said after Sunday’s victory. “When you do it twice, they can’t take it away from you.”
