Not Everyone Can Own an NFL Team — Let’s Take a Look at Jeffrey Lurie’s Net Worth
"You never want to plateau out. Getting better every day is my expectation."

Published Jan. 27 2025, 4:12 p.m. ET

In January 2025, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Commanders to clinch the NFC East championship. This paved the way for their fifth appearance at the Super Bowl, where they will be playing the Kansas City Chiefs. While this isn't the matchup most NFL fans were hoping for, it'll certainly do the trick. If the Chiefs win, they will be the first team to take home the Lombardi Trophy three times in a row. For that reason, it's kind of an important game.
This will be the fifth time the Eagles have gone to the Super Bowl. Of the four previous times, owner Jeffrey Lurie has been there for all but one. He bought the team in 1994, but they didn't get to the NFL's biggest game for another 11 years. By all accounts, he's one of the best team owners in the NFL. How did he manage to buy the Philadelphia Eagles? Let's take a look at his net worth.

Jeffrey Lurie's net worth is rooted in generational wealth.
According to Forbes, Jeffrey is worth $5.3 billion. His grandfather, Philip Smith, founded the General Cinema movie theater chain in 1935. It was one of the largest operators of drive-in movie theaters and would go on to be the fourth largest chain of theaters. Thirty years later, General Cinema branched out into sodas when they bought a Pepsi bottling plant. After changing the company name to Harcourt General, Inc., the company diversified even more.
Jeffrey Lurie
Businessman, motion picture producer, and owner of the Philadelphia Eagles
Net worth: $5.3 billion
Jeffrey Lurie is an American businessman, motion picture producer, and owner of the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League.
Birth date: Sept. 8, 1951
Birthplace: Boston, Mass.
Birth name: Jeffrey Robert Lurie
Father: Morris John Lurie
Mother: Nancy Smith
Marriages: Christina Weiss Lurie (m. 1992; div. 2012); Tina Lai (m. 2013)
Children: Milena (b. 1993) and Julian (b. 1995) (both with Christina)
Harcourt eventually became a $3.7 billion company with several publishing houses, three insurance companies, and a global consulting firm. In 1984 the company acquired the clothing retailer Carter Hawley Hale, which was the 10th largest in the country. A year prior, Jeffrey left his job as an adjunct assistant professor of social policy at Boston University in order to work at General Cinema.
Two years after starting at General Cinema, Jeffrey founded Chestnut Hill Productions which produced a handful of movies including I Love You to Death and V.I. Warshawski. Chestnut Hill Productions also had a deal with Tri-Star Pictures, but that didn't stop other production companies from picking up their projects.
Jeffrey's father died when he was only 44 years old, which means Harcourt was run by his uncle. Richard Smith was the man who ultimately made all the big financial decisions in the family, which is how Jeffrey ended up losing his bid to buy the New England Patriots in 1993. There were a couple of other options, including a possible purchase of the Los Angeles Rams or a Baltimore expansion team, but none of those panned out.
For reasons we may never know, Richard allowed his nephew to buy the Eagles in May 1994 for a cool $195 million. As of August 2024, Forbes estimates the Eagles are worth $6.6 billion. Since they are going to the Super Bowl, this figure will undoubtedly go up. As Jeffrey himself once said, "You never want to plateau out. Getting better every day is my expectation."