Philadelphia Eagles owner wins an Oscar

[Ricky Tan]

It may not be a Super Bowl, but Jeffrey Lurie won another nice trophy for his mantle on Sunday night. The Philadelphia Eagles owner was awarded an Oscar for his producing role on the film "Inside Job," which won the Academy Award for best documentary.
Lurie and his wife Christina were listed as executive producers on the film, which explored the financial crisis in the United States. They financed $2 million of the film's $4 million budget, which allowed director Charles Ferguson to begin the three-year project.
The Luries didn't attend the show, leaving Ferguson and fellow producer Audrey Marrs to accept the award. Ferguson used the stage to point out that none of the executives featured in his film have gone to prison. Lurie and his wife were less controversial in their statement, released after the show:

“The Academy’s recognition of 'Inside Job' is a distinct honor. We are humbled by winning this Oscar and we are very proud of the outstanding work of Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs and the entire team associated with the movie. Our goal was to bring a fair and thoughtful presentation of the actions that led to the financial collapse and show how it has negatively impacted millions of lives across the globe. Many people are still suffering from this economic disaster and it is our hope that by understanding its root causes it can be better prevented in the future.”

The film was financed through a charitable foundation set up by Jeffrey and Christina. Its goal is to finance movies that examine difficult global issues in a balanced way. Any profit made by the films is then redistributed into the foundation to fund other worthy projects.
The easy joke here is that Lurie has an Oscar before a Lombardi, but we won't go down that road. Instead, we'll say that it's a good thing Andy Reid didn't direct the film or else the final two minutes would have been chaos.