BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The Super Bowl rings were missing.
The method to winning them was not.
Philadelphia Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman addressed a standing-room-only gathering at the 2025 BSI CORE Annual Summit at Musikfest Cafe at the ArtsQuest Center on Wednesday.
Dressed in a black short-sleeved golf shirt, light-colored slacks and sneakers, Roseman shared his journey from a dreamer to a two-time Super Bowl championship executive.
Waving hands without either of the Eagles’ two Super Bowl-championship rings, Roseman related the best piece of advice he ever received on how to build a winning organization — football or otherwise.
"Talent is important — really important — but what’s really important are the kinds of people you hire. That’s what really matters.”Howie Roseman, Philadelphia Eagles GM
Roseman shared with BSI partners on hand a conversation he had with former San Antonio Spurs General Manager R.C. Buford several years ago as they rode a train during a speaking conference in London.
“I asked him, ‘Tell me how you build a team,'" Roseman said. “So I said, ‘So, you look at players and …’
“And he stops me and says the best advice he ever got was from Gregg Popovich," the former Spurs head coach who was the team GM and hired Buford as a team scout in 1994.
“He said ‘Pop’ told him, ‘We’re going to hire people who are really good at their job who we love to be around.’
“That’s the best piece of advice I’ve ever received. Talent is important — really important — but what’s really important are the kinds of people you hire. That’s what really matters.”
'People with passion'
The BSI CORE Annual Summit is a yearly event of BSI Corporate Benefits for companies participating in its CORE consortium, which focus on self-funded employee benefits and health insurance.
BSI, an independent national employee benefits consulting firm, has an office in South Bethlehem.
Roseman has adopted strategies from the Spurs’ winning culture that have resulted in five NBA titles.
"I wasn’t playing out the vision I had in my head.”Howie Roseman, Philadelphia Eagles GM
Key among them, he said, is the fostering of strong relationships with his staff and players and seeking and seeking advice from experienced figures such as Buford.
“At the end of the day, we’re looking to hire talented people, but people with passion,” Roseman said.
Roseman regaled the audience with stories about the Eagles ups and downs — injuries, free agent losses, coaching changes — en route to winning Super Bowl titles in 2017 and 2024 under his leadership.
He also shared snapshots of his football journey, from writing letters to all 32 NFL teams four times a year as a college student at the University of Florida.
“Sometimes, I’d get a rejection letter; sometimes I’d get nothing,” Roseman said. “But I kept up my passion to one day become a general manager.”
When Roseman was stripped of his title with the Eagles upon the hiring of head coach Chip Kelly before the 2013 season, he said the loss of power in the organization was a turning point in his career.
“I know there were things I needed to work on with myself,” he said. “I spent the year meeting with executives in sports and business.
“I met with Hall of Fame general managers about their experiences… I learned that from a football perspective, I was doing a lot of things to make other people happy.
"I wasn’t playing out the vision I had in my head.”
Roseman emphasized the benefits to an organization in sports or business of bringing issues of adversity to the forefront to get past it.
'Willing to put in the work'
Throughout his 30-minute talk at the summit, Roseman was mindful of always circling back to the topic of hiring good people.
That people-first philosophy was underscored by a conversation Roseman said he had with Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni following a 32-9 loss at Tampa Bay in a 2023 NFC Wild Card game.
“It fills me with a sense of pride thinking that there are actually ties between our organization and what we do, and the Eagles and the successes they had. This is the work you have to do to become successful with people."Tony DaRe, BSI Corporate Benefits founder and chief executive officer
“I was on the phone with Nick after the game and he said he’d have to call me back,” Roseman said. “When he called back 20 minutes later, he said he had been sitting with a player whose car wouldn’t start.
“You want good people so you can build a good culture.”
Tony DaRe, BSI Corporate Benefits founder and chief executive officer, said he felt a kinship with how Roseman’s approach dovetails with his company.
“It fills me with a sense of pride thinking that there are actually ties between our organization and what we do, and the Eagles and the successes they had,” DaRe said.
“This is the work you have to do to become successful with people. To hear Howie talk about how they go about deciding on preparing to be successful, there’s a ton of pride for me in hearing that message and how it relates to what we do.
"Hard work is a hallmark of how we built BSI. You have to be willing to put in the work.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tony DaRe is a founding funder of LehighValleyNews.com. He has no influence on its editorial operations.
