Is it just me or does the NFL season go by too fast? Seems like just a few weeks ago that we were all huddled in our respective war rooms with cheat sheets preparing for fantasy football drafts. The 2024 NFL season is in the books after the Philadelphia Eagles thrashed the Kansas City Chief’s bid for a three-peat Super Bowl win (and stopping them from becoming the first team to do so in the modern era) with a 40-22 dismantling of the reigning champs in New Orleans.
The big game offers a unique, Future of Work-oriented lens for business insights, transforming the world’s biggest sport evening into a masterclass of strategic planning, leadership dynamics, and operational innovation.
So, some business lessons from Super Bowl LIX:
- Homegrown talent is still critical to enterprise objectives. The Super Bowl MVP, Jalen Hurts, was drafted in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens comprise 80% of the Eagles’ stout offensive line that was drafted by the organization. DeVonta Smith, who caught a 46-yard Hurts bomb for a touchdown, was a first-round draft pick. Reliable tight end Dallas Goedert was also a successful member of a past draft class. Rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean, on his birthday no less, wrangled a pick-six in the second quarter. The common thread here is that the Eagles brought in such an impressive array of talent from strong drafting that there’s a major business lesson to be learned: young, homegrown talent that is nurtured by the organization can be the difference between success and failure. Newer generations of the workforce are young and ready to contribute; thus, enterprises must proactively invest in developing, mentoring, and empowering early-career professionals. This means creating robust training programs, offering meaningful opportunities for growth, providing regular feedback, and cultivating a culture that values innovation and fresh perspectives from younger team members. Emerging talent is a true strategic asset.
- Vic Fangio is the human representation of “expertise.” Even though the ranks of NFL coaching (across all levels, like defense, special teams, offense, role-specific, etc.) are trending younger these days (Eagles coach Nick Sirianni is 43 years old), we need to look no further than Philly’s defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio, at 66 years old, to prove that expertise is still king. Fangio has been in the NFL’s coaching ranks for almost 40 years, with several stints in coordinator positions (most recently as Miami’s DC, and, before that, the head coach of the Denver Broncos). Fangio represents what knowledge and expertise mean to the modern organization; he mapped a perfect gameplan to hold Mahomes and company to a measly 22 points (two touchdowns during “garbage time” when the game was already decided) and edged his Eagles to a Super Bowl victory that many thought they wouldn’t achieve. The lesson here? Knowledge is the ultimate power that catalyzes success and innovation. Fangio’s gameplan included zero blitzes (a shocking day-after stat considering how many times Mahomes was sacked), four-man rushes, and two-deep zone coverages…all which were mightily effective in slowing down the Chiefs’ normally-explosive offense. There are benefits to new and young voices, of course, but there’s also incredible value in dedicated talent with years of relevant knowledge and expertise. Fangio may be significantly older than most of the league’s skill coaches, but those decades of expertise certainly paid off when confetti rained from the rafters of the Caesar Superdome in New Orleans.
- Everyone has bad days…everyone. All we had to do is take a quick peek at the Chiefs’ sideline during the game last night. Travis Kelce looked despondent. Patrick Mahomes kept a smile but it wasn’t as big as it normally was. Defensive guru Steve Spagnuolo (who, personally, is responsible for my own sports nightmare…Super Bowl 42) was seen shouting and frustrated. It honestly felt like one of those early 2000s Snickers commercials. The business truth here is this: everyone has bad days. Everyone has an off day when their best just isn’t enough, or, things just seem to not go their way. There’s no doubt that the Chiefs will be in the mix again next year.
- Every business needs a backup plan when their top strategy suddenly doesn’t work. Saquon Barkley, the Eagles’ prized offseason free agent addition (from division rival Giants, no less) rushed for 2,005 yards in the regular season. He blazed through the first three weeks of the playoffs and looked like the generational talent he was lauded to be going into the draft. His final Super Bowl LIX stat line? A total of 57 yards rushing, zero touchdowns. What do businesses do when their top “weapon” (or, strategy) suddenly won’t work? The immense amount of preparation by the Eagles’ offensive team (spearheaded by soon-to-be-Saints-head-coach and Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore) proved that, even without Barkley’s spectacular production, the team had enough plays in their back pocket to put up series points against the league’s dynastic Chiefs. The lesson? Don’t always rely on the #1 top strategy you’ve always leveraged to get work done and to achieve enterprise goals, because at some point, it won’t work.