Roseman and Fisch: College friends reach their dreams

Howie Roseman sat on his couch at an off-campus rental in Gainesville, Fla., on April 22, 1995 with stacks of handwritten notes scattered in front of him and the NFL draft on television. He was a 19-year-old at the University of Florida who dreamed of becoming an NFL general manager.

Roseman assembled a draft board and identified areas of needs and potential prospects for each team. When the New York Jets selected Penn State tight end Kyle Brady with the No. 9 overall pick, Roseman threw his papers. It was not the pick he would have made if he were the Jets' general manager.

Roseman's roommate, Jedd Fisch, laughed at the outrage. But Fisch knew Roseman's obsession with the personnel side of the NFL. And if there was anyone who could appreciate far-fetched ambition, it was Fisch.

When Fisch's parents asked him where he wanted to go to college, he answered "Florida." Steve Spurrier coached the Gators, after all, and Fisch wanted to be a football coach. It was the only school to which he applied.

That's why there was a natural kinship between Fisch and Roseman, who both grew up in North Jersey. They met at a fraternity football game and never wanted to leave the sport. One wanted to pick the players, and the other wanted to coach them. Neither played football at a high level or had any formal connections to the NFL.

Yet when the Eagles host the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, Roseman and Fisch will embrace on the field before the game. They made it. Both hold prominent jobs: Roseman as the general manager of the Eagles, Fisch as the offensive coordinator of the Jaguars.

"If you were to ask us then, would we believe we'd end up where we're at, I think we would both say yes," Fisch said. "Now if either of us recognized all of the challenges that would have occurred to get here, I'm not sure that was the case."

College campuses are full of those who want to go into sports but lack either the background, aptitude, or fortitude to break through the door. The barrier for entry is even more difficult for those who do not play. Roseman and Fisch needed to find a way in.

"The thing that both of us had was a relentless attitude, and we wouldn't take no for an answer," Fisch said. "You have to have the personality that you accept 75 rejection letters as long as the 76th letter says, 'We'll bring you in for an interview.' "

Their ambition predated the proliferation of the Internet. Letters were handwritten, and contacts were not easy to create. Roseman went to law school to learn contracts. Fisch coached at a local high school to gain experience. Each possessed a clear vision of the path he needed to take. Roseman spoke with some members of his fraternity during a scouting trip to Florida last autumn, and he told them the value of identifying what you want to do at an early stage.

"What separated Howie was his true ability to really be focused and determined to how he was going to get to where he wanted to be," said Justin Gordon, who shared the apartment with Roseman and Fisch.

Gordon noted Roseman's analytical mind as an undergraduate. They once watched ESPN in their apartment when news surfaced of a player's being released.

"Justin, there's not enough trades in the NFL," Gordon recalled Roseman's saying. "They don't know how to value people and picks, and once I get there, I'm going to make more trades than you've ever seen."

Since Roseman became general manager in 2010, the Eagles have made 27 player trades. It's the most in the NFL during that period.

With Florida's football practices closed to the public, Roseman and Gordon found the fourth floor of a parking garage to sneak a look at Spurrier's Gators. Gordon remembers Roseman's identifying a young, promising running back wearing No. 21 as the next Herschel Walker. That player was Fred Taylor, who is now 15th on the NFL's all-time rushing list.

Roseman said it's more difficult for a coach to break into a profession without a playing background than it is for an executive, but it was a hurdle both needed to cross.

"Do you want the heart surgeon who had bypass surgery, or do you want the one who has studied it the longest?" Roseman said. "When all those guys were playing in the NFL or at a high level in college, I was studying everything."

Roseman believes there are more entry points into the league now than two decades ago, but the competition is greater. Fisch said the last two decades have not created much precedent for either of their paths.

"Once you get in there, man, figure out a way to be different," Fisch said.

The first time Roseman and Fisch met at an NFL game was on the Veterans Stadium turf before an Eagles-Texans game in 2002. Fisch was a low-level assistant coach with the Texans. Roseman was a low-level football executive focusing on the salary cap.

"Look where we are!" Roseman said.

"How cool is this?" Fisch said.

It was just the beginning. Fisch's career has featured 10 stops ranging from high school to college to Arena Football to the NFL. Before each move, he would discuss the merits with Roseman.

Roseman has spent his entire career in Philadelphia, but he has held five different job titles. His workspace was once confined to the end of a desk. He gradually took more of a role in football evaluation before becoming the youngest general manager in the NFL.

When Fisch was an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens in 2004, he took a train to Philadelphia one summer day to meet with Roseman. By that point, Roseman had started to do more scouting.

Fisch and Roseman spent a five-hour "jam session," as Fisch labeled it, discussing the intricacies of a football team. It was an advanced version of the conversations on the apartment couch a decade earlier.

"Just talked about players, talked about the essence of the game, and what we're looking for," Fisch said.

Roseman always found the conversations beneficial because he believes a general manager's directive should be finding players who fit their coach.

Fisch went from the Ravens to the Denver Broncos, then to the University of Minnesota and the Seattle Seahawks before the University of Miami. By 2012, he had established a reputation as a play-caller.

When the Eagles interviewed coaches to replace Andy Reid and discussed a potential staff, a few candidates mentioned Fisch as a possibility without even knowing Roseman's connection. The Eagles were close to hiring Gus Bradley, who instead went to the Jaguars and made Fisch his most important hire. If Bradley had come to Philadelphia, Fisch and Roseman might be working together.

"I thought there was a very real possibility," Fisch said.

The Eagles and Jaguars played the third preseason game in Jacksonville last summer. Fisch and Roseman met for lunch, and Fisch stopped to soak in the moment. Roseman was a general manager. Fisch was calling plays. Neither had been willing to curb his ambition. Their joy for the other was more as friends than colleagues.

As college students, they used to promise each other they would work together if one possessed the power to hire. When the Eagles had a head coaching vacancy, Fisch joked with Roseman about that promise.

"I never said when," Roseman told him.

But during the coaching search, Roseman heard what potential coaches said about Fisch. Fisch later told Roseman what potential coaches thought of the Eagles situation. It was a long way from a fraternity football game and reacting to the draft on the couch in an off-campus apartment.

"That was the first time," Roseman said of the interview process, "I realized him and I were in a good place."

@ZBerm