For most of his life, it looked like it was Jeffrey Lurie's fate to own the Patriots.

"I was an obsessed Patriots fan growing up … the Pats were my team," Lurie said in an interview with ESPN's Adam Schefter. "Not anymore." 

Lurie, who grew up in West Newton, Massachusets, told Schefter that his love of football and the Patriots came from his father, who passed away from kidney cancer when Lurie was 9 years old. 

Lurie bid for the Patriots, but was beaten out by current New England owner Robert Kraft, who bought the team for $175 million in Jan. 1994. Three months later, Lurie purchased the Eagles for $195 million.

In his conversation with Schefter, Lurie recalls he initially thought he made a big mistake in buying the Eagles. 

"I do remember when I made the investment, I think the Wall Street Journal said this was the dumbest investment of the year. It was an emotional investment, it had no basis in reality," Lurie said. "And the crazy thing is, I thought they were right." 

Twenty-three-plus years later, it looks like Lurie made a genius move. He'd love to beat out Kraft and bring the Lombardi Trophy to Philadelphia for the first time tonight.