What does a ‘VP of football technology’ do for the Philadelphia Eagles?

Philadelphia has literally been lit up Eagles green the last two weeks heading into the 2023 Super Bowl, and we at Technical.ly have been thinking about how to connect this exciting sports event to our coverage of the local tech and business community.

We’ve covered cool tech work related to the Birds in different ways over the years. Earlier this week, for instance, we published a story about a Philly skyline livestream that added an Eagles feature. In 2021, we wrote about how the Eagles partnered with Coded by Kids to kick off (ha) the latter’s summer tech innovation league. We’ve reported on changes in Eagles tech, such as a hardware partnership with Oat Foundry in 2020.

So, this reporter did a little digging and learned that there are quite a few technology-focused positions and departments within the Eagles franchise. While we don’t have a ton of details on what these roles actually entail, it’s a reminder that the team is a business, just like the one you might work for. And all businesses need tech talent to help them go.

Check out some the standouts below. Full disclosure, I know very little about football. I tried my best. Go Birds.

1. Vice president of software innovation

Anthony Cozzi has been the VP of software innovation since 2020, and with the franchise overall for 13 seasons. Cozzi is in charge of the Eagles’ software innovation department and data warehouse, according to his bio. In his career with the team, he created its college and pro scouting software application. Cozzi’s previous positions include senior director of software innovation, software architect and software developer.

2. Vice president of football technology

Patrick Dolan is the current VP of football technology for the Birds. Dolan’s bio says he oversees the video department and all “football technologies” used by coaches, players and other departments.

To be honest, we’re not 100% sure what that means — does those “technologies” include analytics, for instance? — and the Eagles press team didn’t get back to us when we asked. (What, like they’re busy this week?) But Dolan’s professional history includes years of experience with sports video: Prior to joining the team as director of football technology in 2013, he was the NFL account manager for DVSports, which makes software used by players and coaches on the field.

3. Director of video operations

After spending two decades in the Eagles’ video department, Kevin Dougherty took on the director’s position in 2020. Dougherty’s job is to work with players and coaches using video technology, according to his bio. His previous positions doing Eagles video work include video director, video assistant and video intern. He was one of the first full-time video department employees ever.

Honorable mentions:

• John Pawling is the VP of information technology
• Tanmay Patel is the VP of business data and analytics

So, take heart — you don’t need to give up on your dream of working in both tech AND sports. The Eagles are even hiring for a quantitative analyst intern role in the “football operations” department right now, if you’re looking to get started in a new career path. (Isn’t everything related to football operations if you work for a football team? What do we know, we’re just tech journalists.)

Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.