Eagles Coach’s Journey: From Hot Seat to Super Bowl Redemption

Philadelphia celebrate Super Bowl win! | 01:45

From popcorn showers to gatorade showers: it has been quite the year for Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni.

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When Philadelphia lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 32-9 in the NFC Wild Card Round last year, capping off a disastrous finish to the regular season, Sirianni looked closer to being fired than lifting the Lombardi Trophy.

In fact, Sirianni was asked directly by one journalist in his post-game press conference if he was concerned about his job status heading into the off-season.

“I’m not thinking about that,” Sirianni said.

But it was hard to ignore. All the outside noise after Philadelphia lost six of its last seven games following a 10-1 start to the season.

One Eagles fan was even pictured pouring popcorn onto Sirianni as he walked off the field, yelling: “You are done Nick, you are f***ing done”.

The blowout loss to Tampa Bay was, to some people, evidence of what they had known for a long time: that Sirianni was not the coach to take the Eagles back to the Super Bowl.

Now at that point Sirianni still had a 36-20 record and had led the Eagles to the playoffs in three straight seasons. So, it’s not as if he was a bad coach. But the pressure was on, and he was feeling the heat.

Reuben Frank, Eagles insider for NBC Sports, described the loss as “embarrassing, pitiful and inexcusable”. The Athletic’s Brooks Kubena wrote “an offseason filled with questions begins”.

Starting with what the loss meant for Sirianni’s future in Philadelphia. Nothing, in the end. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t in the spotlight when training camp rolled around later in the year and after a 2-2 start to the regular season, there were serious doubts again about Sirianni’s future in Philadelphia.

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It was Tampa Bay again, with the Eagles going down 33-16 to the Buccaneers after an unconvincing 15-12 win over the Saints the week prior.

Unlike Monday’s Super Bowl, where Philadelphia led Kansas City 24-0 in the second quarter, the Eagles found themselves on the wrong end of that same scoreline against the Bucs earlier in the year.

They had been outgained 255-0 by that point and even if Philadelphia was able to make the scoreline look somewhat respectable, it was starting to look like this was going to be yet another season where a talented roster on paper didn’t translate to consistent success on the field.

Even the following week, when Philadelphia held on for a much-needed 20-16 win over the struggling Cleveland Browns, Sirianni was pictured exchanging words with Eagles fans.

“I was trying to bring energy and enthusiasm yesterday, and I’m sorry for how my energy was directed at the end of the game,” Sirianni told reporters at the time.

“My energy should be all in on coaching, motivating and celebrating with our guys.”

The media functioned as a megaphone for Sirianni to get his message out to the fans. To let them know that he was sorry. But he had to deliver that apology to his players first.

In fact, All-Pro offensive tackle Lane Johnson told The Philadelphia Inquirer earlier in the week that Sirianni addressed the team after the game to apologise for how he acted during that Browns game.

“I think, when the team saw him take accountability, it set the example,” Johnson said.

“It was kind of a chain reaction.”

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What followed was a complete contrast to the late-season collapse that brought the Eagles undone the year prior, with Philadelphia winning 11 of its next 12 regular season games before steamrolling its way to another Super Bowl.

Plenty has changed since that game at Lincoln Financial Field. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is Sirianni wearing his heart on his sleeve and showing his emotions — both good and bad.

He just has gotten better at knowing when to show them.

“I ask the players to try to get better every single day, and that’s what I try to do as well,” the Eagles coach said earlier in the week.

“I think there’s a time to show your emotion and there’s a time not to show your emotion. I think I’ve gotten better at that as the year has gone on, as the years have gone on.

“But to say I’m going to stop being excited when we score a touchdown, all the work, or stop being excited after a win with everything that we lay on the line to do so, or that I’m not going to yell to correct or yell to praise, that’s just not who I am.”

And speaking after Philadelphia’s win over the Chiefs on Monday, when Sirianni was asked specifically about the criticism that has been directed his way over the last two years, he said he was “grateful”.

“Because it makes you better,” Sirianni added.

“If you embrace the adversity it helps you get better and really just doubling down on the things that you know are true and not really caring about the opinion of others.

“… Do it how you know how to do it. Even if you’re not the vision of what people think you should be, you’ve got to lead the way you know you need to lead.”

Now Sirianni has helped lead the Eagles all the way to Super Bowl glory.