“Hearth Andy” chants echoed all through the stands in Philadelphia throughout Andy Reid’s last season teaching the Eagles in 2012.
Nick Sirianni heard a lot of those self same followers yelling “Hearth Nick” in Week 6.
Now, the 2 head coaches are dealing with off within the Tremendous Bowl for the second time in three years.
Reid discovered his best success after Eagles proprietor Jeffrey Lurie fired him following a 4-12 season. It was one of the amicable separations ever seen in skilled sports activities.
Reid gained extra video games (140) than any coach in franchise historical past, and led the Eagles to 9 playoff appearances, six division titles and 5 NFC championship video games in 14 seasons. However he couldn’t win the large one — Philadelphia misplaced to New England within the group’s lone Tremendous Bowl look beneath Reid — and followers ravenous for a championship had run out of persistence.
Lurie gave Reid a recreation ball and the coach affectionately often known as “Massive Pink” acquired a standing ovation from staff on his manner out of the group facility on Dec. 31, 2012.
“I’ve a tough time standing earlier than folks with no few boos concerned. However I’m taking it, I’m taking all of it in,” Reid instructed them. “These have been the best 14 years of my life.”
He added: “Typically change is nice. … I do know the subsequent man that is available in can be phenomenal. The last word aim is a Tremendous Bowl. All people on this room, I want you an enormous ring on the finger within the close to future.
“Hail to the Eagles, child.”
Reid shortly landed in Kansas Metropolis after Chiefs proprietor Clark Hunt and several other group executives went to Philadelphia and spoke with him for 9 hours on the airport. Reid was imagined to board a airplane for Arizona to interview with the Cardinals. That by no means occurred.
As a substitute, he constructed a dynasty in Kansas Metropolis anchored by Patrick Mahomes. They’re on the verge of historical past, one win away from changing into the primary group to three-peat within the Tremendous Bowl period. They’ve already gained three rings collectively in 4 Tremendous Bowl appearances over the earlier 5 years.
“You assume again to 2013, when Andy joined the group, made us a right away winner and actually modified the tradition right here, after which just a few years later, he bought the quarterback that he had been ready his complete profession for,” Hunt mentioned. “I feel there was a remark earlier about why it’s so laborious, why no one has ever gone again to have an opportunity at a three-peat, I feel it’s as a result of these groups didn’t have the mix of Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes.”
The Eagles employed Chip Kelly to exchange Reid. He lasted three seasons. Then they turned to Doug Pederson, who introduced the town its first Tremendous Bowl title in simply his second season. Pederson was gone three years later.
Sirianni got here in as an unpopular rent similar to Reid and Pederson had been in Philly.
However right here’s Sirianni once more in search of his first championship, only a few months after he was vilified nationally for reacting emotionally and yelling and gesturing on the followers who screamed “Hearth Nick” throughout a victory towards the Cleveland Browns.
ESPN analyst Damien Woody, a two-time Tremendous Bowl champion with the Patriots, referred to as Sirianni a “clown” on nationwide tv. Different former players-turned-talking heads ridiculed Sirianni and questioned his capability to steer the group.
However all Sirianni does is win.
His .706 profitable proportion (48-20) is the fifth highest in NFL historical past. He’s guided to the Eagles to the playoffs in every of his 4 seasons and almost beat the Chiefs within the Tremendous Bowl two years in the past when Mahomes rallied Kansas Metropolis to a 38-35 victory.
Gamers rallied round Sirianni after the fan controversy in October and that win towards Cleveland was the primary of 10 in a row. The Eagles tied a franchise document with 14 wins and bought three extra within the playoffs, scoring a document 55 factors towards Washington within the NFC title recreation.
“This recreation is about overcoming adversity,” Sirianni mentioned. “There are going to be good performs within the recreation and there are going to be unhealthy performs within the recreation. There can be good moments in a season and unhealthy moments in a season.
“It’s about overcoming and embracing the adversity as a result of actually what we’ve talked about as a group is like adversity, we’ve all needed to have adversity to be on this second the place we’re proper now, so adversity is what makes you who you’re. It’s been the story of the 2023 to the 2024 Eagles. As unhealthy of a sense we had about how final yr ended, I feel it makes you who you’re. These guys are hungry, and we’ve bought yet another to go.”
Win or lose, Reid’s legacy is about. He has a Corridor of Fame resume.
For Sirianni, a victory may silence critics as soon as and for all.
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