Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, fresh off his first Super Bowl title, said Monday that he’s “grateful” for the team’s collapse late in the 2023 season.
Sirianni made the remarks in the aftermath of the Eagles’ 40-22 dismantling of the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in Super Bowl LIX.
“I look back on last year and how last year ended and I’m grateful. As crazy as this sounds, I’m grateful how last year ended because it shaped us to (who) we are today (with) the adversity of the beginning of the year and the adversity through the season, through injuries, through ups and downs, through everything,” Sirianni told reporters in New Orleans.
The Eagles were 10-1 on Nov. 26, 2023, after a home win against the Buffalo Bills in overtime. However, the Eagles went on to lose three straight and five of their last six to finish the regular season, culminating with a 32-9 loss at Tampa Bay in the wild-card round.
“I think that when you embrace adversity, it does something to you, right? It does something to you personally, right?” Sirianni said. “Each and every individual on that football team, the adversity does something to you, and it does something to you as a football team as well. So, our guys, I think that could be the biggest attribute. They worked their butts off to connect.”
When the Eagles began the 2024 season 2-2, it was perceived as a hangover from 2023 as fans and the media cranked up the heat on Sirianni and the organization.
Following a bye week, Philadelphia went 16-1 the rest of the way to capture the franchise’s second Lombardi Trophy.
“(Just) because the outside world tells you to feel a certain way doesn’t mean that we were feeling that way,” Sirianni said Monday. “We knew we had a special team. We knew we had a group of guys that could do special things, but it was going to take day-in and day-out work. It was just putting your head down and working.”
And the constant message was “tough, detailed, together.”
“We talked about that all year,” Sirianni said. “My job is not to inspire them. It’s just more to just remind them of the things they already know, and I keep it really short. I talk a lot all during the week so before the game, it pretty much is consistent. Week 1, Week 37, whatever, we’re on ‘tough, detailed, together.’ That’s our core value. That’s what we talk about. And the toughest team wins, usually the most detailed team wins, usually the team the most together wins.”
–Field Level Media
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