The Eagles’ head coach talked about being thankful for this team and lauds their connection, and also admits he won’t be buzz cutting his hair again.
Wearing A.J. Brown’s high school jersey — gifted to the WR this week by C.J. Gardner-Johnson — Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni stepped up to the podium on Monday to speak to reporters one last time before leaving New Orleans with the Lombardi trophy.
He recalled walking into the locker room last night after the win, and feeling gratitude and being thankful for the moment.
“Thankful for the group of guys we have on this football team — the special people, the special players we have on this football team —, and it’s just awesome to be able to embrace guys in that moment. Those are the things you’ll remember. You’ll remember the hard practices, you’ll remember the ups and downs. You’ll remember the games and the confetti falling, no doubt, we’ll have pictures of that, but we’ve embraced that celebration so much.”
Here’s what else the Super Bowl winning head coach had to say:
On Vic Fangio’s defense on Sunday
“Vic [Fangio] did an unbelievable job all year, getting everyone on the same page, [coaching] the fundamentals of the game. Again, this game doesn’t have to be complicated — at the end of the day, did you tackle well? Did you get off blocks well? Did you hustle to the ball? And our guys did that. Did you take the ball away? And our guys did that. So, Vic did an unbelievable job.”
Sirianni went on to say that the game dictates how things are played and called, and they didn’t need the pressures against the Chiefs, they were able to get to the QB with four guys up front and keep seven in coverage.
He later lauded the group for playing together as one and doing all the little things throughout the year to be a dominant group.
“Vic Fangio is one of the best defensive coordinators of all time, and I think he’s cemented maybe THE best defensive coordinator of all time last night.”
On the closeness of this team
The head coach talked about how this group managed to become so close, and he credited the journey. He explained that you never know how connected a team will be until you start along the journey. Despite winning 16 of their last 17 games, Sirianni still pointed to going through adversity — whether it was injuries or other things — bringing them closer together.
“As crazy as this sounds, I’m grateful for how last year ended because it shaped us to who we are today and where we’re standing today. And the adversity at the beginning of the year, and shoot, the adversity through the season — through injuries, through ups and downs, through everything. I think that when you embrace adversity it does something to you.”
He went on to say that this group put a lot of work into building connections, in addition to going through adversity together, including putting their phones down to do things together as a group.
Other notables
- Sirianni said that buzzing his head during the bye week had nothing to do with their winning run that followed, so don’t expect him to do the same to start the 2025 season. He revealed that it came about because he had no time to get a haircut, so he buzzed it instead.
- The head coach gave a lot of credit to Jalen Hurts for the preparation and work he put in to make quick and efficient checks during the game — something Chiefs’ LB Nick Bolton mentioned caused them issues post-game. Sirianni explained that the coaches can only do so much to put the QB in position to succeed, but it comes down to Hurts recognizing the look from his film study, and he did an excellent job.
- His pre-game speech to the team was the same as it’s been all year, emphasizing being tough, detailed, and together. Sirianni quipped that as good as Al Pacino’s speech was in “Any Given Sunday” it doesn’t really work like that, and it’s typically the toughest team, the most detailed team, and the most connected team that ends with a win.
