After watching his head coach, Nick Sirianni, chirp at fans and opposing players alike during the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 6 win over the Cleveland Browns, it seemed like everyone had an opinion.
Some loved the energy. Others were annoyed. And others still found it distracting from the task at hand.
But what did the players think? Well, in an appearance on Micah Parson’s Bleacher Report show, The Edge, Darius Slay gave a player’s perspective, and needless to say, it is very interesting.
“Yeah, I mean, coach just got back in the win collum, you know? He’s just excited, man, he’s just excited to get back into the win column because I know we gets booed just like everyone else gets booed at that stadium. So, you know, shoot, Nick just did it the best way he could, you know, show his personality a little bit. I saw that he apologized to the fans, which he should, these fans love him to death and they appreciate him as a coach,” Slay explained.
“But yeah, emotions get involved, I want people to know that we are human; that’s it, you know what I’m saying? We human, and that’s what makes it difficult out here. We wish we could be superheroes, but we ain’t; we’re human.”
Does Slay speak for the entire Eagles roster? No, he most certainly does not, but if a captain stands behind Sirianni’s efforts, maybe it really does galvanize the troops instead of crush morale.
Nick Sirianni weighs in on his animated Eagles interactions
Speaking of Sirianni addressing the situation, he did so during his media session after the game, revealing that, while some called him a “clown,” he was just having fun.
“I was having fun. I was having fun and I kind of got some feedback from the guys of the sense of, ‘We need you back, Nick. We need your energy. We need your focus.’ I got that from a couple players,” Sirianni revealed.
“When I’m operating, having fun, I think that that breeds to the rest of the football team. If I want the guys to celebrate and be themselves after big plays, then I should probably do that myself, right? There are times for that and times that are not for that. I have to have wisdom and discernment of when to do that and when not to do that. It was just all out of fun.”
Asked about the crowd, who booed his team and chanted for his firing, Sirianni celebrated the passion of Philly fans, as they truly make what the team does possible.
“Yeah, we thrive off the crowd when they cheer for us. That’s all I’ll say,” Sirianni noted. “When our crowd cheers for us, we thrive off of them. You know, we hear them when they boo. We don’t necessarily like it. I don’t think that’s productive for anybody. When they cheer for us, and we’ve got them rolling, we love it.”
Will Philadelphia fans ever stop booing their hometown teams? No, unfortunately, that’s as time-honored a tradition as tailgating six hours before a home game. Still, if the fans can serve as a weapon for the Eagles by making it hard for quarterbacks like Dashaun Watson to call plays, why not lean into that, instead of loudly calling for Sirianni’s job?
