During a Monday afternoon press conference, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni apologized for the caught-on-cam moment in which he chirped back at fans during the final moments of the Birds’ win over the Cleveland Browns at the Linc.
Upon further review?
Nick Sirianni knows he messed up.
In the wake of a massive fan outcry after his post-game antics Sunday, Sirianni on Monday apologized for his behavior in his weekly day-after-the-game Zoom call with the Philly media.
“What I was really doing, I was trying to bring energy yesterday, energy, enthusiasm, and I'm sorry and disappointed on how my energy was directed at the end of the game,” he said.
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“And, you know, my energy should be all in on coaching, motivating and celebrating with our guys. And so I’ve got to have better wisdom and discernment of when to use that energy and that wasn’t the time.”
Sirianni was seen on the FOX broadcast in the final seconds of the Eagles’ win over the Browns barking at fans in the stands at the Linc, presumably in response to the booing he heard early in the game and chants for him to be fired.
The optics were not great after Sirianni chose that moment to go after fans: The Eagles, coming off a bye, struggling to finish off a 1-5 Browns team that was playing its third straight road game.
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After the game, Sirianni declined to talk about the incident, snapping, “I was having fun,” and, “Just excited to get the win.”
A day later, he did a complete reversal.
“There's play calls in the game that you go through and game management things that you go through and say, ‘You know, at the time I thought this was the right thing,’ and then you evaluate everything," Sirianni said.
"You evaluate the way the players played. You evaluate the things that you did as a coach to get them ready to play or the calls that you made or the management of the game that you did. You do the same thing with other things, which this one is.”
Sirianni has done this sort of thing before but always at road games, engaging with fans of the opposing team.
He’s always been emotional, and he’s always worn his heart on his sleeve, and that will never change. But he said he needs to use better judgment about how that looks to the public.
“I don't think there's a playbook for that but I think at the end of the day it is OK if you want to be passionate and have energy just like I did in there today with the guys you know when we watch film together but again it's having that discernment of when to do that,” he said.
“I wish there was a playbook on stuff like that. Make the job a little bit easier to do, but there’s not. And so you’ve got to have the discernment and the wisdom of when to do it.”
Sirianni talks all the time about accountability. It’s one of his core values. He said Monday he can’t hold his players to a certain standard when he’s not living up to that standard himself.
“It’s an emotional game, but, shoot, I'll start every meeting with the things that I screwed up and so it's just being honest and you know taking accountability and having honest conversations whether that's with the team or in private.
“I told you guys literally everything on that field is my responsibility. And that's from actions and behaviors and plays and everything. And I take a lot of pride in that. And when it doesn't go the right way, you (drag) yourself through the mud for that. So everything, my name is on it and that's why the self-reflection at the end is critical.
“Because the only way you get better is if you look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘Well you could have done better.’”
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