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“Fire Andy” chants echoed throughout the stands in Philadelphia during Andy Reid’s final season coaching the Eagles in 2012.
Nick Sirianni heard many of those same fans yelling “Fire Nick” in Week 6.
Now, the two head coaches are facing off in the Super Bowl for the second time in three years.
Reid found his greatest success after Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie fired him following a 4-12 season. It was one of the most amicable separations ever seen in professional sports.
Reid won more games (140) than any coach in franchise history, and led the Eagles to nine playoff appearances, six division titles and five NFC championship games in 14 seasons. But he couldn’t win the big one — Philadelphia lost to New England in the team’s lone Super Bowl appearance under Reid — and fans starving for a championship had run out of patience.
Lurie gave Reid a game ball and the coach affectionately known as “Big Red” received a standing ovation from employees on his way out of the team facility on Dec. 31, 2012.
“I have a hard time standing before people without a few boos involved. But I’m taking it, I’m taking it all in,” Reid told them. “These have been the greatest 14 years of my life.”
He added: “Sometimes change is good. … I know the next guy that comes in will be phenomenal. The ultimate goal is a Super Bowl. Everybody in this room, I wish you a big ring on the finger in the near future.
“Hail to the Eagles, baby.”
Reid quickly landed in Kansas City after Chiefs owner Clark Hunt and several team executives went to Philadelphia and spoke with him for nine hours at the airport. Reid was supposed to board a plane for Arizona to interview with the Cardinals. That never happened.
Instead, he built a dynasty in Kansas City anchored by Patrick Mahomes. They’re on the verge of history, one win away from becoming the first team to three-peat in the Super Bowl era. They’ve already won three rings together in four Super Bowl appearances over the previous five years.
“You think back to 2013, when Andy joined the organization, made us an immediate winner and really changed the culture here, and then a few years later, he got the quarterback that he had been waiting his whole career for,” Hunt said. “I think there was a comment earlier about why it’s so hard, why nobody has ever gone back to have a chance at a three-peat, I think it’s because those teams didn’t have the combination of Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes.”
The Eagles hired Chip Kelly to replace Reid. He lasted three seasons. Then they turned to Doug Pederson, who brought the city its first Super Bowl title in just his second season. Pederson was gone three years later.
Sirianni came in as an unpopular hire just like Reid and Pederson were in Philly.
But here’s Sirianni again seeking his first championship, just a few months after he was vilified nationally for reacting emotionally and yelling and gesturing at the fans who screamed “Fire Nick” during a victory against the Cleveland Browns.
ESPN analyst Damien Woody, a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Patriots, called Sirianni a “clown” on national television. Other former players-turned-talking heads ridiculed Sirianni and questioned his ability to lead the team.
But all Sirianni does is win.
His .706 winning percentage (48-20) is the fifth highest in NFL history. He’s guided to the Eagles to the playoffs in each of his four seasons and nearly beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl two years ago when Mahomes rallied Kansas City to a 38-35 victory.
Players rallied around Sirianni after the fan controversy in October and that win against Cleveland was the first of 10 in a row. The Eagles tied a franchise record with 14 wins and got three more in the playoffs, scoring a record 55 points against Washington in the NFC title game.
“This game is about overcoming adversity,” Sirianni said. “There are going to be good plays in the game and there are going to be bad plays in the game. There will be good moments in a season and bad moments in a season.
“It’s about overcoming and embracing the adversity because really what we’ve talked about as a team is like adversity, we’ve all had to have adversity to be in this moment where we are right now, so adversity is what makes you who you are. It’s been the story of the 2023 to the 2024 Eagles. As bad of a feeling we had about how last year ended, I think it makes you who you are. These guys are hungry, and we’ve got one more to go.”
Win or lose, Reid’s legacy is set. He has a Hall of Fame resume.
For Sirianni, a victory could silence critics once and for all.
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