Eagles' Vic Fangio Quoted Famous College Coach After Winning First Career Super Bowl

Fangio is finally a Super Bowl champion after 38 years.
Eagles DC Vic Fangio was instrumental in bringing the franchise another championship
Eagles DC Vic Fangio was instrumental in bringing the franchise another championship / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images
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Philadephia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was instrumental in bringing the franchise its second Super Bowl title on Sunday evening. Fangio masterminded an amazing defensive gameplan that completely shut down the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. To say it worked to perfection would be understating the matter; the Chiefs didn't even get past midfield until well into the third quarter and failed to score until it was 34-0.

Fangio is now getting his well-deserved flowers, both for his defense's Super Bowl performance and decades of excellent defensive coaching. Fangio has been in the NFL for 38 years and Super Bowl LIX marked his first-ever championship victory. When asked to reflect on that achievement postgame, Fangio quoted legendary college basketball coach Dean Smith.

"I heard a quote that Dean Smith many years ago, if you guys remember, he went to a bunch of Final Fours before he finally won one, and they asked him the next day, 'How does it feel you got a monkey [off your back]?' Fangio said, via Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "He said, 'I’m the same coach today as I was yesterday. We just got a championship.' So I don’t look at it as it validates me or anything. It’s just a great accomplishment."

It's a great answer from Fangio, who has undoubtedly been waiting a long time to lift that Lombardi Trophy. Now that he has, he'll be a legend in Philadelphia forever.


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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.