Can ‘Big Dom’ Save the Eagles? 10 Takes on Coach Nick Sirianni's Fragile Philadelphia
An NFL locker room is an ecosystem all its own, built like in nature as a sort of “environmental house of cards” inside which each element is reliant on the next in order to survive.
Or, as is alleged in the case of the Philadelphia Eagles, owing its very ecosystem survival to ,…
“Big Dom”?
Our 10 takes on the assertion that the Eagles’ 2023 fell apart when “My Bodyguard” was suspended by the NFL for his sideline hijinks …
1 - The report states that DiSandro helped to “control Nick Sirianni's emotions on the sideline.” Having watched the Eagles head coach hoot and screech and gyrate and wave tauntingly at opponents - all considered fun, acceptable and even inspirational when the Eagles are on a Super Bowl run, but considered "out of control'' otherwise - we have to say, respectfully ...
Nick was emotionally "under control''? Really? When? How did we miss that?
2 - So "Big Dom'' is the "emotionally-in-control'' one? If so ... why did the NFL suspend him for the outrageous sideline behavior that had him in a face-down altercation with a player on another team during a game?!
If this organization has given some sort of operational reins to DiSandro (another assignment that is unprecedented in NFL history) because he's "the calm one''?
The organization tabbed the wrong guy. And the organization has lost its way.
We simply do not believe either of those things to be true. Again, it was only a year ago when this was viewed as a "model franchise.'' It did not lose its way; it simply lost too many games.
3 - The report asserted that the Eagles boss often gets into arguments with players and coaches when DiSandro is not present. ... and that became a locker-room problem.
We thought Dom was head of security. But now he's also his brothers' keeper - all of his brothers, including the players and the coach?
We prefer to think of Dom as a valued helper to Nick. We refuse to believe it's the other way around.
4 - If Sirianni needs a babysitter, and his bosses knew this entering an offseason that started with some question about his job security ... why wasn't he ousted then?
The Eagles actually employ a person to be in charge who has a shadow puppeteer who is actually in charge of him ... and it's a security guard?
Again ... this defies logic.
5 - So instead of the bodyguard working for and at the behest of the prized "body'' ... Philly has created an infrastructure in which the "body'' actually takes direction from the "guard''?
Sorry. That doesn't sound viable. At all.
6 - And speaking of hiring the wrong guy(s): There are suggestions that pair with this report that these players are so thin-skinned that without Big Dom as a buffer, they allowed heat-of-the-moment confrontations with Sirianni to negatively impact their play?
If the Eagles find that to be true, said player(s) should not be working here.
We trust that GM Howie Roseman has assembled a roster of players who are better and smarter than that.
7 - "Big Dom" got the job years ago in Philadelphia by serving as a go-fer. Nothing wrong with that. Indeed, it is a credit to him that he's grown into a position of authority.
Now he oversees all safety and security matters for the team. DiSandro, as one of the newspapers recently noted in a flattering profile, is a "fix-it guy'' with the Eagles in the sense that when a player needs a parking ticket taken care of, for instance, they call "Big Dom.''
And ... it's been written that he "acts as a psychologist for some players'' and "has other responsibilities with team dysfunction, handling off-the-field issues that occur with his players. But ...
8 - "A psychologist''? Our understanding is that Dom holds a bachelor's degree in sports management. We are not aware that he has any background - outside the School of Hard Knocks - that qualifies him as a "psychologist.''
So we'd bet that Jeff Lurie and Roseman might not characterize Dom quite that way. "Big brother''? "Authority figure''? "Lovable uncle''? "Pal-o'-Mine''? Let's go that way.
9 - If "Big Dom'' has been blessed with such magical powers, how is it that upon his return to the sideline post-suspension, "his'' Eagles looked as lost as every in that 32-9 playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Wild Card?
It's no insult to the talents of the man to say, simply, that's not how football works.
10 - "Big Dom'' can spin a yarn. He is said to be beloved by many inside the building. He's colorful, valuable and bigger-than-life, no pun intended. But to repeat, "Big Dom'' also has a gift for story-telling.
We know Sirianni is too often out of control emotionally; we see it. Heck, he's admitted it, recently saying, "I need to be better in those scenarios when there is some high-pressure areas, they’ve got to see me calm and not tense there. There is a time and place to be tense, and there’s a time and place not to be. I know that's something that I always have to work on as a head coach, and so that's something I'm constantly working on."
Did Dom help Nick with that. Yes. Good. But let's not stretch it ...
We know the locker room was too often "miserable''; the players said it. (Of course, using another definition of that word, few media guys are more "miserable'' that New York shock jock Craig Carton, who has triggered pseudo-controversy with a statement alleging “a problem that would splinter any group of men; it is a real significant problem that cannot be fixed.” ... freeing others on his show to speculate that the conflict involved women.)
Said our man John McMullen of his daily locker-room watching: "It’s boring, but I never got a sense of any 'fractured' Eagles locker room” in the moment and I was in there from start to finish. Did see a bunch of guys not playing well down the stretch, though.''
There are obviously some issues here. And now comes a tale that suggests the absence of DiSandro exacerbated those issues. Maybe so; what a story!
But we're going to suggest that some gossip (and maybe some "Friends of Big Dom'') have twisted reality beyond recognition. "Big Dom'' is valuable here. But so is an organizational chart that has him serving the head coach, which is what we trust is the truth inside the Eagles pecking order.
