'Special' Duce Staley Gets Shout-Out from Jeffrey Lurie

PHILADELPHIA - Jeffrey Lurie clocked in at over 15 minutes Friday as the opening act for his team's new head coach, Nick Sirianni.

By the time the Eagles owner got to mentioning Sirianni, I had nearly forgotten the rookie coach's name. Meanwhile, the prior Super Bowl-winning coach who was Sirianni's predecessor was certainly not mentioned.

Doug Pederson's assistants did get a shout-out, however, although only as a group, not by any individual name, except Duce Staley.

“I want to take a moment to thank the coaches we have worked with that won’t be with us going forward because some of them, many of them, have been terrific partners," Lurie said on Friday afternoon. “We won a Super Bowl together and in the case of some, have been with us, with me, for a long, long time."

One longer than most and that was Staley

Lurie, likely cognizant of his passing over the long-time Eagles employee in an environment where the NFL is attempting to kickstart minority hirings, was sure to praise the popular former assistant head coach.

“In particular, just because he’s kind of like a son to me, I just want to talk about Duce because Duce is somebody very special to me,” Lurie said. “He’s been a terrific player, coach, leader for us. He’ll always be a Philadelphia Eagle.”

Not anymore, he's not.

After being spurned a second time in an interview to be the head coach, Staley packed his bag and went to the Detroit Lions, where he will work in a similar role to what he did with the Eagles.

The Eagles drafted Staley in 1997 out of South Carolina early in Lurie's ownership of the franchise and the powerful running back played seven seasons for the Eagles before finishing his playing career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

From there he was back in Philadelphia as an assistant coach with Andy Reid by 2011, lasting through three regimes and ultimately reaching the glass ceiling as the assistant head coach under Pederson.

When Lurie chose Sirianni over Staley despite high-profile members of the Philadelphia locker room lobbying for the latter, the now 45-year-old coach saw the writing on the wall and asked out of his contract.

Staley also interviewed for the Eagles’ head coaching position when Pederson got the job in 2016 and was considered for the offensive coordinator position at least twice.

While Lurie didn't cite nepotism as the reason he looked in a different director, he did note that perhaps Staley needed experience in a different ecosystem which does match up with some of the strengths the Eagles saw in Sirianni's more varied resume.

“I love the man," Lurie said of Staley. "I just believe -and I think he believes - that it’s best for his goal of being a head coach in the league to work for another organization for a while and set himself up the way many of the candidates have, and it’ll help him and I just want the best for him.

"I think he’ll be an excellent leader wherever he is in the future and I just want to share that love for Duce. He’s very special.”

Just not special enough to be the Eagles head coach, evidently.

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Tuesday and Thursday on "The Middle" with Eytan Shander, Harry Mayes, and Barrett Brooks on SportsMap Radio and PhillyVoice.com. He’s also the host of Extending the Play on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

Ed Kracz is the publisher of EagleMaven. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.