Was Julian Love Actually Giving Nick Sirianni Some Love?
New York Giants safety Julian Love's comments about Nick Sirianni and the Philadelphia Eagles sure got a lot of attention, but here's a different take amid the uproar: Were his words really that inflammatory?
More importantly, did he actually compliment the Eagles head coach without actually doing it?
"He's a guy who really is doing a good job because he's not getting in the way of his team," Love said during an appearance on NFL Network's Good Morning Football. "He has an experienced roster from top to bottom — offense, defense."
The hosts of NFL Network's "Good Morning Football" then asked Love for his reaction to a clip showing Sirianni enthusiastically celebrating during the Eagles' divisional round rout of Love's Giants.
"I don't like it, I don't like it at all," Love responded. "He's in for a free ride right now. You guys can coach this team."
OK, here's the thing, and maybe it won't play well with some Eagles fans, but Love obviously is complimenting the Eagles and the roster the organization has put together and it's also possible to see a compliment for Sirianni as well in there.
Think about it, isn't saying a head coach is doing a good job "of not getting in the way" of a supremely talented roster a compliment?
Besides, isn't that what Sirianni is supposed to be doing?
So, yeah, the Eagles have a great roster, but exactly how much better of a job could Sirianni actually have done in 2022?
Love's comments actually didn't even require any Eagles player to defend Sirianni, but of course the subject was going to come up and defensive end Brandon Graham addressed the issue when he was asked about it by a New York writer during his media availability session at the team's training facility in South Philly earlier in the week.
"People always got something to say when they’re at home because they got some (time) to think about it," Graham said. "I ain’t really going to touch too much on it. I just know that Coach Sirianni, it don’t matter.
"What he did last year, with a team that nobody thought was going to do too much, he ended up getting us to the playoffs. For his second year, that’s what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to get better. You’re supposed to bring players in to do exactly what you need them to do, and we did that.
"(Love) said anybody can coach this team. It’s like, man, it don’t matter, because at the end of the day, it’s on your GM, and your president, and your people to be able to bring guys in, sign guys, and have people want to come to this organization. It’s a whole bunch of different factors other than (Love) talking about Coach Sirianni.
"It’s a lot of people just mad because of what happened this season. And I understand. It definitely carried no weight because Coach proved himself each and every day. If you’re not in here, you really wouldn’t know that. So it’s all lip service."
In the final analysis, the Eagles are in the Super Bowl and the Giants are not because, yeah, there's an awful lot of talent on the Philadelphia roster, but Sirianni also has played a big role, even if it involved not getting in the way.
Because guess what, a lot of times that's just good coaching.
Alain Poupart is a contributor for Eagles Today and is the publisher of All Dolphins for Fan Nation/SI. Follow him on Twitter at @PoupartNFL.
