Stugotz Rips Fans for Flip-Flopping on 'Greatest Coach in Eagles History' Nick Sirianni

Sirianni's Eagles are red-hot but the vibes were different not long ago.
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni reacts during the game against the Green Bay Packers in an NFC wild card game at Lincoln Financial Field.
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni reacts during the game against the Green Bay Packers in an NFC wild card game at Lincoln Financial Field. / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
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It wasn't so long ago that a decent portion of the Philadelphia Eagles fanbase was not particularly thrilled with Nick Sirianni. After disintegrating after a hot start in 2023, the Eagles split their first four games of the 2024 campaign. Throw in Sirianni's antics and cosplaying body language doctors and it wasn't an unheard of stretch to hear the idea that the team should explore greener pastures.

Since then Sirianni has overlooked what appears to be a wagon as Philadelphia won 12 of their final 13 regular season games, earning the right to throttle the Green Bay Packers in an NFL wild-card game on Sunday. Now all is well.

But if you think for a second that Stugotz of the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz crew would ever let these flip-floppers forget about what they've done, think again.

"I don't care what Philadelphia's tired of," he said on Monday's show. "I'm tired of their fan base. They wanted to fire Nick Sirianni like a month or two ago and they're celebrating Nick Sirianni. He's the greatest coach in Eagles history."

That is how stuff like this happens. When the coach isn't winning, fans get upset. When he wins a lot, they are happy. Some coaches go from being loved to loathed and back again several times during a season. Sirianni is not unique, even if he's enjoyed a ton of success right out of the gate.

Stugotz's claim that Sirianni is the best coach in franchise history seems impossible to be true on first listen. But there are some interesting data points in there.

"Better than Andy Reid. Better than Dick Vermeil. This is the fourth consecutive season he has led this team to the playoffs. He's the only coach in Eagles history to do that his first four seasons. He was a play away from beating Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes in a Super Bowl."

The beauty of sports—and takes—is what the Eagles do next weekend could make Sirianni a source of frustration yet again. And there will be plenty of ways for pundits to spin things off in a negative direction.


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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.