Ex-coach hopes Philly drought ends
Dick Vermeil spent seven seasons as head coach of the Eagles, which gave him plenty of time to observe how fans in Philadelphia feel about their NFL team’s players.
“It’s almost like they’re part of their family,” Vermeil said by phone Tuesday. “It’s like when you get mad at your kids, you’re pissed at ’em at the time and you chew them out. But that doesn’t mean you still don’t love them.”
That brotherly love, though, has yet to be fully requited with a Super Bowl title, something the Eagles finally will try to attain Sunday against New England.
They’ve reached the game twice before, including once under Vermeil, the Calistoga native and San Jose State alum who led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl after the 1980 season.
It was a big deal even then, recalls Vermeil, now 81. The Eagles had recorded nine consecutive
non-winning seasons before Vermeil arrived in 1976, and it wasn’t until his fifth season that they reached the Super Bowl, winning 12 regular-season games and a division title.
To clinch the NFC championship, the Eagles beat the Cowboys, who had appeared in two of the previous three Super Bowls. A once-downtrodden franchise saw a cause for celebration.
“I think our management made a mistake,” Vermeil said. “Our owner put on a huge team party the Wednesday after the NFC Championship Game. Patty LaBelle was the singer. It was as first-class a party to celebrate a win as you could put on.” There was just one problem. “You finish that party and say, ‘Oh my God, we still have a game to play,’ ” Vermeil said.
In hindsight, Vermeil said, the timing might have taken “a little edge off our team.” If coaching today, he said, he probably would ask to cancel the party.
“It probably didn’t make any difference in the game,” he said, “but it probably didn’t help us.”
The Eagles still had to face the Raiders, who were back in the Super Bowl in their second season under head coach Tom Flores, having won 11 games to make the playoffs as a wild-card.
Up 14-0 after a quarter on two touchdown passes by Jim Plunkett, the Raiders sailed to a 27-10 victory. Linebacker Rod Martin intercepted three passes by quarterback Ron Jaworski, a Super Bowl record. Cliff Branch caught two touchdown passes. Plunkett was named MVP.
“We just didn’t play well enough to win, I didn’t coach well enough,” Vermeil said. “I think the Raiders did some things to us defensively that no one else had done, to stop our zone running game. They had a fine football team.”
Vermeil would step down as the Eagles’ head coach following the 1982 season, citing burnout, but return to coaching in 1997 with the Rams. Their 1999 team, nicknamed “The Greatest Show on Turf,” defeated the Titans in the Super Bowl, giving Vermeil his chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.
The Eagles are still waiting for theirs. They’ll be the underdogs Sunday against the Patriots, a role that a city forever tied to fictional boxer Rocky Balboa is happy to wear. After their divisional round win over Atlanta, Philadelphia players Lane Johnson and Chris Long jogged off the field wearing dog masks, which immediately became a must-have item for the team’s fans.
The Eagles were actually the top seed in the NFC, but lost starting quarterback Carson Wentz to a torn ACL late in the season. They turned to backup Nick Foles, who thrived in the NFC Championship Game against the Vikings, throwing for 352 yards, three touchdowns and a 141.4 passer rating.
Vermeil said he believes the Eagles “are an underdog because of the history of the Patriots — not because of the two teams’ performances this year.” He acknowledged that history can be a force in itself. New England head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady have won five Super Bowls together, including last year’s comeback from a 25-point deficit against Atlanta.
The Patriots “expect to win,” Vermeil said. “When they’re behind in the fourth quarter, everybody watching the game expects Brady and the Patriots to come back and win.
“The problem with that is I think many times the opponent feels the same way. If the fans in the stands, the people watching on television and me as a former head coach feel that way, you’ve got to fight that problem as the opposing team. You can’t allow your team to give them that much credit.”
Vermeil retired from coaching after the 2005 season. He owns Vermeil Wines in Calistoga but still lives in the Philadelphia area and said he feels “very close” to the Eagles. He’ll be watching, anxiously, Sunday.
“I’ll live and die,” Vermeil said. “I told (Philadelphia head coach) Doug Pederson the week before the (NFC Championship Game), ‘Doug, I’m nervous as if I’m coaching a game.’
“He said, ‘Coach, don’t be nervous. I’m not.’ ”