Doug matches wits with ex-colleague in playoffs
PHILADELPHIA >> A few weeks after winning the Super Bowl in February, Doug Pederson took calls from a couple of rookie head coaches seeking advice about the all-encompassing responsibilities ahead.
Practice schedules, meeting times, news conferences, player committees; you name it, Pederson was there for them. It’s no coincidence that all of them made the playoffs.
Matt Nagy, a longtime assistant with Pederson with both the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, guided the Chicago Bears to their first postseason appearance since 2010. He takes on Pederson and the sixth-seeded Eagles Sunday at Soldier Field.
Frank Reich, Pederson’s offensive coordinator the past two seasons, led the Indianapolis Colts to their first tournament appearance in four years. The Colts oppose the Houston Texans Sunday at NRG Stadium.
While Pederson called it an “honor” to work with the guys, Nagy said the honor was all his. Even the ice cream binges in South Philly. Especially the binges. Those play cards can wreak havoc on a guy’s sweet tooth.
“At night time when we’re drawing cards, and it’s like 9 or 10 o’clock at night,” Nagy said on a conference call Wednesday. “We’d take a little breather and go downstairs in the cafeteria there at the NovaCare. And he’d always destroy the vanilla soft ice cream server. He’d fill that bad boy up and then put a bunch of rainbow sprinkles on top of it and just devour it. He can crush food.”
You really have to know Pederson, and the others on the Andy Reid coaching tree, to fearlessly tell such a story. Even in the bottomline business that is the NFL, one thing the disciples of Big Red can count is on the undying loyalty of those they worked with.
“You build relationships with these guys, their families and all of that,” Pederson said. “And then you see them at this level, as head coaches and having success like both of those guys are and it makes you feel proud that you had a chance to work with them and be on the same staff with them. Matt and I, we talk. He bounced a lot of ideas off me when he took over in Chicago, just like, how did I do things in the first year? Just kind of picking my brain. Frank did the same thing this year. To always have that bond, to have that relationship is special. And I’ll be excited to see Matt Sunday.”
Nagy will be every bit as pumped. The same with Nick Foles. He and Nagy have known each other since 2012, the year the Eagles took the quarterback off the board in the third round of the draft.
Foles says Pederson and Nagy are a lot alike.
“I think the big thing with both of them that comes to mind first is they’re genuine,” Foles said. “They’re going to be who they are. They’re not going to try to be anything else. They were with Andy for a long time and Coach Reid, he always says, ‘Let your personality show, be who you are.’ And that’s what they’ve done.”
To illustrate, Foles told a story. He said Pederson is the same guy now that he was serving as quarterbacks coach of the Birds in 2012. Only the title is different.
Foles says Nagy, too, is the same guy he was while the quality control coach with the Eagles, and then the offensive coordinator of the Chiefs. And he doesn’t expect that would change whether Nagy was head coach or the owner of the Bears.
To Foles, it’s all about being authentic.
“Sometimes the title or role changes and all of the sudden they’re a different person,” Foles said. “They puff out their chest a little bit more. And that’s something that I’m not drawn to. I’ve always been drawn to Matt Nagy, to Doug Pederson, to Andy Reid because they’re genuine people and they’re people I enjoy playing for.”
There are, indeed, examples out there of guys who puffed their chests a bit after adding new titles to the job description. Maybe even the guy who used to coach the Eagles, got full control over football decisions and now works at UCLA. Foles wasn’t going there.
“They’re just broad examples,” Foles said. “You’re out of luck.”
Speaking of luck, it’s going to take a bit of good fortune for the Eagles to keep their season alive this weekend. Nagy and the Bears (12-4) know as much about the Eagles (97) as Pederson does about them.
The Bears are favored by six points largely because the game is at Soldier Field. The Eagles have won five of their last six starts, including three in a row with Foles. The Bears have won nine of their last 10 games, though critics point out that just three of the victories came over teams with winning records. Unless we’re totally wrong, the game will feature an endless array of dink-and-dunk offense, getafter-the-quarterback pass rushes and, no doubt about it, fourth down risk-taking.
The Bears are what Pederson sees when he looks in the mirror, and vice-versa for Nagy.
Whatever the outcome, it’s going to be another entry in the journals of Pederson and Nagy. It’s just beginning to hit Nagy, how he grew up in Lancaster, played quarterback at the University of Delaware under the late Tubby Raymond and is taking on the team he once briefly tried out for as a training camp quarterback back in the days at Lehigh University – in the playoffs, no less.
“It is ironic,” Nagy said. “But it’s neat because, obviously, whether you talk schematically with the offenses or you take about just the relationship that Doug and I have working under Coach, it is ironic. Without a doubt it’s ironic. Being from Pennsylvania my entire life and all the Philadelphia Eagles fans, my phone was blowing up after our win in Minnesota. I know it’s all in good fun. I know how passionate the Eagles fans are. It will be a fun day and we’re going to both compete our tails off as coaches. But in the end, there will be a great hug and handshake, and a respect factor.”
And there will be another in what likely will be numerous chapters of competitions between coaches from the Big Red tree.
Contact Bob Grotz at bgrotz@21stcenturymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @BobGrotz.