Our local guy, former Mount Union wide receiver Nick Sirianni, entered this NFL season in hot water.

Yes, the Philadelphia Eagles head coach had taken his first team, in 2021, to the NFC playoffs, which was a nice rebound after a 4-11-1 mark the previous year.

He did even better in 2022, guiding the Eagles all the way to the Super Bowl, where they lost by just three points to the Kansas City Chiefs, their opponent again on Sunday night in this year’s Super Bowl.

But even though they made the playoffs yet again in 2023, this time with an 11-6 record, the Eagles developed a bad vibe down the stretch and were one-and-done in the postseason. Nobody was happy. It left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, including Sirianni, on whom the implications of such a downer of a season were not lost.

Had he repeated that again this season, Sirianni might well have lost his job, and he knew it. Things got off to a rocky start, with just a 2-2 mark, but, with things at a real crossroads for both him and the Eagles, he pulled them out of the mud and got them going on a red-hot run. As such, he’s among the best coaches in the league once more.

However, if the Eagles can’t get past the Chiefs a second time to earn the Lombardi Trophy, then the winds will certainly begin swirling around Sirianni again, if only a little bit. That’s because the goal of the Eagles every year is to win it all, for that is why you play,  and doing anything less is a failure.

Contrast that to the slapstick routine tenure of Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland these last five years. Instead of losing their jobs, though, they have, stunningly so, been granted another season. Do they not want to also win around here? Apparently not, and I can’t figure out why. But it’s a disservice to the best fan base in sports, some of whom are as upset as you and I and a growing number of disenchanted others are, protested outside Huntington Bank Field on Monday when Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, also counted among us in this way, showed the club he has had enough, too, and wants to be traded so he has a legitimate chance to get to he place where the Eagles and Chiefs are now.

Can you blame him?

Steve King