‘I Am Who I Am’
Sirianni Stays True To Himself As He Guides Eagles To Another Super Bowl
- Amy and Fran Sirianni with son Mike at the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame/Washington-Greene County Chapter induction. Photo courtesy of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame
- In this Jan. 26, 2025 file photo in Philadelphia, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, center, receives a Gatorade bath during the closing minutes of the second half of the NFC championship game against the Washington Commanders. AP photo
- Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, left, talks with NFL Commissioner and fellow Jamestown native, Roger Goodell, right, during warm-ups prior to the NFL championship playoff football game against the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. AP photo
- In this Jan. 29, 2023 photo, Jay, Nick, Mike and Fran Sirianni pose for a photo after Nick’s Philadelphia Eagles won the NFC championship game in Philadelphia. Photo courtesy of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame
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Amy and Fran Sirianni with son Mike at the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame/Washington-Greene County Chapter induction. Photo courtesy of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame
Nick Sirianni will be inducted, along with eight others, into the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame at its 43rd annual banquet on Feb. 17 at the Lakewood Rod & Gun Club. The Jamestown native will be joining an elite local fraternity, including three members of his immediate family who have already been enshrined.
His dad, Fran (Class of 2018); and his older brothers, Mike (Class of 2022) and Jay (Class of 2023) were all inducted because of their coaching successes spanning decades, but an argument could be made that the fifth Hall-of-Famer in the Sirianni clan is Amy — Fran’s wife, and Mike, Jay and Nick’s mom.
Because on Sunday, as they stand for the national anthem prior to Super Bowl 59 at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, they’ll be able to look down at Nick, the Philadelphia Eagles head coach, on the sidelines and be reminded of the football journey they’ve all been on, initiated by Amy’s simple suggestion 35 years ago.
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Nick was introduced as the Eagles’ head coach in January 2021. All he’s done since then is guide the franchise to four consecutive postseason berths, including record-breaking campaigns that resulted in a Super Bowl 57 loss to Kansas City and, at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, a rematch with the Chiefs in Super Bowl 59.
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In this Jan. 26, 2025 file photo in Philadelphia, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, center, receives a Gatorade bath during the closing minutes of the second half of the NFC championship game against the Washington Commanders. AP photo
Furthermore, Nick has led the Eagles to the third-best winning percentage in the NFL — .706 — since he was hired; is the owner of the sixth-best all-time career winning percentage; has posted the best winning percentage among active coaches; and is the franchise’s only head coach to make the playoffs in each of their first four seasons.
“As boring as it sounds, you don’t think about it,” he told The Post-Journal last week, a few days after Philadelphia defeated Washington 55-23 in the NFC Championship Game. “It’s, ‘How are we going to win this next game?’ Maybe at the end of this year I might think of that or maybe at the end of my career I’ll think about that. I’m just grateful for this team and grateful for the people I get to work with every day.”
Nick added: “(Former Villanova men’s basketball coach) Jay Wright said something really cool to me, and I love this. (He said), “Praise is like perfume. You can sniff it, but don’t swallow it, because it’s poison.’ This game has the ability to humble you very fast.”
Since starting the season 2-2, the Eagles have won 15 of their last 16 games, including playoff victories over Green Bay, the Los Angeles Rams and the Commanders, setting up this weekend’s “Super” showdown with Kansas City for the second time in three seasons.
Despite all his success, Nick and his often-fiery personality have been a lightning rod for criticism by media and fans alike, particularly after Philadelphia’s struggles at the end of the 2023 season and its .500 record through Week 4 in the 2024 campaign.
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Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, left, talks with NFL Commissioner and fellow Jamestown native, Roger Goodell, right, during warm-ups prior to the NFL championship playoff football game against the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. AP photo
“I think, at the end of the day, I don’t act and talk and think like anyone else,” he said. “I am who I am. It’s actually helped me with the players. Who cares what anybody else thinks?
“The players are smart. They’re going to see through it if you’re not being yourself. I think it’s so important. … Your identity is who you are and what you’re going to lean on in the next game. You don’t get to the spot you got to as a head coach and say, ‘Now, here is who I’m going to be.’ I don’t think it works that way.”
What has definitely worked was Amy Sirianni’s intuition decades ago.
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First reported by The Post-Journal in 2006, Amy described how she and oldest son Mike made a trip to St. Bonaventure University in 1990 where representatives from scores of colleges were gathered to recruit prospective students.
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In this Jan. 29, 2023 photo, Jay, Nick, Mike and Fran Sirianni pose for a photo after Nick’s Philadelphia Eagles won the NFC championship game in Philadelphia. Photo courtesy of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame
“I saw this ‘Mount Union’ and we talked to them,” Amy said then. “We’d never heard of Mount Union before. I said, ‘Why don’t you try this college? It’s something I think you would like. It’s a nice, small college, it’s a Christian school.”
So after a trip to the Alliance, Ohio campus in the spring of his senior year at Southwestern Central School, Mike enrolled at the college that fall.
To suggest that it worked out well for the Siriannis would be a huge understatement. Not only did Mike and, later, Jay and Nick graduate from there, but they also played football for the finest Division III program in the country under the direction of legendary head coach Larry Kahres. All told, the brothers are the proud owners of eight national championship rings. Nick leads with four (three as a player and one as an assistant coach), Mike has three (one as a player and two as an assistant coach) and Jay has one (as a player). Their experience with the Purple Raiders ultimately led all three into coaching where they have experienced tremendous success — Mike at Washington & Jefferson (Pennsylvania) College, Jay at SWCS and Nick in the NFL.
“What Mount Union taught you, what the football program taught you is how to win,” said Jay during that 2006 sitdown with the family. “It taught you the things you need to do to be a champion. The winning takes care of itself when you have that attitude.”
Added Mike that day: “I hate to use the word, ‘lucky,’ but I’ll use the word ‘blessed.’ Mount Union not only opened doors for me, but by me going there, it’s the reason Jay went there and it’s the reason Nick went there.”
And look where they’ll all be for the second time in three years tomorrow evening?
“They’re going to be able to go to the Super Bowl to enjoy it again with our whole family,” Nick said. “That’s for them. My job is to go there and keep myself and everyone locked in for the task at hand, because it definitely hurts when we lost that one two years ago.”
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It seems fitting that Super Bowl 59 would happen just eight days before the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame inducts its Class of 2025. In addition to Nick, the other honorees on Feb. 17 will be Jessica Anderson, Tom Anderson, Anthony Barone, Stephen Carlson, Mark Edstrom, Ron Frederes, Nick Kahanic and Aaron Leeper.
Furthermore, several other CSHOFers have connections to the franchises squaring off tomorrow in New Orleans. The late Jim McCusker (Class of 1982), a Jamestown High School graduate, won the 1960 NFL Championship with the Eagles; the late Bill Bergey (Class of 1989), who graduated from Pine Valley Central School, played in Super Bowl 15 with Philadelphia; and David Hinson (Class of 2023), another JHS alum, is currently the Chiefs co-director of college scouting and the owner of two Super Bowl rings with Kansas City.
“That’s special,” Nick said. “It shows how so many good people have come out of (Chautauqua County). I’m blessed to be a part of that. … It should give people hope that anybody can make it … with good habits, a little luck and talent.”
And a gentle nudge from mom doesn’t hurt.