In the words of the legendary rapper Birdman, it’s time to put some respect on Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni’s name.
Following the Eagles’ 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX on February 9, Sirianni became just the third head coach in NFL history with a .700 winning percentage and a Super Bowl victory. The other two on the list are 2 of the greatest head coaches in the history of professional sports in Vince Lombardi — the namesake for the Super Bowl trophy — and John Madden.
That it comes 2 years after the Eagles lost to the same team in Super Bowl LVII only made it that much sweeter for Sirianni, who was hired by the Eagles before the 2021 season.
“I think that when you embrace adversity, it does something to you, right? It does something to you personally, right? Each and every individual on that football team, the adversity does something to you, and it does something to you as a football team as well,” Sirianni told ESPN’s Adam Teicher. “So, our guys, I think that could be the biggest attribute. They worked their butts off to connect.”
It also comes one season after the Eagles had one of the more epic regular season meltdowns in recent memory in 2023 after they started the season 10-1, lost 6 of their last 7 games and were beaten by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Wild Card Round.
Lombardi and Madden: A Quick Refresher
Modern NFL fans might not be as familiar with their accomplishments of Lombard and Madden — 2 of the most important figures in the history of professional sports — other than the Super Bowl trophy is called the Lombardi Trophy and Madden’s name graces the most popular sports video game series of all time.
Lombardi, who died in 1970 at 57 years old, shot to fame as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967, where he won 5 NFL championships and the first 2 Super Bowl championships.
Madden, who died in 2021 at 85 years old, was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, has the highest winning percentage (.750) of any NFL head coach who coached at least 100 games and led the Raiders to a victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI. Following his coaching career, Madden spent 30 seasons as an NFL color commentator and his Madden NFL video game franchise had generated an estimated $4 billion in revenue at the time of his death.
Sirianni Could Become Highest Paid Head Coach
Sirianni’s Super Bowl win should shoot him into the stratosphere as far as the highest-paid head coaches in professional sports. Sirianni currently makes $7 million per season — roughly half of the $13 million salary of Chicago Bears rookie head coach Ben Johnson — and is in the final year of his contract in 2025.
“If Sirianni leads the Eagles to a Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs, his asking price would be expected to go up — and he could argue that he is worth as much as any rookie head coach whose salary dwarfs his,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on February 8.
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