February 06, 2023
Kate Frese/for PhillyVoice
Former Eagles defensive coordinator and new Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon
Oft-maligned Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon saw his Philly cred rise like 10,000 percent last week a video surfaced of him confidently boasting, "We're gonna f****** gut these guys" while sitting in traffic prior to the Birds' NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers. And gut them they did! Here's the video, in case you missed it.
Jonathan Gannon before facing the 49ers in the NFC Championship:
— Barstool Philly (@BarstoolPhilly) February 2, 2023
“We’re gonna fucking gut these guys” pic.twitter.com/z3GPsoKJx6
In his first interview session with the media after the viral video emerged, Gannon explained what happened. (To be clear, this story won't exactly make you the center of attention at your Super Bowl party, but for the sake of being thorough, I guess it deserves a follow-up?)
"I was driving in and the ramp was blocked at like 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning. I was driving into NovaCare to work out and do the call sheet. And so this cop sees me and he's like, 'Hey Jonathan, follow me, I'll take you to through and get you to NovaCare.'
"So we're driving and it's a traffic jam, so he's pulling through, you know, Broad Street, the four lanes, and he's pulling through. And so then they recognize me and they start yelling, "Hey let's go let's go let's go,' and I'm not going to get into the backstory of that, but there was a theme that we had all week so I rolled down the window and I kind of said the theme.
"So I love our fans. I had no idea I was getting videotaped, obviously, but love our fans and the passion that they have. And I guess I was in the zone and I let my guard down for one minute and that's what happened. But it was cool, all in good fun."
My two quick takeaways:
• The Eagles had a theme for the week of preparation that included in some way "gutting" the 49ers.
• Unfiltered Jonathan Gannon >>> filtered Jonathan Gannon.
Gannon has often been the subject of ridicule, both by media and the fan base. He explained that he tries to block all of that out.
"You know me, be where your feet are," he said. "You hear me talk all the time about external factors, and we talk to our players about that. You don't want to listen to external factors, good and bad. It affects your psyche, good or bad, what people say about you, so I kind of practice what we preach to those guys and I don't listen to that. All I'm concerned about is getting better every day.
"I think I went into a restaurant one time with my kids and I started getting dog cussed one time and I was like, 'Wow, that's interesting, we just won five in a row.' But that's the city, so it's all good. That's why I love it here. I honestly love the passion that our fans have, but I'm glad we could get to this spot and think they're behind us."
According to Urban Dictionary, "dog cuss" means "to berate in a hateful or vicious manner using various and sundry profane words; ie, the manner in which one would cuss out a dog who s*** on the carpet."
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