The first Super Bowl was held following the 1966 AFL and NFL seasons. Joe Kuharich was the Eagles' head coach at the time. It would take 13 more head coaches after Kuharich for an Eagles HC to capture that title, as Doug Pederson did on February 4, 2018. Not the heart-on-his-sleeves Dick Vermeil. Not the fiery, beloved Buddy Ryan. Not the consistently excellent Andy Reid. Not the offense-altering Chip Kelly. Douglas Irvin Pederson.
Pederson is now gone from Philadelphia. He was sent packing after a 4-11-1 2020 campaign that featured some of the worst quarterback play in the league, a perpetually injured offensive line and an embarrassing collection of wide receivers. Change can be necessary and the Birds certainly aren't regretting the decision to let Pederson go with the way Nick Sirianni has taken charge of the team over the last two seasons, but it was a quick exit for a guy I once assumed would coach in Philadelphia as long as he wanted until he made the call himself to hang up his whistle.
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The Jaguars hired Pederson to be their new head coach this offseason. It was an under-the-radar move, as Pederson was overlooked in the coaching cycle just as he was when the Birds hired him in 2016. His laid-back demeanor and "dad" vibes play a role for sure. He doesn't look like this sharp up-and-comer like the barrage of new coaches from the Kyle Shanahan tree. What Pederson does have, however, is a Super Bowl ring on his finger.
Pederson has Jacksonville looking good so far in this young 2022 season. Trevor Lawrence is finally playing like the guy who was considered an elite quarterback prospect and went No. 1 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. They're 2-1 before a matchup with the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, Pederson's first game back in Philly since the tank fest that was Week 17 of the 2020 season. The man who delivered what people in this city had been dreaming of for decades went out with a whimper. He's back in town and I can't stop thinking about what he means to this franchise and its fan base this week.
The Eagles hired Pederson after Kelly's Philly flameout because he was a callback to the Reid era. Pederson actually started the first game of Reid's coaching tenure in 1999 as rookie Donovan McNabb waited in the wings. Pederson returned to Reid's staff as an offensive quality control coach in Philly in 2009 and 2010 before becoming the team's quarterback coach in 2011 and 2012. In that final season with the Eagles, Pederson coached a rookie QB out of Arizona named Nick Foles. Reid was jettisoned from Philadelphia, went to the Chiefs and brought Pederson along to be his offensive coordinator for three seasons before Pederson found himself back with the Birds.
Pederson presents the greatest butterfly effect in Philadelphia sports history:
• If Pederson, an on-again, off-again backup to Dan Marino with the Dolphins doesn't get cut early into the 1995 season, he never catches on with the Packers to work behind Brett Favre. The Packers' tight end coach at the time? Reid.
• Pederson hangs with Green Bay for a few seasons, wins a Super Bowl and follows Reid to Philadelphia to be the "veteran presence" for the Eagles' new regime and a young McNabb.
• Pederson starting the first nine games of the 1999 season gave McNabb time to develop into the franchise QB he would eventually become, propelling the Eagles to a string of playoff runs for a decade for which Reid is praised.
• If Pederson doesn't come back to coach in Philly under Reid in 2009 after coaching at a high school in Shreveport, Louisiana, he never gets on the path to becoming an NFL head coach nor does he connect with a rookie Foles.
• If Pederson doesn't make the move to Kansas City with Reid, the Eagles look elsewhere in 2016 for a move that harkens back to the "emotional intelligence" of Reid after Kelly's infuriating burnout.
• If none of that stuff happens, February 4, 2018 is just another random night in Eagles fans' lives that have scant, if any, memories of, rather than being the pinnacle of their lifelong sports fandom.
If I've said it once, I've said it five billion times in print, on Twitter and in barroom arguments:
Doug Pederson took a backup quarterback who nearly quit football a year prior to the Super Bowl and scored 41 points on the greatest defensive mind to ever live.
Credit to Foles for going supernova for three weeks in the NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl. Credit to the way every player on the Eagles' roster contributed during that championship season. Credit to Pederson though, the worst head coaching hire in decades allegedly, for taking the most counted out, underdog squad in the NFL in my lifetime to the promised land.
Pederson unlocked something in Foles. It felt like the two were in perfect sync. For two nights in winter 2018, it was as if this was the next Bill Walsh-Joe Montana combo. Once Foles reappeared to save the day in the 2018 season, Pederson had him balling out yet again. Pederson had Foles throwing for 962 yards with a quarterback rating of 108.4 while going 3-0 to end that year before another upset playoff win. They were pure magic together.
I hated this narrative that Pederson was some buffoon figurehead whose staff did all the heavy lifting turning Foles from an afterthought to a Super Bowl hero. "It was all Frank Reich! It was all John DeFilippo!" Kudos to Reich for helping bring the Lombardi Trophy to Philly, but that guy is on the hot seat in Indianapolis. Since Reich left as the Eagles' offensive coordinator following the Super Bowl win, he has the same exact number of playoff wins as Pederson (one). Pederson's new Jaguars team, by the way, crushed Reich's Colts 24-0 in Week 2. DeFilippo was fired midway through his first season as the Vikings' offensive coordinator in 2018 and is currently not coaching in the NFL.
I'm a media member now, but it's abundantly evident that I was an Eagles super-fan before my Big J journalist days. I couldn't believe what I was watching with the way Pederson guided an Eagles team that had been ravished by injuries, that had lost the would-be MVP, that was an underdog in their own damn stadium in the postseason (twice!) to a title I thought would be out of reach for the rest of my time on this planet.
I met my fiancé at the Eagles' Super Bowl parade! Am I supposed to pretend Pederson didn't change the course of my life and that of everyone I know for the better? I enter the Linc as a reporter to cover the Eagles-Jaguars game on Sunday, but I'll always owe something to Pederson. Hell, I might owe everything. Where is my career, my love life, my state of being if not for Pederson and the Eagles toppling the Patriots in Super Bowl LII?
Pederson is no longer with the Eagles, but he remains a literal omnipresent figure with a statue outside of Lincoln Financial Field. Did I want Philly Philly? I wanted what Pederson accomplished more than anything in life.
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