April 22, 2023
Jonathan Gannon, formerly the defensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles — and presently the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals — is taking some heat after comments made about the Philly media contingent. Gannon said in a recent interview that during a 2022 press conference someone told him, "Coach, we want you fired."
A video clip of Gannon's interview can be found below:
#Cardinals HC Jonathan Gannon talking about his comfortability with the media, but mentions how difficult it could be in Philadelphia.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) April 21, 2023
Mentions how they were 9-0 and people wanted him fired.
"If you want to come call the defense, have at it."pic.twitter.com/Gl4K7wwKSH
The above video, transcribed:
“I’m very comfortable talking to the media. Philly is a very hard media market. We were 9-0 and I did my presser and they said, ‘Coach, we want you fired.’ And I said, ‘We’re the number one defense in the NFL right now, in every statistical category, why do you want me fired?’ ‘You don’t blitz enough.’ I said, ‘Well we lead the league in sacks by thirty-plus sacks, so if you want to come call the defense, then you can have at it.' But it's cool. They have a job to do, and I understand that...”
Gannon's words seem unbelievable to some for a number of reasons.
As a result of the unbelievability of his words, Gannon is being accused of just making up dialogue that never happened. Those accusations need to stop, and it is time for the Eagles' media to come clean.
To begin, that exchange did happen. Why does it not exist in transcript form? Well, after Gannon offered to let someone in the media call the defense as he described in the video above, Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philly raised his hand and volunteered for the job. When Gannon said that his offer to let someone call the defense was just sarcasm and not actually a real offer, Zangaro picked Gannon up, walked him outside, and threw him into a dumpster.
Zangaro then stormed back into the Eagles auditorium and made a menacing "throat cut" motion to the Eagles' press conference transcriber, as if to say, "This better not make it in there." And sure enough, it did not.
But that was hardly the worst example of the Eagles' media treating Gannon poorly.
• July 28, 2022: Sick of seeing Haason Reddick repeatedly drop into coverage during a training camp practice, Eliot Shorr-Parks of WIP stormed into Gannon's office later that day and flushed his head in the toilet, warning him that he better not see Reddick doing anything other than rushing the quarterback.
The message was received loud and clear, as that was the end of Reddick's coverage days in the Eagles' defense.
• 12/9/2021: A similar incident occurred back in 2021, when Jeff McLane was upset by Josh Sweat's role as the 4i in the Eagles' defense. McLane ate a bunch of Skittles so that his spit would thicken, and proceeded to pin Gannon down, letting his spit drip down near Gannon's face, and then sucking it back up at the last second.
He caught the first plane out of Philly to Indianapolis, where Gannon formerly worked with the Colts, and got a job with the Indy Star, posing as the scrappy new young kid on the beat. Never suspecting a teenager to have ill intentions, the Colts allowed Bowen to roam their facilities, unfettered. Bowen was able to find Gannon's personal information in a filing cabinet, and proceeded to wreck his credit.
When Gannon went house hunting in Phoenix after landing the Cardinals' head coaching job, he was surprised and embarrassed to learn that he had a FICO score of just 542.
• Repeated occurrances: Whenever The Athletic's Bo Wulf saw Gannon in/around the Eagles' facilities he would yell "NERRRRRRRD!!!" at the top of his lungs.
I witnessed all of the above, first-hand. Eagles media is indeed super mean, and Gannon totally didn't just make up an interaction that didn't happen.
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