January 16, 2018
On Monday, we showed that Doug Pederson was the prize of the 2016 head coaching class, and included the now infamous video of former GM Mike Lombardi calling him the most unqualified coach he had ever seen.
If you read me regularly, you've seen that video, but we'll post it anyway for those of you who don't.
.@mlombardiNFL wants to know if the Eagles will admit their mistake or if they'll throw away 2017 by sticking to the Pederson principle pic.twitter.com/Vw3ubDzBic
— The Ringer (@ringer) September 3, 2017
We're a little late on this, since I didn't want to post two "Doug is great!" articles in one day. But it's worth following up on Lombardi acknowledging that Pederson can actually walk and chew gum at the same time, though he didn't go much further than that.
.@mlombardiNFL admits he was wrong about Doug Pederson's ability to lead the #Eagles pic.twitter.com/ZWTIWqoW0w
— The Ringer (@ringer) January 15, 2018
BGN transcribed Lombardi's "admission," or whatever you'd call that.
I admit, I’m wrong. OK, Doug Pederson is way better than I thought he was going to be in terms of his ability to lead that team. I think Jim Schwartz is a tremendous defensive coordinator. I think he deserves a lot of credit here. But I thought [Pederson] did a really good job with Nick Foles [against the Falcons].
So all you Philly fans give me crap about give Doug Pederson his due … yeah, OK, I was wrong. He’s a better coach.
Now he’s going to have to do it again this week and we’ll see how that is, but for me, I think when you win a playoff game, and you beat a team that you’re an underdog to, and you beat Matt Ryan, and you play and Nick Foles played well enough, I think you deserve it.
I think I’ve gotta admit, hey look. I think I was wrong in terms of how far I went with Doug. I’m not sure how great of a coach Doug is. But I was wrong in terms of how far I went with it.
So Pederson weathered the losses of Carson Wentz, Jason Peters, Jordan Hicks, and Darren Sproles on the way to a 13-3 regular season record, a playoff win, and a home game in the NFC Championship Game. But let's see how he does this week!
In other Lombardi news, a great story surfaced recently from Steve Doerschuk of CantonRep.com, in which Jim McMahon once beat up Lombardi, in what sounds a lot like a Joe Pesci scene in a mobster movie.
“I got up and was going to the restroom,” McMahon said, “and here comes Mike Lombardi. I’d had it with this guy, because he was the one who kept giving me the runaround.
“I brought up the money I was owed. I said, ‘Look, Mike, I really need it. My wife just got in a wreck, and I didn’t want to get insurance involved. I need the cash.’ Like a smart (aleck), Lombardi says, ‘Well, maybe we’ll pay you, maybe we won’t.’
“I lost it. I grabbed him by his neck. I started hitting his head on the wall. I said, ‘You’re going to pay me my money, you little (expletive).’ Then I realized what I was doing. I look around the hallway and I realize there’s nobody there. And I whacked him again. He slides down the wall, onto the floor.
“I walked into the training room and called my attorney and said, ‘You’d better get me cut right now. I’m gonna kill this guy.’ So he calls me back in a minute or two and says, ‘They’ll release you if that’s what you want.’
Lol.
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