The Eagles are still suffering from Jonathan Gannon’s injury.
AS HE WEAVED through traffic on his way to the stadium on the day of the NFC title game, Jonathan Gannon, wearing sunglasses and a scowl, rolled down the window of his black SUV, looked into the camera that was filming him a car-length away and said: “We’re going to f—ing gut these guys!”
The video went viral, and the mood was set.
Gannon, the Eagles’ defensive coordinator at the time, was on his way to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia where his team would later throttle the San Francisco 49ers, 31-7. Gannon’s defense knocked quarterbacks Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson out of the game — and stamped its ticket to Super Bowl LVII.
A polarizing figure during his two-year stint with the Eagles, Gannon’s star in Philadelphia was at its apex after the Jan. 29 victory. His unit racked up 70 sacks during the regular season (third most all time) and dismantled the New York Giants in a 38-7 divisional playoff victory the week before.
During an on-field postgame interview with a local television station, Gannon, who had interviewed for multiple head-coach openings during the last two hiring cycles, was asked about his future.
“Philly’s keeping me,” he said. “Good, bad or indifferent, I’m staying here.”
Over the subsequent weeks, everything changed.
In search of a head coach, Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort made an impermissible call to Gannon in the lead-up to the Super Bowl — a call that eventually led to tampering charges. Gannon did not tell the Eagles about it or his intention to interview with Arizona, according to a league source, a lack of transparency that disappointed the Eagles in large part because it hurt their chance to retain preferred replacement Vic Fangio
The Eagles lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 38-35 in the Super Bowl, with the defense giving up 17 fourth-quarter points. Two days later, Gannon was hired by the Cardinals and the Eagles ramped up a search for a new defensive coordinator in a thinned-out pool.
Gannon’s exit created a ripple effect that continues to reverberate in Philadelphia, where his successor, Sean Desai, has been demoted and the Eagles are fielding a defense that ranks in the bottom half or near the bottom of several statistical categories
AS HE WEAVED through traffic on his way to the stadium on the day of the NFC title game, Jonathan Gannon, wearing sunglasses and a scowl, rolled down the window of his black SUV, looked into the camera that was filming him a car-length away and said: “We’re going to f—ing gut these guys!”
The video went viral, and the mood was set.
Gannon, the Eagles’ defensive coordinator at the time, was on his way to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia where his team would later throttle the San Francisco 49ers, 31-7. Gannon’s defense knocked quarterbacks Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson out of the game — and stamped its ticket to Super Bowl LVII.
A polarizing figure during his two-year stint with the Eagles, Gannon’s star in Philadelphia was at its apex after the Jan. 29 victory. His unit racked up 70 sacks during the regular season (third most all time) and dismantled the New York Giants in a 38-7 divisional playoff victory the week before.
During an on-field postgame interview with a local television station, Gannon, who had interviewed for multiple head-coach openings during the last two hiring cycles, was asked about his future.
“Philly’s keeping me,” he said. “Good, bad or indifferent, I’m staying here.”
Over the subsequent weeks, everything changed.
In search of a head coach, Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort made an impermissible call to Gannon in the lead-up to the Super Bowl — a call that eventually led to tampering charges. Gannon did not tell the Eagles about it or his intention to interview with Arizona, according to a league source, a lack of transparency that disappointed the Eagles in large part because it hurt their chance to retain preferred replacement Vic Fangio.
The Eagles lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 38-35 in the Super Bowl, with the defense giving up 17 fourth-quarter points. Two days later, Gannon was hired by the Cardinals and the Eagles ramped up a search for a new defensive coordinator in a thinned-out pool.
Gannon’s exit created a ripple effect that continues to reverberate in Philadelphia, where his successor, Sean Desai, has been demoted and the Eagles are fielding a defense that ranks in the bottom half or near the bottom of several statistical categories.
As Gannon makes his return for a New Year’s Eve game between the Eagles and Cardinals on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, Fox), he will be on the opposite sideline trying to play spoiler against a team struggling to regain its Super Bowl form.
To Gannon and the 3-12 Cardinals, it’s the “next game on the schedule” against a “really good football team.” The first-year head coach said his mindset will be “compete, compete, compete.”
“Obviously we didn’t finish the job last year, which all of us have the taste in our mouth of, dang, wish we finished the job,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said, “but there still were a lot of special moments last year and in 2021, and Jonathan Gannon was a big part of that.
“I value that relationship I have with him, I’m always rooting for Coach Gannon … but this will be the week I will not be rooting for him, obviously.”
IN THE DAYS after the NFC Championship Game, Gannon received a phone call from Ossenfort, who had been hired Jan. 16.
Gannon had been on Ossenfort’s radar for quite a while. While working as the Tennessee Titans’ director of player personnel in the summer of 2022, Ossenfort set up conversations with potential head-coaching candidates he was interested in interviewing if he became a GM. Gannon was one of them.
So during the January call, Ossenfort congratulated Gannon on advancing to the Super Bowl and asked if he’d be interested in interviewing for the Cardinals’ opening, should it be open after the Super Bowl, according to Gannon.
Gannon told the GM he was interested but didn’t think the call broke any rules.
“[Ossenfort] didn’t say, ‘This is a done deal,'” Gannon told ESPN last week
“I really, honestly, kind of put it outta the back of my mind.”
