The Eagles will welcome former Philadelphia defensive coordinator and current Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon to town on Sunday. Although both sides insist there is nothing to see, there is still an undercurrent of tension over how his departure will be handled.
The Cardinals tampered with Gannon, contacting him directly during a time when contact was prohibited and inviting him to interview for the head coaching position. The Eagles weren’t happy about this.
“Obviously, all these questions have been asked and answered,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said Tuesday when asked about how Gannon’s departure affected their relationship.
Several questions have been asked, but most remain unanswered. At least not satisfactorily. The suspicion of tampering was hidden until literally five minutes before the draft began. Because the resolution involved an exchange of draft picks, it could not be completely obscured, but it was announced in a way that minimized scrutiny.
New items on ESPN.com Take a closer look at the situationsome new details have been added about Arizona’s tampering with Gannon and the problems caused by Gannon’s cover-up for the Eagles.
“Philly kept me,” Gannon said after the Eagles defeated the Giants in the district round. “For better, worse or indifference, I’m here.”
The declaration reportedly caused the Eagles to miss out on hiring Vic Fangio to replace Gannon. The Eagles first learned on the Friday before the Super Bowl that Cardinals general manager Monty Ossenfort would submit an interview request to Gannon after the Super Bowl. If the Eagles had known Gannon was planning to interview for the job, they might have tried to retain Fangio, who verbally accepted the defensive coordinator position in Miami.
According to ESPN.com, once the Eagles realized Gannon was likely to leave, they tried to keep Fangio in Philadelphia. According to the report, “Rumors were already circulating around the NFL that Gannon and the Cardinals had made the leap that no one had ever heard before.”
In comments to ESPN.com, Gannon denied any claims that he had made progress toward landing the Arizona job, calling them “100% false.” Gannon also downplayed the scope of his impermissible conversations with the Cardinals.
”[Ossenfort] “I’m not saying, ‘This is a done deal,'” Gannon told ESPN.com. “Really, to be honest, I let it out a little bit.” [of] In a corner of my heart. ”
That seems far-fetched, to say the least. Gannon interviewed with the Cardinals the day after the Super Bowl. Did he show up unprepared for the biggest game of his coaching career against the Cardinals? Or while you have to prepare for the Super Bowl, you’re putting together a presentation, lining up a potential staff, and coaching candidates as you prepare for an interview for one of the nation’s 32 most coveted jobs. Did they spend their time doing other tasks that other people do? football?
Common sense would suggest that Ganon did more than keep that in the back of his mind. Common sense suggests that the time he spent preparing for his interview in Arizona could have been spent addressing deficiencies in Philadelphia’s defense (e.g., before catching a walk-in touchdown. (e.g. when adapting to a receiver that starts moving and suddenly changes direction), twice).
That’s why some believe the recruiting process shouldn’t begin until after the Super Bowl. Every assistant coach wants to be a head coach. Obviously, if that possibility appears on an assistant coach’s radar screen, it’s a distraction.
In this case, the possibility of a head coaching position quietly and unfairly popped up on Gannon’s radar screen. He hid that information from the Eagles. And either he didn’t start preparing for the interview until early in the morning the night before it happened, or he actually spent time preparing for the interview, but he used that time to do more to get the Eagles defense ready for the game. I could have spent it on many things. Super Bowl.
Eagles GM Howie Roseman responded to my question on the matter: call me a conspiracy theoristit’s no conspiracy to admit that Arizona’s tampering diluted Gannon’s minutes, split his priorities and ultimately hurt the Eagles’ defense’s performance in the Super Bowl.
Perhaps this explains why the league tried so hard to downplay the situation. If all the questions are asked and all the questions are answered, how does Gannon divide his time and attention between doing his current job to the best of his ability and getting the job he’s spent his life working for? You’ll see if it’s distributed. We know how many hours he spent talking to future staff members, compiling notes for meetings with the Cardinals, and perhaps rehearsing presentations.
If all the truth comes out, the ultimate conclusion may be that Arizona’s tampering prevented the Eagles from playing at their best during the Super Bowl. That’s something the league doesn’t want anyone to realize, especially the many people who have cumulatively bet millions of dollars on the Eagles winning.