Nick Sirianni

No, never will.

You know, it started right away because we had some coaching turnover. Right. And so this is not my first day back. We've been we've been interviewing and trying to hire coaches and exit interviews with players, stuff like that. And. You know, it takes what it takes. It takes what it takes. So, you know, obviously we enjoyed ourselves. You saw the parade.

We enjoyed ourselves. Yeah, we enjoyed ourselves. We had some other nights that we enjoyed ourselves, but it's right back to work to try to, you know, to go through the steps to put you in position to be able to do it again. Yeah.

Yeah. That was cool. One of the questions at the exit interviews is, like, what do you think went well as a team? And so, like, after the first three where they were like, coach, we won the Super Bowl. Yeah. I got it. So I rephrased the question. Besides winning the Super Bowl, what do you think went well as a team?

Yeah. Yeah, those are good exit interviews. But, you know, I just love spending time with the guys and continuing the relationships and everything like that.

We got this. You know, in 2022, we were up 24 14 at halftime and they were getting the ball to come out of half and they went down and scored.

uh you know we were up 24 nothing at halftime there and they were getting the ball coming out of the half and so we knew how important that drive was going to be um you know i think at 40 when we were up 40 to 6 i remember saying to our staff i'm like i think uh i think let's let's take the starters out yeah and one of the coaches like coach you sure there was like six minutes left and i go yes i'm sure we we can take starters out right now let's get everybody in the game and let's let's them all play so i think it took a

it took a long time. That was, that's a phenomenal team. We played with phenomenal coaches, phenomenal players, maybe one of the best players of all time on the other sideline. And, uh, so it, it, it wasn't, Hey, until the fat lady saying we knew, we knew at some point it was 40 to six with five minutes left to go. We could, uh, We could be there.

You know, the whole time during the parade, and really a couple of the celebrate, you know, celebration, it really was the parade. I was like, it just, I don't know. It's just the way we're the way it is. Sometimes you're like, man, I wish I'd have been able to do this in 2022. You know? And so that, and it was like, you're enjoying it. And the parade was awesome.

And the people of Philadelphia are unbelievable. And the, and the celebration was great players, everything. Uh, but there are moments that you're having when you have the beer in your hand, you got to point it over to the crowd, like, man, I wish I would have been able to go through this two years ago.

We weren't. They beat us, and they had to play on that field too. So I'll never give an excuse on that.

Like practice in front of the mirror, like have Chris Stapleton last time singing it, and I just sit in front of the mirror like, don't cry, don't cry. You're stronger than that, Nick. Don't do it. Uh, football's an emotional game. Uh, you know, I, I would, I would say it's just an emotional game and all the emotions. Yeah. Maybe it was maybe, you know what? I'll tribute, I'll tribute it to that.

Yeah. I love it. I love it.

Should they have to stand like right next to each other face to face and just look and see who cried first? Yeah.

So nobody, nobody, nobody in the NFL does their job as good as Dom does his. Let me brag on him for a second. Nobody wants to help people more. In a world that we live in where there's so many people about themselves and this and that, that's what I loved about our team, too. We were a completely selfless team. No one cared how we won. They just wanted to win. which is really special.

I wish people were talking about that more, especially in the world we live in today. Our guys wanted to sacrifice for each other and win for each other and be selfless with it. Well, that's how Dom lives every single day. Like, he –

he lives to help other diamond here yeah he lives to help other people do their job and it and it's special like it takes special qualities and uh yeah so that that has way more effect on when i i didn't have time to get a haircut on friday when we normally get haircuts and i'm like you know what hair's a little long i'm gonna i'm just gonna do it myself yeah uh it didn't look great when i did it myself so my assistant had to kind of trim me up there my daughter

I got, my wife hates when I do that. I do it, I do it in the summer every once in a while. Like, you know, I don't, I don't, my daughter is on my wife. I know my wife hates it. And then my daughter said to my wife, like, are you going to divorce daddy now that I'm like, Whoa, she's seven. She didn't even know what that means. So obviously she heard that from somebody else.

I don't know what's going on here.

Well, if you look at when Howie got hit by the beer can during the parade, it whizzes by my wife. There's a couple angles because it's like they have a very different angle. I actually think I could make a montage of all the angles of the beer can hitting Howie in the head. And there's one angle where it whizzes by my daughter and my wife and it hits Howie. And I'm like, you know what?

Better than Howie than my two beautiful girls.

Do you know – It's so hard to win a game in the NFL. My moment was never to be like, I'm going to shield him from a tough question. We just won the game. Miles Garrett jumped over. We were up, what, 10-0? And it was about to be 13-0.5. He jumped over someone, blocked the kick, and they returned it for a touchdown. It's hard to win. And so my whole thing there was like, let's go celebrate the win.

Some people in the media didn't take it that way. So I got it. I got it. So my wife said, no more. No more kids up at the podium anymore. Yeah.

Yeah.

no no because the next week I think it was the next week we got our butts kicked by Tampa okay but that was a huge play and it was an awesome play you know as I remember it we're like third and 16 Jalen puts a perfect we had perfect protection up front we hadn't been doing much on offense defense was playing their butts off and we hadn't been doing much on offense all day uh we get great protection protection up front Jalen delivers the ball perfectly Jahan Dotson

you know, kind of gets Dallas Goddard open. I think like three of their guys ran into each other and then Dallas went and ripped it. But it is plays like that that you're like, yeah, I think there's so many moments in the season you're like, man, that play, that play, that play, that play. And that's what's cool about it. Right. And there's teams that

that lost or didn't accomplish the goals they wanted to accomplish. And they look that play, that play, that play. It just makes you know how important the day in day out work is. So the breaks go your way.

I do have something.

You know, the compliment that I do feel from it is that it's stretched to every portion of football, right? It's showed in college football, pro football. High school football, peewee football. My son scored on it this year.

Insulted because we work hard at that thing. It's automatic. It's automatic because of the work that's put in and because of the players that we have that are performing it. It's not automatic throughout the entire league. It's not, okay, well, Steph Curry shouldn't be allowed to shoot threes. Only in the fourth quarter can Steph Curry shoot threes. What are we talking about?

You can't just make a rule up because – Right. It's it's benefiting one team and everywhere else. It's not quite as good. I mean, we saw it in one of the championship games. They got one of the teams got stuffed on it and turn over and downs.

And in the game over.

No doubt.

I think that's emotion, right?

And that's what makes me unique. It's my emotion, and it's all Italian right there, no doubt. Yeah. You just try to be who you are. Players see through that if they're not. the emotion of the game, the anger at times, the celebrations at times, the talking with our hands at times, whether I'm talking to a referee, whether I'm talking to a player or whatever it is. Yeah, I embrace that.

We've got a lot of Italians. Yeah. Can you ever have too many Italians?

There's so many Italians.

You've got Fangio. Now our coordinators. You've got Fangio. You've got Petullo. You've got Sirianni. You've got Dom. And you've got Michael Clay. Michael Clay is our special teams coordinator.

You don't like it.

There's no play.

For you to notice it, I love that. I love that you noticed that that's what we were doing. Because it could be like, oh, they just messed it up. I don't think your average fan notices that that's going on. They're like, oh, they didn't have the right formation. They just banged the timeout. It's very impressive. Did I change your opinion on me after I complimented you right there?

Yeah, I think that's the game plan every week. Remember when you jumped over the guy backwards? Can you do that again? Do the touchdown play real quick. Do that again.

Yeah, no, that's, that's how it feels right there. Like, I think that the moment that I love the reaction of our sideline when he jumped over that guy. And that's what we, you know, I think we saw that every day at practice. I mean, not that he was like, we're not tackling full speed and he can get jumping over guys, but like, you just see the athletic, the freaky athletic ability that he has.

man and and i'll say this like what an unbelievable person like if you had if we just if you said saquon barkley go the first thing that would come out of my mouth is this guy's an unbelievable person this guy's an unbelievable teammate this guy's an unbelievable leader he's an unbelievable worker and then we could start talking about the plays that he makes yeah it's all those things that make him who he is you think he's a better human being than football player

Yeah.

He's the best running back in the league.

Yes.

It's no offense to him, but he's one of the best football players in the world. And that's what I'm saying. He's one of the best humans in the world.

You're going to say he's a top 10 human being. Well, I don't... Is that... He's a top ten football player in the world. Top ten. There's a lot more people in the world than there is human beings. I'd say the top, like, thousand human beings. So he's a better football player than human being.

insane he's all he's got like no matter who is available who's not even available i feel like how he is always cooking something up yeah it's gonna make my life the secret to good coaching is get good players yeah how he does a great job of that so it's he's making my life easier and easier every move that he makes it's awesome

But at any given time, he could surprise you with a present. I love it. It's the best. It's the absolute best. He is the best GM in the world. I have no doubt in my mind.

Do you want to get Max involved?

Who was it?

I love taking pictures with them. In that moment. Perfect answer.

I think it's the right thing to do. Okay. And it's easy way to – here's my opinion on it. Do I love – like when I got my son, do I love taking pictures? I wouldn't say I love taking pictures. But it's such an easy thing – like it's such an easy thing to do to show – to help somebody make their day or show gratitude to that person.

Max, thanks. I just got ridiculed by everyone by not asking for a picture. Wait a second, Max. You wanted me fired. So never mind.

You know who you look like? Has there ever got Matt Patricia?

Little Kelsey. Little Patricia. You guys see it?

you know, you know what I'd say about that? You know, if someone, a couple of people have asked me, like, why, why don't you get up and be like, look at me, like do something like that. Right. And I'm like, you know, I'm actually grateful for this. I'm good at this. I know this isn't the mood we're in right now, but like, cause we're having fun, but I'm grateful for the criticism.

I'm grateful for the adversity because it truly makes you. And I look back at my entire life. The adversity has made me who I am. Um, I have no doubt in my mind that it would have been hard to win the Super Bowl this year if we didn't finish the season the way we did last year. And I'm grateful for the adversity. I'm grateful for the criticism.

And the reason I'm grateful for the criticism is because, you know, I got three kids that I'm going to raise in this social media world that they're going to get criticized, right? And I'm going to have to be able to parent them in those scenarios. And what a great opportunity I have and a great experience I have of what we went through, right, with the light on the other side of the tunnel.

And then also, you know, we have a ton of players that get criticized. I love Brandon Graham when he talks about how he was criticized so early in his career. He put his head down. He worked his butt off. He learned from the adversity. He got better. And he has the 15-plus-year career that he's had. And I love that. I love that. And now I'm able to share that, too, with guys.

And so I'm grateful for it. And, you know, it sucks when you're going through it, but I'm grateful for it now.

Right. What 50 cents say in that one song? Pain wouldn't feel so good.

No, I think I'll take you to the candy shop. Yeah, you're right. You're right. And then they did that movie with Old School where they remade it. That's one of my favorite lines.

Did you say you? You criticized him. You see this pattern here?

It's good.

What are you seeing?

I just want to dismiss those rumors. If he's been lying to me, I've been working with him for eight years. All the way back to Indy and then here. If he's been lying to me about being Italian for this long, he can't be. Who can hold a lie for that long if it's not because he's been lying to me for eight years if he has.

He'd be like George Costanza if he can hold a lie for that long. I believe it.

Dom Italian?

No questions on Fangio, though.

Vic Fangio. Vic Fangio is a nice bison. If you have a question about this guy or one of our senior special teams assistant, Joe Penunzio. Any questions? Sounds like a great bison. No questions, right?

Yeah, good. I'm glad I was able to clear that up.

Kevin, I haven't made a decision over the last five years or really even going back to Indy without the assistance of Kevin Petullo. And that's just in whether it's offense, whether it's head coaching, whether it's something to do with anything, he's the guy I lean into the most. And that's really – you talk to Shane Steichen, you talk to Brian Johnson, you talk to –

Kellen Moore, they all say the same thing. This guy is a star, you know, loves football, bleeds football, wants to do everything, like has a great look at all the what the player all the players said about him after he got after he got hired and the endorsement that he gave that every one of them gave him. He's a special coach.

And when you're able to, when you have a coach that you can keep consistency and continuity in the building for your offense that can be promoted, you do that. And we had a guy that was there ready to do it. And I'm excited about his opportunity. And I want him to do so well that he gets job interviews next year but doesn't get them. but doesn't get the, you know, because I don't want to move on.

And then I hope he does so well again that he gets those job interviews again and he strikes out on being head coach again. And then maybe – then the third year does so well again, misses out on it one more time, and then the fourth year of him being the coordinator, then he goes. That seems fair to me. Let's get James some continuity.

I – He, he, he, he didn't actually apologize. He said, that's just the way we are. You know, it's like, I yell at the refs. It's just the way I am. No, I'm Italian. I'm sorry. I'm an emotional guy.

I have a question for Max, uh, 12 months ago.

I just kind of hang out. I just kind of hang out. He's making this up. You asked it. I just kind of hang out during games. High five people. That's what Max says. Yell at people. Yell at people. High five people. That's about it.

I didn't do that. He encouraged you, right?

And then you did it. And we did it. And I'm like, did you like that? He said, yes. And I said, okay. And then it kind of became a little bit more of a topic than it was.

Yeah. Do you know that guy actually called in and said he wasn't talking to the whole family. He was talking to me, and he was having fun with me, and nobody went with that story?

I'm sorry, the evils of the media. We'll listen to what we want to listen to and not put out some of the other stuff.

He was talking directly to me. That's what the guy said. I was talking directly to him, and I'm like, nobody even went with it. The story was written the way it wanted to be written, and that's where it went from there.

These are the burdens of leadership. Leadership's not always seen. It's not always seen. And you know what? I know what I signed up for. I know that there's criticism that comes when you don't perform the way that you need to perform. And that's what we signed up for.

Well, you know, the last time they told me about this when I first got here, they said... We won the Super Bowl in 2017. I'm like, oh, yeah, I remember that. And then they were like, well, the next year in 2018, we went three and out our first drive, and they were booing.

It may have been, and I may be exaggerating, and it also may have been we didn't score any points at halftime, and they were booing. I'm like... Shoot. That's Philly. You've got to love it.

You've got to score some points. Don't go three and out.

He's a hell of an offensive coach. He's a stud. Yeah. Yeah, he's a stud. And he's done an awesome job at Toledo. Jason and I were teammates, right? Jason and I were teammates. His senior year in 2001, all right, and my sophomore year, it took me a little – it really was like my second – I had three more years after that because it took me some more time to graduate. Italian.

Italian. Him and I were the starting receivers for the first two games I got hurt, and I was out the rest of the year. But then Jason was my coach. In 2002 and 2003, he was my receiver coach. So imagine the guy you drink a lot of beers with and hang out with a lot. Now he's yelling at you and telling you what to do and everything like that. But he's a great he was he was a great coach.

Then fast forward to when I now I'm going into coaching and I take a job at Mount Union. Now, not only is he my roommate, my you know, because I'm going to live in his house. He's my roommate. He's my colleague and he's my landlord because he's charging me money to live in a home. Right. Listen to this. A lot of coaches lived in that room.

There was about five coaches that Jason was making money off of all of us, charging us rent. I got the room because they were all a year or two older than me, and I got the room that was in the living room. It was connected to the dining room. I had a sheet. for a little bit of privacy, no heat in that room. So I had a space heater. Oh, right.

And so, and I was still getting charged the same amount of rent as everybody else. So, um, yeah. And so no, Jason, there you have it.

He's a great coach. He's done a great job and really value his opinion on things and find myself checking in with him on what he would do in certain situations. You know, I know he's come and watched us practice and we share information and great relationship there and always proud to check his scores or watch his games.

And, you know, I don't shy away from telling people in the building like they don't see Mount Union scores. Yeah. So I'm like, hey, do you see Toledo? Yeah, that's my guy. Yeah.

we learned how to win there. Uh, and the coach that we all played for Larry cares, um, taught us how to win, taught us. And then the guys that wanted to, that came back and coach for him, taught us how to coach, um, in Jason's case, taught him how to take advantage of his tenants and his, and his, uh, and his house, um, with the, with the heat, no heat and everything like that. But

No, he just taught us how to win and taught us how to coach and taught us everything that he had to offer us to get better as football coaches. And how awesome is it for Coach Karras now to see Matt Campbell doing the things that he's doing at Iowa State and Jason? doing the things that he's doing at Toledo, and then obviously us winning.

He's got another guy here on the Colts that's the tight end coach. He's got coaches everywhere that have either played for him and coached for him, both my brothers included, that he's touched our lives and helped us reach our goals.

Yeah. Thanks for having me. It was fun.