Nick Sirianni apologizes for jawing with Philadelphia Eagles fans in win over Cleveland Browns
Nick Sirianni apologized on Monday for his actions after he was seen jawing with Philadelphia Eagles fans at the end of the team's 20-16 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
"What I was really doing, I was trying to bring energy yesterday, energy and enthusiasm, and I'm sorry and disappointed at how my energy was directed at the end of the game," Sirianni said. "My energy should be all in on coaching, motivating, right? And celebrating with our guys. And I got to have to have better wisdom and discernment of when to use that energy and that wasn't the time."
The apology is a stark contrast from Sirianni's postgame press conference on Sunday where he said he was just excited to get the win in response to multiple questions about the incident at the end of the game.
So what changed between Sunday and Monday?
"There's play calls in the game that you go through and game management things that you go through and say, 'You know, at the time, I thought this was the right thing,'" Sirianni said. "And then you evaluate everything. You evaluate the way players played, you evaluate the things you did as a coach to get them ready to play or the calls that you made or the management of the game that you did. You do the same with other things, which this one is."
Sirianni's sideline antics didn't sit well with Eagles fans, especially after narrowly beating a one-win Browns team.
Sirianni also mentioned the fans in his Monday press conference, saying they're the "best fans in the world" one day after he said the boos during the game don't help the team.
"There's no place like this," he said. "They show up and show out no matter where we are – Brazil, Arizona, New Orleans."
It's not unusual for Sirianni to have a sideline outburst during the game, but Sunday's incident was different because he was going back-and-forth with Eagles fans in his home stadium.
The TV broadcast also caught Sirianni jawing back-and-forth with Browns cornerback Greg Newsome during the game.
Following the win, Eagles players said over the bye week they wanted to see Sirianni be himself for the remainder of the season.
"I just told him to be him," said Brandon Graham, who became the first player in Eagles history to play 200 regular season games on Sunday. "We just want people to be themselves. At the end of the day, he's taking a bunch of heat and we got a lot of stuff on him. We got his back."
Lucky for Sirianni, the Eagles won't be back at the Linc until November.