Jonathan Gannon Reflects on SB LVII and More During Intro as Cardinals Head Coach

The former Eagles DC spoke about Super Bowl LVII, his time with the Eagles as a springboard to the big chair in Arizona, and more
USA Today
In this story:

Jonathan Gannon thought he would be back with the Eagles.

When the Houston Texans' head coaching job went to DeMeco Ryans, Gannon thought that was it, so he came out publicly and said he would return to Philadelphia for a third season as the defensive coordinator.

And he would’ve been fine with that.

During last week's Super Bowl LVII week in Phoenix, he called it the favorite place he’s had among his previous stops on the coaching trail.

“Not because we’re good but everyone understands their role, they’re on the same page, you have the support you need from your bosses to do your job,” he said.

Then things changed, and Gannon is now one of those bosses as the new head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.

He was introduced to the media on Thursday morning, and AllCardinals.com publisher Donnie Druin was there.

“I really learned a lot in my two years with Philadelphia,” he told Druin and others. “The vision that they had for that team, bringing me in and teaching me those things. I’ll forever be grateful. (With the) Philadelphia Eagles, I say I learned a lot from a lot of different coaches that I was with.

"I try to pick everyone’s brain, but the Philadelphia Eagles (helped to) springboard me to get in this seat. I’ll forever be grateful, and I love those people there.”

Gannon was fully expecting to return to the Eagles.

“When I made that comment (about returning to the Eagles), I wasn’t going anywhere because Houston went another direction,” he said. “That’s who I interviewed for, and I knew that they were going in another direction.

“That was the only interview that I had for this cycle. I was obviously fully engaged in the playoff run that we had then to the Super Bowl.”

On Sunday night, however, after his defense’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performance – good in the first half, unable to make a stop in the second – contributed to a 38-35 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, Eagles GM Howie Roseman had some news for Gannon.

“Howie approached me on Sunday night after the game and said, ‘Hey, you’re going to stay here. You’re not flying back with us. You’re going to interview for this job,’” said Gannon. 

“That’s when I clicked that mindset in and said, ‘OK, well let me stop, I have got to pick up my bootstraps a little bit because I was down obviously about the game, and take a shower, work out, and come in and shoot your gun.’ So, that’s what I did.”

Gannon got out of town without explaining what happened to his defense in the second half when it allowed points on all four KC possessions but talked about it to Druin and others at the press conference.

He said he watched the game film Sunday night in his hotel room.

“I don’t feel sorry for myself,” he said. “I feel bad about the players and not getting (Eagles owner) Mr. (Jeffrey) Lurie another ring, Howie another ring, and (head coach) Nick (Sirianni) his first ring.

“I’m always trying to learn from experiences that happen right in real time and that’s what I did. I feel bad about not being able to get that done, but it was an excellent learning experience for me. I know that I learned a lot from that game and things that I would need to do different moving forward to win that game.”

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglestoday.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.


Published
Ed Kracz
ED KRACZ

Ed Kracz has been covering the Eagles full-time for over a decade and has written about Philadelphia sports since 1996. He wrote about the Phillies in the 2008 and 2009 World Series, the Flyers in their 2010 Stanely Cup playoff run to the finals, and was in Minnesota when the Eagles secured their first-ever Super Bowl win in 2017. Ed has received multiple writing awards as a sports journalist, including several top-five finishes in the Associated Press Sports Editors awards.