It's always good to hear from an old friend.
On Sunday, Glen Macnow and Ray Didinger caught up with Duce Staley, the current assistant head coach and running backs coach of the Detroit Lions, who left the same position with the Eagles this past offseason.
"It was tough," said Staley. "It really was."
Staley was interviewed for the Eagles head coaching position this offseason but ultimately lost out on the job. That forced Staley to make some difficult decisions.
"Once again, I sat down and just went through certain situations in my head. What kept coming back to me was the opportunity to lead men and the opportunity to be a head coach on this level. I said to myself, in order for me to have a fair opportunity to be a head coach in any organization, I must leave here and grow. I must leave here and grow maybe under someone else. That's the route I chose, and I'm here with Detroit now and am super happy."
Staley had been with the Eagles for nearly a decade as a the running backs coach, and was the assistant head coach his last three seasons there. He interviewed for the head coaching position twice and was turned down both times for the job.
"I look at those opportunities as great," said Staley.
"There is nothing negative that came out of it, except of course that I didn't get the job. Still, I learned from that and moved on… On my end, I feel like I got a fair chance. They chose to go differently. That's their choice. That's Mr.
Lurie's choice, that's Howie's choice. I did what I had to do. I went in and interviewed and it went great, it was a long interview, over three hours. I felt like I nailed every question, every scenario, every situation, I felt like I nailed it. Once again, I don't control the narrative; Mr. Lurie, Howie and those guys do, and they went another route. They have a great head coach now in Nick Sirianni. Nick will do awesome there, trust me. He will do awesome."
