PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Rookie Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is undoubtedly passionate about football, competition and coaching. There have been reports of his coaching style at Eagles training camp involving some strong constructive criticism — all part of his apparent attention to detail, which players have pointed out.
"It's the little things," wide receiver Travis Fulgham said. "You mess up a split, if you don't hit [a defender] with the right move, he'll definitely get in your face and let you know."
And part of Sirianni's detail-oriented coaching method involves teaching lessons with videos. But the players are not watching only standard-issue NFL videos.
Sirianni has shown them basketball icon Kobe Bryant missing shots. The lesson: Everyone goes through adversity.
He has shown them video of professional competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi chowing down hot dogs. The lesson: Deconstructing the fundamentals.
"Our fifth core value is fundamentals. ... Why is Kobayashi so good at eating hot dogs?" Sirianni said recently to reporters.
"He has to have the right temperature water to dunk the thing. He's got to break the hot dog perfectly in half. So my point on that is ... if you want to be the best in the world at what you do, right, on the football field, it comes down to the little things. And that right there was a fundamentals talk."
Rookie linebacker Jacoby Stevens reflected on the lesson.
"He was basically talking about how he put, you know, the hot dog into the bun and how he would eat it. And that was pretty funny to me," Stevens said. "And I'm sitting on the couch with my girlfriend watching TV, and that comes on, and next thing I know I'm thinking about what coach said. So, it works."
The 40-year-old first-time head coach definitely comes off as someone who holds his players accountable and focuses on the little things. The big questions about Sirianni will be answered on game day this season when we see whether his coaching leads to wins.
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