Nick Sirianni has a heartfelt connection with the city of Kansas City. And, his first NFL job was with the Chiefs.
After Sirianni and the Eagles broke San Francisco’s heart, you might even say his heart belongs to Kansas City.
Those warm feelings undoubtedly are on hold because in less than two weeks his Eagles play the Chiefs in Super Bowl 57 in Glendale, Ariz.
Sirianni met his wife, Brett, in Kansas City. He was asked which Kansas City connection was more important, his professional or personal life.
- “Well, I have to say personal life,” said Sirianni, who said his wedding was in Springfield, Missouri, 165 miles from Kansas City.
- “I met my wife there. Obviously meeting my wife there, that will always be a special place to us because of that.
- “When you have something as significant as meeting your wife there in that city, that place, that time frame, that city is always going to carry a special place in my heart because of that.
- “Then professionally, my first stint in the NFL. Obviously, it was really important both ways. Kansas City is a great town.
- “We really enjoyed our time there. My wife had a lot of friends there. I made some good friends there, as well, none of which I would assume are rooting for us or our family this weekend, but that’s OK.”
FIRED BY REID IN KC
Sirianni’s first NFL job was in 2009 as an offensive quality control coach. He was hired by new Chiefs coach Todd Haley. They coached together for nearly three seasons. In 2012, Sirianni was wide receivers coach under new Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel.
Crennel was replaced in 2013. Sirianni was let go by new Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who wanted to bring in his own people, a common NFL practice.
When Reid took over for Crennel, Sirianni met with someone on his staff.
- “That probably wasn’t the time, so I didn’t get a chance [to meet with Reid],” Sirianni said.
- “It was kind of more so just kind of receiving my fate there. He had a guy that I really admired that he pulled me into the office and asked to meet with me and told me face to face that he had a guy, but had heard good things about me.
- “I appreciated that, his honesty, his ability to get to me as soon as he possibly could so I could move on and find another job.
- “I didn’t get a chance to pick his brain at all on anything like that but got a ton of respect for Coach Reid and who he is as a person and who he is as a coach. His record speaks for itself, but you talk to anybody, and they think even higher of him as a person.
- “Do I know him all that well? No. But I have a high amount of respect for him.”
STALKING HALEY
Sirianni landed a job with the Chargers for the next season, leaving behind fond memories in Kansas City.
How Sirianni met Haley is interesting.
- “Somebody introduced Todd and I,” Sirianni said. “Somebody that was at the gym said, ‘Hey, this is a local college receiver. He plays at Mount Union’ and then ‘Hey, this is the receiver coach.’ I think Todd was at the Jets right there.
- “So it all started off, well, how do I make myself a better football player … How do I make myself a better football player, and Todd was very open to helping me out, and I really admired that, that he would want to help me out …
- “Once I became a coach and figured out that that was going to be my profession, then I think I had his number, we’d text back and forth like that, and then he got a head [coaching] job and I was lucky that he made me part of his staff [in Kansas City].
- “As far as the stalking goes, yeah, I think sometimes I would go there — I wanted knowledge. You guys know me. I’ll do anything to make myself better at what I do, whether it was a player or whether it was a coach …
- “The same thing I say to my wife when she kind of says to me, ‘When you first met me you used the Chiefs card.’ Yeah, you worked for the Chiefs.
- “I said, ‘Hey, it worked.’ So whatever I needed to do to get my wife, whatever I needed to do to get in good with Todd Haley, I did both of those things.”
Sirianni said he watched the second half of the Chiefs-Bengals game Sunday night at his South Jersey home with lots of company.
- “Had my parents there, my wife’s parents there, my brothers, their families,” Sirianni said.
- “Actually, my sister-in-law flew in and her husband, he’s actually from Kansas City …
- “He is not conflicted, though. He is a Kansas City Chiefs fan, but he also knows that he comes to my house every Christmas, so he’s rooting for us now.”
