Belated birthday, Belated firing
I neglected to mention yesterday I gave my dad a call wishing him happy 74th birthday. It’s nuts, it feels like not very long ago at all we were just up in PA for his surprise 70th birthday party. I wish I could say dad gave me an outlook on life after three quarters of a century on the planet that made me eager to experience it myself but I would be lying. Regardless I think dad appreciated the call, despite his well established dislike of most celebratory events like birthdays and holidays in general.
I just saw a headline I didn’t expect at this point. After the Redskins game where Doug Pederson basically rolled over and gave up I thought there was a chance he could be fired. Instead there was a story that despite the mess of a season Jeff Lurie decided he was going to give Doug a chance to turn it around. After all, Pederson is the only coach to get the Eagles a Super Bowl victory so I guess he earned some leeway, or so I thought.
Evidently after some meetings between Lurie and Pederson recently things changed, culminating with the announced firing of Pederson less than an hour ago. I am not sure of what was discussed in those meetings but it resulted in the exit door being thrown open. I feel badly seeing Doug go, despite the train wreck of a season we just all experienced. The historic amount of injuries on the roster certainly made his task extremely difficult.
There was already going to be a massive upheaval of the roster, having the head coach ousted is going to just pile on the huge amount of question marks for next year. I always liked Doug’s approach as a coach when dealing with the media and public. I thought he always tried to be thoughtful and honest wherever possible when answering questions as opposed to the robotic “I have to do a better job” responses of Andy Reid or the combative “My shit doesn’t stink” clownery of Chip Kelly.
Doug provided me with something I never really thought I would experience, a Super Bowl winning season that was filled with as much excitement as one could imagine. For that I will be eternally grateful.