Nick Sirianni was singing a different tune when he spoke with reporters on Monday about his back-and-forth with fans – presumably Eagles fans – sitting behind the team bench at the end of Sunday’s home win over the 20-16 Browns.
The Philly coach originally had said that he was “having fun” on Sunday, but less than 24 hours later he had a much more contrite response when he was asked about the incident that earned him derision from both the media in Philadelphia and nationally.
“I’m sorry and disappointed on how my energy was directed at the end of the game,” he said in a news conference on Monday, according to USA Today. “My energy should be all in on coaching, motivating, and celebrating with our guys and I need to have better wisdom and discernment on when to use that energy and that wasn’t the time.”
The victory was much-needed to steady an Eagles team off to an uneven start following last year’s end-of-season collapse.
However, a close victory against one of the worst teams in football was hardly enough to placate the team’s supporters.
Fox cameras caught Sirianni having a back-and-forth with fans as the game at Lincoln Financial Field was coming to a close and the exchange didn’t sit well with a fan base that has already been growing weary of the Eagles coach.
With the Eagles tied at the end of the first half with the Browns, fans could be heard chanting for the franchise to fire Sirianni.
The Eagles coach had been somewhat cryptic at first when the incident was brought up in his postgame press conference before saying he was trying to have some fun after a win.
“I was having fun and I kind of got some feedback from the guys (during the bye week) of the sense of, ‘We need you back, Nick. We need your energy. We need your focus,’” Sirianni said on Sunday.
“I got that from a couple players. When I’m operating, having fun, I think that that breeds to the rest of the football team. If I want the guys to celebrate and be themselves after big plays, then I should probably do that myself, right?”
Sirianni did try to make nice with the fans with positive comments about the historically tough fan base during news conferences on Sunday and Monday.
The Eagles win moved them to 3-2 on the season and they sit half a game back of the NFC East-leading Commanders heading into a showdown with the Giants on Sunday.