The legendary Women’s Basketball Coach Uconn, Geno Auriemma, was in his New York hotel room in mid-April to prepare for the WNBA draft when he received a call from the Eagles coach Nick Sirianni.
They established a connection when Sirianni sent to Auriemma a text of congratulations “Type of the Blue” after one of the victories of the Huskies last season. Being from a region of Philadelphia and “typical and damn fan of the Eagles”, Auriemma made sure to stay in touch in the weeks that followed while Philly pushed his Super Bowl.
The Huskies won the national championship – their 12th Under Auriemma, the most by all coaches in the history of division I of the NCAA. The victory of the Eagles 40-22 against the Chiefs of Kansas City, on the other hand, marked the first time that Sirianni led a team to the top, and he wanted to know the keys to make a return trip.
“The feeling I had was that he was worried, not in the wrong direction, but as most coaches are after your greatest success,” Auriemma told ESPN. “I remember that Bob Knight said once:” Be very attentive after your greatest successes. “This is when things can move away from you.
It was part of Sirianni’s wider off -season mission to learn more about the successful success. He spoke with a number of high-level personalities, including the former Alabama football coach, Nick Saban, the southern Caroline women’s basketball coach, Dawn Staley, Auriemma and the Quadruple Olympic gold medalist, Michael Johnson, to help him be ready for a difficult second stadium (4:25 pm in a Fox, Fox).
“There are a lot of different things,” said Sirianni earlier this offseason of his take -out dishes, “but if I really decomposed everything, he thought too much about your laurels … or that the two are very dangerous.”
Sirianni has drawn a clear line between the successes of the past and the here and now on the first day of the training camp. While addressed to the auditorium team, there was an image on the projector’s screen behind him of a car – from a person driving – and in the rear view mirror was the signaling of the Super Bowl. Sirianni hammered this idea for months – that the victory tour is over; that previous achievements do not guarantee future successes; And that Philadelphia does not defend a title because this season and the last are two distinct entities – so much so that his players, almost for a man, echo the same message.
“As players, we have to continue,” said left -wing platform Jordan Mailata. “This is the only way to improve or try to play this season. We cannot transport the luggage of last season – good or bad – you cannot bring it. It’s like a new relationship.
“You have to buy this because you see that everyone is buying there. And you can see who does not buy because you are left behind.”
As a coach, Auriemma called the victory of a championship “the best thing that has happened to you and the worst thing that has happened to you”.
Your thoughts are “completely dominated” by determining how to win another. There is afraid of being a wonder at a time.
The players of this title team are naturally in demand and some had to be replaced, as was the case on defense with free agents like Josh Sweat, Milton Williams and Darius Slay. There is the prospect that older players could be complacent, after capturing what they have long after, and that the same intensity and emergency that were present with each training and for each match will not be there now that the hanging carrot has been deleted.
“”[Fans] See: ‘Wow, we have a lot of very good players. We have all the parts. People think we are the best NFL team. It will be easy. Nah. It will be the most difficult thing they have ever done, “said Auriemma.
The other concern, which was discussed during the Sirianni and Auriemma telephone call of around 45 minutes, was the psychological switch that occurs when you are king or queen of the mountain. You go from an attack to a defensive posture, have to repel all the teams that will inevitably offer their best performances in the name of trying to take what you have. But Auriemma learned that there is a way to turn this on his head.
“I asked [Sirianni]I said: “Well, why can’t the message be: We are not hunted. We are looking for another. Why should we have the impression that everyone is chasing us and that everyone gives us their best blow? Why don’t we return the switch and we chas another? And is it more powerful, knowing that you did it and now you are looking for another than someone who did not do it and try to get one? “Said Auriemma.
“It helped me in recent years, to try not to let my team feel like everyone after us and sometimes play the victim: misfortune to me, we get the best blow of everything, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, try to think in a completely different way.”
Keeping the Super Bowl in the rear view mirror is not as simple as it may seem. There are constant reminders, while the Eagles continue to discover it. Their ring ceremony was delayed on July 18, the week before running at the camp. The championship banner was unveiled just before their first season game against the Dallas Cowboys. And now this week, they face the chiefs and are flooded with questions that bind this game to the one they played in February.
They cannot even watch a film without being attracted to the past in one form or another.
“Obviously, every time you watch a game of which you have a good memory … It always brings this emotion,” said Sirianni. “But you also look at him for a goal.
“It’s not like I was getting from top to bottom when [Eagles WR DeVonta Smith] Catch the touch. I do not sink into the touch as if I were in the game when [Eagles head of football development and strategy] Connor Barwin pushed me. And so it’s a different type of emotion because I think you can have that and do the work you are trying to do. “”
There are many pulls. But thanks in part to his conversations since the championship match, Sirianni has been able to give a tone that should help the Eagles to avoid some of the external signs of the Super Bowl.
“He said something at the start of the offseason:” If you think you are the reason why we won the Super Bowl last year, you are right. If you think you are the only reason we won the Super Bowl last year, you are wrong exactly.
“I love it with all the stars and play leaders that we have and legends like [right tackle] way [Johnson]Temple of fame, we do a good work of purchase in the message that the coach wants. “”
