When the Bills and Eagles take the Lincoln Financial Field turf on Sunday, each coach will be facing the team of their hometown region.
Though he was born in Nebraska, Bills coach Sean McDermott grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, attending La Salle College high school, winning national prep wrestling championships before playing college football at William & Mary. But asked about going home this week, McDermott politely declined to call Philadelphia his home.
“Yeah, home is here in Buffalo … I appreciate that, but my home is here in Buffalo,” McDermott said in his Monday video call with reporters. “That’s where my family is, my mom, my dad, my brother and his family, but home is in Buffalo for us.”
His brother, Tim McDermott, is president of the Philadelphia Union soccer club in Major League Soccer. Last year, with Philadelphia in the MLS Cup final, the Bills coach sported a Union shirt to a media availability session.
Sean also started his pro coaching career with the Eagles in 2001, spending a decade on staff under Andy Reid including two seasons as defensive coordinator.
Meanwhile, I’m sure there are a few Western New Yorkers rooting for the Eagles in enemy territory this week.
On Sunday, the Bills will face a native Western New Yorker coaching the other side for the second time this year, with Giants head coach Brian Daboll, of West Seneca and Saint Francis High School, being the other.
Eagles third-year coach Nick Sirianni hails from Jamestown, part of a long line of coaches in the Sirianni clan. His father, Fran, is a local legend as a former football coach and longtime track coach at Southwestern High School. Nick’s brothers, Mike and Jay, also coached football, with Mike in his 20th year leading Washington & Jefferson College in Division III and Jay leading Southwestern High for several years, following their father’s footsteps and winning back-to-back state titles in 2009 and 2008. While he stepped down from coaching in 2014, Jay is still a familiar face for local football teams as the Section 6 football federation chair.
In October, during the NFL’s “Crucial Catch” cancer screening campaign, Nick Sirianni, wrote the word “Dad” under the brim of his trademark Eagles visor. His father is a cancer survivor through three bouts with the disease.
“It taught me (that) my dad is the toughest son of a bitch I know,” Sirianni said, according to an Oct. 15 NJ.com story. “Like even now, if you ever see my dad, he’s got a drop neck, so he’s got to hold his head up to look forward because he can’t hold his head up on his own because the muscles in his neck don’t work anymore. I’ve never heard him complain about that. You get that as a man through the things that you went through. My dad was tough as hell when he went through cancer, and he’s tough as hell now at 75 years old.”
The Siriannis’ hometown last came up in an Eagles press conference after Philly’s win over the Dolphins. The Eagles coach said he thanked the team’s owner, Jeffrey Lurie, for acquiring A.J. Brown the season before.
“There is no way I ever thought this would come out of my mouth,” Sirianni said, “but, ‘Thanks for the hundred million dollars to pay A.J. Brown. I really appreciate that.’ As a guy from Jamestown, N.Y., I never thought I would ever say, ‘Thanks for the hundred million dollars to pay A.J. Brown.’”
