A few weeks ago, we all made fun of Jonathan Gannon. If you’re having a hard time remembering why, I’ll refresh it one last time. This was a clip from a docuseries that was edited and framed in a way that made me wonder aloud whether it was an inside hit job aimed at undermining his head coaching tenure. Around the time the Cardinals were being accused of preemptively tanking (by yours truly, included), it certainly felt like Gannon was being set up to fail.
And then I remembered Gannon’s former head coach, and his own battle with public perception. Nick Sirianni had a bad introductory press conference. It’s something he talks about openly and honestly now. Many assistants who rise as quickly as Sirianni rarely get the kind of media experience that prepares them for that moment. But, as he told me before this year’s Super Bowl, it was something he didn’t think twice about. He put it on a list of things to improve. A few weeks later, he compared his team to flowers. People made fun of that too. I wrote about it here.
Now, we have no choice but to take Sirianni seriously. We all may be quietly deleting our Gannon roasts at some point too.
