Doug Pederson Told Peter King How He Put on His Big-Boy Pants

Peter King stopped by Eagles training camp yesterday as part of his MMQB training camp tour. As is typically the case with King pieces, he got some exclusive quotes from the head coach, which in this case is unfortunately Doug Pederson.

What did we learn? Well, I’d of course recommend you read the piece, but the takeaways are that Doug Pederson was pulled over by a cop who didn’t give him a ticket because he’s an Eagles season ticket holder, a comment about how Pederson has learned literally everything he knows about coaching from Andy Reid, and that Doug, dammit, can be a hardass if he has to. SEE, PETER, I AM TOUGH:

And on the subject of whether Pederson can be tough enough: “You didn’t see me yesterday,” he said Sunday morning. “We have a 10-minute specialist period at the start of practice, and players catch punts and kickoffs out of the JUGGS machine. So the whistle blew for practice and two guys were still getting taped up and ready. Well, I lost my mind. I was like, ‘WHEN THE WHISTLE BLOWS ON SUNDAY, ARE YOU GONNA BE TAPING YOUR HANDS WHEN THEY’RE GETTING READY TO KICK THE BALL OFF IN THE GAME?’”

Pederson knows what he has to do. He has to be that guy consistently—cajoling when needed, yelling when needed, most often teaching when needed. He’ll conjure up how Reid handled teams in Philadelphia and Kansas City. But he also knows that life in the head coach’s chair in Philadelphia, where cops bypass tickets for subtle playoff warnings, will be different than the invisible chair of the Chiefs offensive coordinator. The Eagles’ success this year will be determined in no small part by whether Pederson’s ready for the upgrade.

“It’s not Kansas City anymore, Dorothy,” he said.

I’m trying to decide what is more douche-chill-inducing– the thought of Pederson recounting his run-of-the-mill outburst and passing it off as new dimension in his public persona, or the fact that he dropped – and mangled, if I might add – that quote to describe his current existence as head coach of the Eagles. Either way, yep:

If he only had a brain.