Ad Disclosure
I’m All For Being Mad at Nick Sirianni, But I Don’t Think He Was Flipping Off These Eagles Fans
By Matt Schultz
Published:
To be clear, I’m not going to sit here and defend Nick Sirianni. I’m on the record as being a longtime Anti-Nick guy, and this disastrous season has only made me feel more confident in my position. I don’t think he’s a good coach. I think his time in Philadelphia has probably come to an end. I’d feel a lot better about the future of this franchise if the Eagles moved on from him, and sooner than later would be nice.
But having said all that, I do feel a moral responsibility to come to Nick’s defense on exactly one thing: I don’t think he was giving Eagles’ fans the finger in this video:
A ton of people online are breaking down this clip and concluding that Nick is responding to Eagles’ fans’ boos by subtly giving them the middle finger:
Nick was asked about the incident at his press availability on Monday:
REPORTER: “Nick, there’s a video on social media of you exiting the stadium and it appears as if… you’re directing a middle finger in some way toward the fans. I’m wondering if that was the case?”
SIRIANNI: “Yeah, when Bob (Lange) told me that — absolutely not. That was a surprise to me. Absolutely not.”
I gotta believe Nick here. I just don’t see it. To me, it looks like Nick is just flexing his hand a little for some reason. In no way does it read as a secret middle finger. Also, why would he want to do a secret middle finger anyway? What’s the point? Do people online really believe that in that moment, Nick was thinking to himself, “I’m going to give a very cryptic middle finger, one that only internet sleuths will be able to detect on a video replay, and then if I’m ever asked about it, I’ll deny it”?
Who thinks like that? I can’t see the logic. Maybe if Nick were an 8-year-old kid, I could potentially believe that in his little-kid-mind, he thinks he’s getting one over on everyone by doing the subtle finger. But Nick is a grown adult. I can’t make that leap with an adult’s brain. I can’t imagine an adult thinking that’s a worthwhile thing to do. I think if Nick wanted to flip off the fans, he would’ve just flipped off the fans. That’s not what happened.
And at the end of the day, there’s plenty of stuff that Nick has actually, intentionally done that we can all get mad about/demand that he’s fired for. Let’s just do that instead. This one’s pretty weak.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com