Credit where it’s due: Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio crafted a game plan that beat the brakes off the Kansas City Chiefs, slowing down and frustrating their offense long enough for Kellen Moore’s offense to put up enough points to keep the game out of reach. And they did it in the Super Bowl, the first title win of Fangio’s long NFL career.
It’s fitting that Super Bowl LIX was played at the same Superdome where Fangio started that coaching career. His first NFL job was with the New Orleans Saints, where he got to work with a couple of Hall of Fame linebackers on the “Dome Patrol” defense. But a Super Bowl win eluded him over decades of work. Until now.
Fangio reflected on this achievement after the game, telling the Inquirer’s Jeff McLane that while he feels accomplished, he doesn’t feel differently about his 38-year coaching career. He likened the experience to former North Carolina men’s basketball coach Dean Smith, who spent 36 years with the Tar Heels.
“I heard a quote that Dean Smith many years ago, if you guys remember, he went to a bunch of Final Fours before he finally won one, and they asked him the next day, ‘How does it feel you got a monkey (off your back)?’ He said, ‘I’m the same coach today as I was yesterday. We just got a championship,’” Fangio recalled. “So I don’t look at it as it validates me or anything. It’s just a great accomplishment.”
Good for him. Fangio gets to cross that Super Bowl win of his to-do list and enjoy a height that was just out of reach for most of his life. How much longer he plans on coaching remains to be seen, but he clearly isn’t slowing down. His defensive system was criticized after a rough year with the Miami Dolphins in 2023, which led to a mutual parting of ways. After moving back home to Pennsylvania he chose to team up with the Eagles, and the rest is history.