The New Orleans Saints’ game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday will be special for Brandon Staley.
Not just because it will mark his return to the sideline as an NFL play-caller. The Saints’ first-year defensive coordinator will be going against his best friend: Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon.
The friendship between Gannon and Staley dates decades, to their formative years in northeast Ohio. Gannon was from Cleveland. Staley was born and raised in Madison, about 35 miles up I-90 along the shores of Lake Erie. As fourth-graders, Gannon and Staley played on opposite basketball teams in a Cleveland AAU league.
“Our relationship started on the court playing against each other,” Staley said Thursday while taking a break from game-planning for the opener. “It's like, who's this guy from the west side of Cleveland?”
Running in the same AAU circles, Staley and Gannon soon became friends. Staley’s father, Bruce, who coached Staley’s AAU team, eventually tried to lure Gannon to Perry High School, where Brandon was the point guard. Gannon, though, elected to stay at parochial power St. Ignatius in Cleveland, where he developed into a three-sport star. He eventually landed a scholarship to Louisville, where he started at safety as a true freshman. Staley played quarterback at Dayton, a non-scholarship program, and nearby Mercyhurst, a NCAA Division II program. Staley and Gannon stayed in touch and would work out together while home for summer breaks.
The bond strengthened after college, when both Gannon and Staley started coaching. Gannon eventually landed a gig in the NFL when he followed former Louisville coach Bobby Petrino to the Atlanta Falcons. When his old St. Ignatius teammate Tom Arth was looking to hire a defensive coordinator at John Carroll College in suburban Cleveland, he called Gannon, who recommended Staley, then a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee.
"I was in Tennessee (with the Titans) at the time and didn't really want that job," Gannon told the Pottstown (Pa.) Mercury in 2021. "I wanted to stay in the NFL. Tom said, 'Well, who would you hire?' I said Brandon Staley, just because I knew … how passionate he was and the type of coach that he is; (that) he would do an excellent job for Tom.
"Sometimes, all you need is you've got to know somebody to show somebody. So I got him in the door with Tom, and the rest was history. I don't take any credit for Tom hiring him, because he did that all himself.”
The John Carroll job was Staley’s first big break. He parlayed that into a job as the outside linebackers coach on Vic Fangio’s defensive staff with the Chicago Bears. From there, Staley began a meteoric four-year rise that ended with him landing the San Diego Chargers head coaching job at age 38. Two years later, Gannon was named the head coach of the Cardinals.
“We've always been extremely close,” Staley said. “And to see him go where he's gone, I mean, he's done it the right way. He's done it the hard way. Nothing was ever given to him. He earned it, had to stay really patient. And then he got his opportunities, he knocked them down.”
Gannon and Staley have stayed close over the years. They stood in each other’s weddings. Staley and his wife, Amy, asked Gannon to be the godfather to their third son, Grant.
Despite their strong bond, Gannon and Staley have never coached together. When Staley got the Chargers head coaching job in 2021, he tried to hire Gannon to be his defensive coordinator, but Gannon opted for the same gig in Philadelphia, in part because of personal reasons, and in part because of the opportunity to call plays.
They’ve been on opposing sidelines several times during their NFL careers. In Staley’s first year as Chargers head coach, he traveled to Philadelphia to play the Eagles, when Gannon was in his first year as the defensive coordinator. Gannon's Eagles prevailed 27-24.
“We're good friends and we talk,” Gannon said. “I learned a lot of ball from him, and hopefully he's learned some ball from me.”
Gannon and Staley are part of a proud and close-knit fraternity of northern Ohio natives who have ascended to key roles in the NFL. Among them: Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels; Texans general manager Nick Caserio and pro scouting director DJ Debick; Cardinals assistant Matt Feeney; and Arth, the Steelers quarterbacks coach.
Despite their busy schedules, Staley said he and Gannon trade text messages and FaceTime calls throughout the year. They try to get together as often as possible, but those occasions have become more infrequent as their careers and families have grown.
The communication will take a respite this week as the teams prepare for their season opener on Sunday. Staley said the two would undoubtedly connect once Gannon and the Cardinals get to town Saturday.
“It’ll be special,” Staley said. “He’s a rare guy. We have a really special friendship that supersedes any of this (NFL football). We know who we were way before any of this happened. … He's like a brother to you, and now you're coaching against each other. But as soon as the ball is snapped, it's on.”