Nick Sirianni, Philadelphia Eagles, Golden State Warriors, Steve Kerr, Eagles Wild Card game, Eagles NFL Playoffs, Warriors news, Eagles news
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Before the Philadelphia Eagles' Wild Card playoff game facing the San Fransisco 49ers, Nick Sirianni talked about how Golden State Warriors' head coach Steve Kerr helped him find joy.
WhileGolden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has said himself that his team is a fading dynasty, the reach of the team’s immense success hasbroken out of just the NBA landscape, with influence across the sports world, specifically in the NFLforPhiladelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni.
In a recent article on The Athletic by Zach Berman, hewent into detail on how Sirianni credits Kerr for much of the team’s recent success, which includes two Super Bowl appearances,topped by a win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.
Now, the Eagles are in the playoffs once again, set to match up with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Wild Card round, and Sirianni is using what he learned from Kerr in hopes of furthering a potential dynasty of his own in Philly.
“I attribute that a lot to Coach Kerr,” Sirianni told The Athletic about wanting his team to play with the same joy seen with Golden State. “I was really interested in Steve Kerr’s, and one of the things he talked about in his culture that I’ve read about …was just joy.”
While the Eagles are about to begin their hunt for their third Super Bowl appearance in four years, the Warriors are struggling through the first ten weeks of the 2025-26 NBA season. Kerr has acknowledged his team, in the final chapter of franchise star Stephen Curry‘s career, can’t compete for titles over the next few years, but still has hope for one more championship push with the league’s all-time three-point leader.
Eagles’ Nick Sirianni On Warriors’ Steve Kerr
Berman explained in his article that Sirianni and Kerr have never actually met. Yet still, the former has learned from the latter, watching their dynastic run over the past decade.
“One thing I read: He made it a point of putting up pictures of the guys in the building, of that current team celebrating and really talking about their core values,” Sirianni said. “There are a ton of pictures and video boards of our guys doing those things. That’s inspired by Coach Kerr there.”
With players like Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, and now Jimmy Butler, Golden State’s run has changed the way basketball is played. While they’ve had more than their fair share of struggles, especially recently, Kerr believes playing with joy has played a major part in their success.
“I talk about it, but I want the players to feel it,” Kerr said to Berman. “It has to come alive. It has to be authentic and real. And I think Steph Curry sets a tone in that regard.”
The Eagles also haven’t had a perfectlast two and a half years.Multiple times, fans and media have called out Sirianni and hisrunning of the team, yet still, they find themselves in the playoffs once again, and if they can win four straight playoff games, they’ll have a mini-dynasty of their own.
“We know that it’s not easy and nobody in the NFL has it easy, and everybody is cutthroat,” he said.“You don’t get to have the joy of being a coach if you don’t win, right? But I do, I’m finding that joy in it. And that makes it lighter on your burden.”
Kerr added that he feels it would be a difficult task playing or coaching in Philadelphia, a city known for apassionate and brutally honestfanbase, but gave credit to Sirianni for the job he’s done over the past five seasons.
Philadelphia Eagles Playoff Picture
As Sirianni hopeshe can once again recapture the joy hepicked from Kerr, the Eagles have a tough playoff round ahead. They match up with the 49ers in the NFC Wild Card Game on Sunday, and with a win, will play the Chicago Bears in the Divisional Round, a team they lost to in Week 13 of the regular season.
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However, with stars Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, and a loaded defensive line, Philadelphia has proven to be a tough out in the postseason over the past few years. In their Super Bowl defense season, they’ve shown some signs of cracks, but still have talent across the whole roster.
Eagles’ linebacker Zack Baun added, like Sirianni and Kerr, that if he and his teammates remember the joy they have playing the game, everything will come a lot easier.
“Just remembering why we play the sport, and money aside, playing that since we were kids, and joy we had when we were playing as kids and hanging out with our friends, and I feel like it’s definitely shifted the way we approach practice, the tough times of being in the league,” Baun told Berman.
While it’s hard to beat the excitement seen in the Bears’ win over the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card Round on Saturday night, the game between the Eagles and 49ers is expected to be another close contest. Philadelphia is slightly favored to win. They last matched up in the NFC Championship three seasons ago, in which the Eagles won 31-7.
While San Francisco is full of talentthemselves, Sirianni believes that if the Eagles play withthat same joy seenwith the Warriors, everything will come a lot easier.