Sirianni recruited Auriemma, Saban, Staley and more to teach the Eagles how to win, again

Legendary UCONN women's hoops manager Geno Auriemma was successful his New York City edifice country successful mid-April getting acceptable for the WNBA Draft erstwhile helium received a telephone from Eagles manager Nick Sirianni.

They established a transportation erstwhile Sirianni sent Auriemma a congratulatory substance "kind of retired of the blue" pursuing 1 of the Huskies' wins past season. Being a Philadelphia-area autochthonal and a "typical, die-hard Eagles fan", Auriemma made definite to enactment successful interaction successful the ensuing weeks arsenic Philly made its Super Bowl push.

The Huskies went connected to triumph the nationalist title -- its 12^th nether Auriemma, the astir by immoderate manager successful NCAA Division I history. The Eagles' 40-22 triumph implicit the Kansas City Chiefs, meanwhile, marked the archetypal clip Sirianni had led a squad to the top, and helium wanted to cognize the keys to making a instrumentality trip.

"The consciousness that I got was that helium was concerned, not successful a atrocious way, but similar astir coaches are aft your top success," Auriemma told ESPN. "I retrieve Bob Knight said 1 time, 'Be astir attentive aft your top successes.' That's erstwhile things tin benignant of gaffe distant from you. So I think, successful a bully way, helium was funny about, wherever does the connection spell from present erstwhile you've reached the goal...where bash you spell aft that happens?"

It was portion of Sirianni's broader offseason ngo to larn astir sustained success. He spoke with a fig of high-profile figures including erstwhile Alabama shot manager Nick Saban, South Carolina women's hoops manager Dawn Staley, Auriemma and four-time Olympic golden medalist Michael Johnson to assistance him acceptable for a challenging 2nd act, which continues Sunday successful a Super Bowl LIX rematch against the Chiefs astatine Arrowhead Stadium (4:25 p.m. EST, Fox).

"There's a batch of antithetic things," Sirianni said earlier this offseason of his takeaways, "but if I truly broke down everything it was reasoning astir the past excessively overmuch and resting connected your laurels...or looking excessively acold ahead. Both are precise dangerous."

Sirianni drew a wide enactment betwixt the successes of the past and the present and present connected the archetypal time of grooming camp. As helium addressed the squad successful the auditorium, determination was an representation connected the projector surface down him of a car - from the vantage constituent of a idiosyncratic driving - and successful the rearview reflector was Super Bowl signage. Sirianni has hammered this thought for months -- that the triumph thigh is over; that anterior accomplishments don't warrant aboriginal successes; and that Philadelphia is not defending a rubric due to the fact that this play and past are 2 abstracted entities altogether - truthful overmuch truthful that his players, astir to a man, echo the aforesaid message.

"As players, we person to determination on," said near tackle Jordan Mailata. "That is the lone mode we tin amended oregon strive to execute this season. We can't transportation the baggage from past play -- bully oregon atrocious -- you can't bring it in. It's conscionable similar a caller relationship.

"You've got to bargain into that due to the fact that you spot everyone other buying into it. And you tin spot who doesn't bargain successful due to the fact that you get near behind."

As a coach, Auriemma called winning a title "the champion happening that ever happened to you and the worst happening that ever happened to you."

Your thoughts are "completely dominated" by figuring retired however to triumph different one. There is fearfulness astir being a one-hit wonder.

Players from that rubric squad are people successful request and immoderate had to beryllium replaced, arsenic was the lawsuit connected defence with escaped agents similar Josh Sweat, Milton Williams and Darius Slay. There's the imaginable that older players could get complacent, having captured what they've agelong been after, and that the aforesaid strength and urgency that was contiguous astatine each signifier and for each crippled won't beryllium determination team-wide present that the dangling ...