Nick Sirianni, the Panderer General, Wears Player Shirts to “Connect” With Them

People like to joke about Nick Sirianni being a panderer. He showed up last year wearing all kinds of Phillies and Sixers stuff, which some people thought was cool. Others rolled their eyes at some dude in year one doing the Bryce Harper routine and trying to rapidly ingratiate himself with a new city.

He showed up Wednesday wearing a Jalen Hurts t-shirt:

Nick Sirianni rockin the Jalen Hurts shirt for the start of training camp pic.twitter.com/Vjvrydw2fW

— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) July 27, 2022

Hopefully he doesn’t have to bench Hurts anytime soon, or else this shirt might find its way to the thrift store, and then the hipsters will buy it and wear it. Speaking of which, I’m not sure where the hipsters are these days. They used to be up Frankford Avenue but moved to the Passyunk area a few years ago, so who knows.

Sirianni was asked (sort of) about being the panderer general and said this:

Q. Speaking of Jalen Hurts, I notice your shirt. Love it. First day of training camp. It sets the tone. What made you pick that?(Jamie Apody)

NICK SIRIANNI: Hey, he’s our quarterback. [Jokingly/smiling] This was I think the best one I had clean. I do my own laundry, so it was the best one I had clean and this is the one I picked.

Q. Do the players pick up on that?(Jamie Apody)

NICK SIRIANNI: I think so. This is something that I got from my brother actually. He’s a college football coach, and one thing he always liked to do was wear the high school that — they don’t make these for division three college players, but what he would do is wear a shirt from the high school that they went to.

He always had this wide variety of shirts. He told me why he had it. Just an easy way to connect with the player. So what better way to connect with them than wear a shirt with his face in the middle of it. That is the why. There is always a conversation off of that.

All that really matters is if the players dig it. Does the support bring us to a greater level of understanding and buy-in? Is it just a positive way to get behind your guys by wearing their shit or buying their brand? They can answer that question. There’s always a fine line between “good idea” and corny, like when Chip Kelly said “we’re from Philly and we fight.” Man, nobody on that team was from Philly and you were from New Hampshire. We all understood what he was trying to do, but sometimes these things fall flat.

Regardless, if the Eagles start out 3-0, nobody will care what Sirianni is wearing. He could show up looking like Aaron Rodgers, with the Nicolas Cage Con Air look.

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