The Philadelphia Eagles are in this year’s Super Bowl because of a superior running game, along with one of the most improved defenses in the NFL since last year. Anecdotally, throughout the playoffs, they have simply appeared bigger, faster and stronger than most of their opponents.
But, according to some industry experts—like my mother-in-law—the Eagles are also dominating for one important reason: They are more than any other team in the NFL.
No offense to Tommy DeVito and the New York Giants, who have managed to corner the market on the Italian NFL subculture, but recent (sauce-covered) breadcrumbs supporting the theory have been unignorable.
• On a January episode of Chris Long’s podcast, former Eagles defensive tackle Beau Allen relayed a story about how he was waiting to see Jason Kelce in the staff locker room and was pacified by a readily available cannoli.
• Vic Fangio, already famously quoted for refusing to provide his significant other with his family meatball recipe, when asked recently about cornerback Darius Slay, compared him to a “fine dago red wine.” While is considered an offensive slur toward Italian people, it is also commonly recognized as a type of fruity red wine that is coveted by older generations of Italians.
After speaking to more than a dozen coaches, players and community members, though, there is far more to the story.
According to NFL data shared with no team has requested more Italian flags for the league’s cultural heritage initiative than the Eagles (and the Eagles are tied for the most, alongside the New England Patriots, in total flag patches of any country). Three of Philadelphia’s coaches—head coach Nick Sirianni; pass-game coordinator Kevin Patullo; and Dom DiSandro, the team’s chief of security, special advisor to the general manager and head of gameday coaching operations—wear the Italian flag on their visors or pullovers. That list, however, does not include Fangio, the team’s defensive coordinator, whose family arrived from Italy back in 1919 from Castiglione, a coastal town on the peninsula’s northwest side (Fangio also replaced Matt Patricia, another proud Italian from the Eagles’ 2023 staff, who sported the country’s flag as an assistant with the Patriots). Joe Pannunzio, the team’s assistant special teams coordinator, and others formulate the basis of a staff that redefines the word at the NFL level.
For those outside the building, the staff serves as a cultural bridge to an area that contains the densest population of Italians outside of the country itself. For those inside the building, their shared culture provides a kind of driving ethos, a deeper bond during the hardest and most isolating moments of the season. And, as one former coach put it, plenty of occasions where the Italian members of the staff have to explain others:
“We’re not yelling at each other, we’re just talking.”
This is the story of the Philadelphia and the people they inspire.
