Gene Frenette: Pedersons have fond memories of Philly, but Jacksonville now is their town
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Jeannie Pederson has grown accustomed to the nomadic lifestyle of being the wife of an NFL player and coach. She has been on the Doug Pederson journey with seven pro teams during his quarterback days and 17 seasons as a coach.
From a private high school in Louisiana, to his current job as the Jaguars’ first-year boss, Jeannie has seen a little bit of everything. She understands rolling with the vagaries of a volatile profession.
“Doug was a player for 14 years and one thing I’ve learned is you never take anything for granted,” Jeannie told the Times-Union. “This is a performance-based business. I’ll never forget Tammy Reid [wife of Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy] gave me some advice when she said, ‘Bloom where you’re planted.’
“You obviously want to be where you’re at a long time. But whether you’re somewhere for one, five or 10 years, make the most of it while you’re there.”
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Nearly eight months into Doug’s time with the Jaguars, nothing in the Pederson family experience will be more unique than Sunday’s matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.
It marks the Pedersons’ initial return to that venue since Doug guided the Eagles to a Super Bowl crown five years ago, then was subsequently fired after a disappointing 2020 season.
Rather than a bittersweet trip down memory lane, husband and wife are on the same page about Doug’s first game back as a head coach in the City of Brotherly Love. His whirlwind tenure in Philly brought the euphoria of that city’s first Super Bowl title and his ultimate dismissal, but the Pedersons take way more positivity from their Philly days than how it ended.
Doug and Jeannie — they met on a blind date in Monroe, La., when he was a college freshman quarterback and she was a senior in high school — have spent 10 seasons of their 30-year marriage with him employed by the Eagles, either as a player (1999), assistant coach (2009-12) or head coach (2016-20).
“We followed Andy Reid [from the Eagles] to Kansas City for three years,” Jeannie said. “When we came back [to Philadelphia], it was literally like we had never been gone. Doug’s five years as a head coach is where our kids [sons Drew, Josh and Joel] were involved with Friday night high school games and baseball. We met some of our best friends in New Jersey and we stay in touch.”
The couple has built way too many lasting relationships with friends, former NFL players and fans — especially from their time living in Moorestown, N.J. — to not feel a tad sentimental about this Jaguars’ road trip. There are also 23 Eagles' players still on the team's roster from Pederson's last season there in 2020.
“My wife and I, our family, we have a lot of great memories back there,” Doug told the Jaguars’ media Monday. “I’m really looking forward to getting back there. I understand that city. I understand that passion for football, but now I’m on the other side.
“It’s been a great place. We did a lot of good things [in Philadelphia] and I’m looking forward to hopefully the welcome.”
This won’t be the first trip to Philly since Doug’s dismissal. The Pedersons went to a wedding there in July and also a 50th birthday party for a friend. But a social visit, as opposed to the 2-1 Jaguars facing the 3-0 Eagles, and trying to beat his old team can make for a different reception.
“Friends off the field may sometimes be enemies on the field,” said Jeannie. “But no matter what, we’ll always have a special place in our heart for Philadelphia, the organization and the relationships we made there.
“Winning a Super Bowl will always be one of our greatest memories. The fans and organization there is amazing. People still say to him, ‘Coach, thank you for the championship.’ “
Huge gamble paid off
One of the greatest feats Pederson’s Eagles pulled off will live forever in the hearts of their fans: the Philly Special.
Decades from now, that one play from Super Bowl LII in Minnesota — a 41-33 victory for Pederson’s Eagles over the New England Patriots — may still be regarded as the boldest call in NFL history.
Facing a fourth-and-goal at the Patriots’ 1 with 38 seconds left in the first half, and holding a 15-12 lead, Pederson initially wanted to run the ball. But during a timeout, quarterback Nick Foles walked over to the sideline, looked at his coach and said: “You want Philly, Philly?”
Pederson mulled it over in his mind briefly, then replied: “Yeah, let’s do it.”
What happened next will forever be remembered by anybody feeling a connection to the Eagles. Though the trick play itself was by no means original — the Patriots failed on the same play earlier in the game from the Eagles’ 35 — the timing and impact of it made it unforgettable.
It began with a direct snap to running back Corey Clement, who pitched the ball to receiver Trey Burton, a former quarterback who played different positions at Florida, coming around from the left side.
From the 10-yard line, Burton tossed the ball to a wide open Foles (he initially lined up to the right of Clement) in the end zone for a touchdown and a 22-12 halftime lead. Had the play failed, the Patriots could have killed the remaining 34 seconds since Philly had only two timeouts remaining.
“I wasn’t really thinking of that play as a fourth-and-one on the goal line,” said Pederson. “That to me was a potential first, second down, third down call in the game somewhere, so I wasn’t really prepared and really thinking about that in that situation where we were, the one, one-and-a-half yard line.
“Obviously when [Foles] brought it up, it triggered my thinking. It was just a great opportunity that he made a suggestion and I agreed to it.”
The genesis of that play came from then offensive quality control/assistant quarterbacks coach Press Taylor, now the Jaguars’ offensive coordinator, in his offseason research.
As is customary for coaches in his position, Taylor built a library of hundreds of potential plays for the Eagles. That happened to be one of the trick plays Taylor saw from a meaningless Week 17 game in 2016 between the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings.
Philly Special, according to an anonymous Eagles’ staffer, was literally a “copy-and-paste" from a contest at the same venue as Super Bowl LII.
The Bears, trailing 17-0 late in the second quarter and facing third-and-goal at the 2, snapped the ball directly to running back Jeremy Langford. He pitched to receiver Cameron Meredith coming from the same spot as Burton, then tossed the ball from the 11 to open quarterback Matt Barkley for a TD, cutting the Minnesota lead to 17-7 in the Vikings’ eventual 38-10 victory.
“That thing’s been run 50, 60 times. High school teams have run that play before,” said Pederson. “It just happened to be on the biggest stage to run that play. I looked at the tape [put together by Taylor] and I saw that one and I wanted to put that one in.
“Honestly, it’s like another play. You don’t think about where you are, the time, none of that. It’s about executing that particular play. . . . It’s no different than here in Jacksonville. If we’re going to put plays like that in, I’m going to make sure the guys understand that we’re going to be aggressive on fourth down and we’re going to take our opportunities, take some chances from time to time.”
Pederson’s gamble ultimately paid off. It allowed the Eagles to win a shootout with Brady’s Patriots, securing their first NFL championship since 1960.
It cemented a legacy for Pederson in Philadelphia. The play that contributed to Philly's only Super Bowl victory is immortalized with a statue of Pederson and Foles outside Lincoln Financial Field. If he can somehow lead the Jaguars to the same plateau, Pederson could become the first NFL coach to win a Super Bowl with two different teams.
Getting recharged
When Eagles’ owner Jeff Lurie parted ways with Pederson after a frustrating 2020 season — citing a different “vision” for the team’s future, adding the benching of then rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts in the final game against the Washington Commanders played no part — it was one of the more controversial firing decisions in recent memory.
Pederson joined a distinguished list of coaches in NFL history — among them the Baltimore Colts’ Don McCafferty, the Dallas Cowboys’ Tom Landry, the Baltimore Ravens’ Brian Billick, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Jon Gruden, the Denver Broncos’ Mike Shanahan and the New York Giants’ Tom Coughlin — to be dismissed or forced to resign by a team they led to a Super Bowl title.
Knowing he might immediately have job options, Pederson instead took his first year off from coaching in his career. It’s a choice he has never regretted because it allowed him to spend more quality time with family.
That decision was undoubtedly impacted by learning that his younger brother, Craig, got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just four days after the Eagles’ firing. Craig passed away on October 12, 2021, but Doug was able to spend a lot of time with his brother in those final months.
“We didn’t expect to have the time off [in 2021], but it couldn’t have come at a better time,” Jeannie said.
During his coaching exile, Pederson also had special occasions to celebrate, including oldest son Drew’s wedding and the birth of his first grandchild, Brodie, to middle son Josh and his wife.
“Craig sadly lost his battle to cancer, but that’s time that was well spent during Doug’s time off,” said Jeannie. “He knew he wanted to get back into coaching. Having a year off, perspective-wise, it allowed him to recharge his love for the game.”
A positive start
Few expected the Jaguars to be more than a 6-win or 7-win team in Pederson’s first season, but the early returns are now more optimistic coming off routs of the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Chargers the past two weeks.
Suddenly, this matchup with the unbeatenEagles has taken on a higher profile. It’s an opportunity for the underdog Jaguars to emerge as the NFL’s biggest surprise if they can knock off Pederson’s ex-employer.
In his only previous encounter on the opposite sideline against the Eagles, when he was the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator in 2013, Pederson’s team won 26-16. But the hype is far different this time, coming in as a former head coach who was a huge part of the Eagles raising a Lombardi trophy.
Now Pederson is earning rave reviews for the Jaguars’ start, where the team has risen to No. 5 in the NFL in total defense (296.7 yards). Quarterback Trevor Lawrence has also elevated his game to unprecedented heights, completing nearly 70 percent of his passes with a rating of 103.1, sixth-best in the NFL.
A transformation of the Jaguars has been launched and though Pederson credits the players for making it happen, there’s no question his influence has set the whole thing in motion. Players are following his lead.
Now the Pedersons are planting roots in Jacksonville, a convenient location since they already have a retirement home in Jupiter.
“When the job came open, we secretly had our fingers crossed that we’d be able to stay in Florida because we love it here,” Jeannie said. “It makes it easy to go check on things [in Jupiter].
“There are only 32 of these [head coaching] jobs. We feel privileged to have one of them here.”
Fan loyalty in Jax
The Pedersons’ connection to the Jaguars goes back to 1995 when Doug was selected as part of the Carolina Panthers’ expansion draft, though he never played for them. Going up for Tony Boselli’s Hall of Fame induction last month, the Pedersons reconnected with former Jaguars Jeff Novak (Doug’s former teammate with Miami Dolphins) and Mark Brunell.
“We’ve known about Jacksonville from friends who came here for that first season [in 1995],” Jeannie said. “We knew how much they loved Jacksonville because people don’t leave here. They love the city so much, they choose to make it a permanent home. To me, that says volumes about the city and their fans.”
But it’ll soon be time for Doug to make his way back to his old city, a reunion that could be both heartwarming and, as the opposing coach, also puts things in a different light.
Given the history of Eagles’ fans, who once booed Santa Claus and threw snowballs at him at Franklin Field to close out a miserable 1968 season, the Jaguars’ coach isn’t totally certain what might happen when he steps on the field Sunday.
“I don’t know, it could be mixed,” said Pederson. “Listen, I have to get this team here ready to go and I’m not going to be concerned with that. You hope it’s a good one obviously for the things you did there, but I also know that crowd and they can be a little hostile and looking forward to that, too.
“Listen, understanding that and having been there and worked there, you just understand that’s [how it is]. Even when I was there and we were winning games or losing games, you were still getting booed, so it doesn’t really matter.”
All that matters to Doug Pederson is getting a win in Philly. More than anything else, that would make for a happy homecoming.
And if it happens while slipping in a successful trick play, “Duuuval Special” or something like that, his approval ratings with Jaguars’ fans would probably go up more than they have already.
Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540
Gene Frenette Sports columnist at Florida Times-Union, follow him on Twitter @genefrenette
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Return to Philly to face Eagles will be special for Jaguars' Pederson
