The Super Bowl is less than a week away. And a Springfield man and his wife are getting ready to cheer on their son-in-law’s team.
Before Nick Sirianni became the Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach, his first stint in the NFL was with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2009 -- the team he will be playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday. He served as offensive quality control coach for three seasons and as wide receivers coach for a season, then worked for two other NFL teams before eventually becoming the head coach of the Eagles.
It was when he was working for the Chiefs that Sirianni met his future wife -- Brett Cantwell – from Springfield who was working in Kansas City.
“It’s been an interesting ride since they have met -- when Brett first started teaching there and Nick started as an Offensive Quality Control for the Chiefs,” said Sirianni’s father-in-law, retired Springfield attorney Brad Cantwell.” And he has just kind of gone up the ladder. He went out with the Chargers and kept moving up the ladder with the Colts and got the ultimate job with Eagles.”
Cantwell and his wife Debbie will head to Phoenix Wednesday where they’ll prepare to attend the big game on Sunday and reunite with family.
“We will see my daughter and her three kids out there, we will see my other daughter and her husband, who are from Ft. Lauderdale,” said Cantwell. “Then we will also see my son and his girlfriend and my sister and her husband. So, there will be a whole crew of us out there.”
The big question is: With Cantwell from Missouri, home of the Chiefs, and his daughter married to the coach of the Eagles, who will he be rooting for?
“There is no question about it -- the whole family will be rooting for the Eagles,” he said. “The only Chiefs fan in the house is my daughter’s husband, and they both live in Ft. Lauderdale. He is from Kansas City originally and he has always been a Chiefs fan, but he has assured the whole family that he will be rooting for the Eagles on Sunday.”
Cantwell said he hasn’t really thought about who might win – he’s been too busy preparing for the trip and getting caught up in the excitement of the moment. But he ventured a guess as to who might walk away with the Super Bowl victory.
“My prediction is obviously the Eagles,” he said. “Again, I haven’t thought about whether it will be offensive-dominated or defensive dominated. But I am thinking the Eagles will win.”
Before Cantwell hung up the phone, he ended the conversation with “Go, Birds!”
Super Bowl 57 is Sunday, February 12, at 5:30 pm CST in Arizona.