Judging by the comments below a video I can almost guarantee that Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni brought his kids to the podium after Sunday’s 20-16 victory over the Cleveland Browns the fan he yelled at toward the end of the game deserved it.

The Eagles coach showed up to his first game after the bye week with a shaved head, narrowly beat one of the worst teams in football, was both rambunctious and combative during his postgame interview, and was seen tweeting about something like what looked like a… member of the team’s own fan base. From 30,000 feet you could say that these are the components of a spiral. But those who watched Sirianni grow into a coach who thrived in Philadelphia, became part of the zeitgeist and, at least for a moment, touched the hearts of a place whose affection is more conditional should know what’s really happening. You should appreciate the fact that he’s still comfortable being himself in a city full of people famous for doing the exact same thing. It could be the kind of decision that turns this sleeping giant around.

I respect Sirianni bringing his side hustle back and involving his family, and you should too. That’s him. At the start of the game, he reportedly yelled at the Browns defenders. This was a man who had to be stopped by his own quarterback Taunting your opponent in the middle of the Super Bowl. A man who screamed “I know what the fuck I’m doing.” after sprinting down the entire sideline to celebrate a touchdown in the middle of a playoff game against the New York Giants. A man who ironically grumpy Pete Carroll, Robert shouted at Saleh and told the Dallas Cowboys Sideline to the F— Off.

Sirianni is at his best when he’s uniquely, frustratingly, and reluctantly himself. When he elbows you in the stomach like a skilled basketball player without a torn ACL looking for an advantage. When he’s completely lost in the moment and on the same emotional wavelength as he was during a dodgeball game in ninth grade gym class.

“I had fun,” Sirianni told reporters when asked if she wanted to be more lively on Sunday. “I had fun and got some kind of feedback from the guys saying, ‘We need you back, Nick.’ We need your energy. We need your focus.’ I got this from a few players.

“If I operate and have fun, I think it affects the rest of the football team. If I want the boys to party and be themselves after big performances, then I should probably do that myself, right?”

When Sirianni isn’t himself, he looks the same as he did when he was first introduced to Eagles fans. An opening press conference full of mistakes. Members of the Philly media told me This version of Sirianni was a “train wreck” and fans wanted him fired after just five games. They called him nothing more than a high school coach. A distinction that I can only assume didn’t bother the son and brother of legendary high school coaches.

And here’s the thing: Eagles fans want Sirianni fired, whether he’s acting like himself or hiding it and trying to get corporate enough to avert the inevitable. It would always end like this for him; for Doug Pederson, the man who gave the city its only Super Bowl victory; for Andy Reid and for every idiot who takes a job there and shows even the slightest bit of human vulnerability. So Sirianni is doing everything he can to potentially create enough of a buzz to bring the Eagles along again.

Sirianni is at his best even when he’s connected to the people who brought him here in the first place. Before the Eagles played the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, I remember talking to the coach about growing up in a house completely consumed by the art of coaching and a love of high school football. A few days before the biggest professional moment of his life, he talked about how great it was that, thanks to his father, he was the boy who could open the gym whenever he wanted and play gymnastics games with his friends. He said – and I suspect he’ll tell anyone who asks – that he could name more players on the Southwestern Trojans than in the NFL. He talked about his own children standing at the podium on Sunday and how some of their first complete sentences were, “Is Jalen OK?” whenever the quarterback would be injured.

Perhaps the malice directed at him stems from the fact that the act has become old for some. Maybe it’s the fact that Sirianni has become the cornerstone of everyone’s distorted expectations for a team that has plenty of star players but is largely trying to salvage what’s left of an aging core piloted by a quarterback who’s still up The right path seems to get itself out. Maybe it’s just because it’s part of the life cycle; a reflection of our own short attention spans and limited capacity for grace. You win, you are loved; You lose and go home.

No coach – I promise you, not a single one – who takes a job in Philadelphia is naive to this fact. But few of them had the courage to take such uncompromising action against it. Sirianni will go down with a flourish, or, in his case, point the finger at anyone who has something to say and weigh himself in. He will perish surrounded by his people. Things will happen to him the way we all want them to when things start to look bleak.