NFL
New Cardinals Coach Jonathan Gannon Caught in Multiple Lies During Press Conference
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sports7 in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
Get to know Tim Crean betterUpdated24 Apr 2023
The Arizona Cardinals are in a rough spot right now. The team's owner is facing multiple accusations of misconduct, quarterback Kyler Murray is rehabbing a torn ACL, their best player wants out, the coach and general manager from the last several years are gone, the team went 4-13 last season, and now new head coach Jonathan Gannon just got caught lying to the media. It's not a great time for the Cardinals.
Cardinals head coach lied to the media multiple times in one statement
With all the bad stuff going on in the desert right now, the Cardinals did have a moment for celebration recently when they released their new uniforms for the 2023 NFL season and beyond.
As part of the uniform reveal, new head coach and former Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon spoke with the media, and that's when things started to go badly.
The problem actually started with a compliment from one of the hosts of the proceedings. He noted that Gannon is “comfortable and not nervous at all in talking to reporters,” per Pro Football Focus.
That's when the lies started.
“I'm very comfortable talking to the media. Philly is a very hard media market,” Gannon said. “We were 9-0, and I did my presser, and they say, ‘Coach, we want you fired.' And I said, ‘We're the No. 1 defense in the NFL right now, in every statistical category. Why do you want me fired?' ‘You don't blitz enough.' I said, ‘Well, we lead the league in sacks by 30-plus sacks, so if you want to come call the defense, then you can have at it.'”
So, that's what Gannon said. PFF and other outlets then broke down this statement, though, and found multiple inaccuracies. They were able to do this because the Eagles make transcripts of coaches' press conferences and media statements available to all.
Let's break this down statement by statement.
I'm very comfortable talking to the media
Gannon may feel that way, but after the Eagles defense collapsed in the second half of last year's Super Bowl, the then-defensive coordinator refused to speak with the media after the game.
We were 9-0
This couldn't be easier to fact-check. Anyone with Google can quickly find out that the Eagles were 8-0 before they lost to the Washington Commanders in Week 10. They were 8-1 at that point and then 9-1 the following week after they beat the Indianapolis Colts.
While this is a simple mistake to make, 9-0 never happened, and it's a tough when the rest of the statement is also filled with inaccuracies.
They say, ‘Coach, we want you fired.'… ‘You don't blitz enough‘
After Gannon's statement, PFF poured through the transcripts of the coach's media remarks from around the time the team was (approximately) 9-0 in November and found no evidence of an exchange like this.
There was one question about Gannon actually blitzing more, to which Gannon told the reporter to “fact-check that.” Another question was about Gannon and the Eagles' blitzing being “so effective.” Finally, Gannon once told the Philly media “that the same amount of blitzes are in the game plan each week, and that the number that are called depends on the situation.”
That's the extent of the mid-season media blitz-related questions for Gannon, and, as you can see, at no point did someone say they wanted him fired for not blitzing enough.
Well, we lead the league in sacks by 30-plus sacks
The Eagles had a historic season when it came to sacks. Gannon's defense recorded 70 sacks, the third-most in NFL history only behind the 1984 Chicago Bears (72) and 1989 Minnesota Vikings (71).
Putting up 70 sacks was impressive, especially considering the second-most this season was 55 by the Kansas City Chiefs. However, that gave the Eagles 15 more than the Chiefs. And that was about as big as the team's sack lead got in 2023. At no point did the Eagles have a 30-or-more-sack lead on the next-highest team.
In the end, these aren't horrible, malicious lies by any means. They seem like relatively small factual errors, misremembrances, exaggerations, and straw-man arguments. That said, having so many of them in such a short answer may be concerning to some Cardinals fans.
Jonathan Gannon is supposed to be the coach to lead the Cardinals back to respectability. But if you can't trust what comes out of his mouth, how can you trust him to lead the team?
