Hall of Fame coach Dick Vermeil on representing the Eagles: ‘This is my community’
Vermeil spent seven seasons with the Eagles and led the team to its first Super Bowl appearance.
Dick Vermeil’s connection to Philadelphia extended beyond the football field after coaching seven seasons with the Eagles.
So when he received a phone call from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Vermeil said he chose to represent the Eagles as a 2022 inductee, even though he also coached the St. Louis Rams (1997-99) and Kansas City Chiefs (2001-05).
“The more I was around people in Philadelphia, the more I was given the opportunity to connect with them,” Vermeil said Tuesday on a Zoom call with the media. “They are very free with their compliments. When they see you and tell you what a great job you do, as long as you don’t let it distort your ego, it’s a really warm experience.”
Vermeil was on the early rise of his coaching career, leading the UCLA Bruins to their first conference championship in 10 years and a Rose Bowl win in 1976. After the season, the native of Calistoga, Calif., received a phone call from former Eagles owner Leonard Tose and general manager Jim Murray. After a couple of back-and-forth conversations, they offered Vermeil a job to coach the Eagles, who were coming off a 4-10 season.
“When I came here in 1976, they hadn’t been in the playoffs in I think 16 years,” Vermeil said. “When we went in ‘78, that was the 18th year that we’ve finally been in the playoffs. I think that helped people identify with what we do and why we do it.”
The Eagles had one of the greatest games in history in that season: the “Miracle at the Meadowlands,” when they beat the New York Giants, 19-17, on Herman Edwards’ 26-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown with seconds to play.
Philly fans quickly took notice of Vermeil and the way he turned around the organization.
“They liked my work ethic approach,” said Vermeil, 85. “At that time, we were pretty structured, pretty disciplined, pretty demanding. I also had a Monday night radio show that I was able to talk to people directly.
“I think they identified with me, and that I was honest and direct, and if I couldn’t answer the question, then I couldn’t answer.”
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In the 1980 season, Vermeil led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl appearance after they beat the Dallas Cowboys for the NFC championship. However, the Eagles fell, 27-10, to the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XV.
Vermeil announced his retirement in 1983. He still lived in the Philadelphia area, where Vermeil raised a family. He also became more involved in community events and started a new career as a college football commentator for CBS and ABC.
“Leaving coaching, and then staying in a community,” Vermeil said, “I invested a lot of time in the community and different charities and different clubs and different companies, and got to know a lot of people that I didn’t know while I was coaching. I was introduced to all the different levels of how people make a living in Philadelphia, other than going to NFL games. I think that helped me establish credibility. It takes a long time to establish credibility, maybe only a few minutes to lose it, but to establish that it takes time.”
He mentioned that when walking around the streets of Philly, Vermeil might get stopped by a “little gray-haired lady” who said how much her husband enjoyed watching the Eagles during his stint with the team.
After his hiatus from coaching, Vermeil started anew as head coach of the Rams in 1997, winning the Super Bowl with St. Louis in the 1999 season. Although he’s grateful for the experiences he had with the Rams and Chiefs, Vermeil said his home is the City of Brotherly Love.
“I belong here. This is my community,” Vermeil said. “They respect me, they care about me. They appreciate the job that my staff and I did with their Eagles football team, and they want me to stay in the community. When you stay here as long as I have, you watch your grandchildren be born here and go to school here at Villanova, Penn State, and these kinds of things — just get more emotionally involved.”
Vermeil will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Aug. 6 in Canton, Ohio.