Mike Pettine once spent a year building a cabin after he was fired. Doug Pederson has no interest in acquiring Lincoln Logs.
Pederson's time with the Eagles came to an end in January following a couple of meetings with owner Jeffery Lurie during which the two realized they'd be better off parting ways. The coach departed Philadelphia with a Super Bowl ring on his finger and a year's worth of frustration and disappointment still attached to his waist.
That unhappy ending hasn't discouraged him, though. On Monday, the coach said he's ready to get back on a sideline when he's given an opportunity.
"The competitor inside wants to continue to compete," Pederson said during an appearance on 97.5 The Fanatic, via NJ.com. "Hopefully, I get an opportunity to lead another football team and do the same things again and learn from the last five years -- what a great teaching moment for me. I always talk about how we learn from failures and different things like that. I don't want to say that this was a failure, but at the same time, I want to learn from the last five years moving forward in my next opportunity."
The failures largely came in his final two seasons, when Philadelphia battled through a merciless rash of injuries and a sudden regression in performance from quarterback Carson Wentz. It became clear Philadelphia's aging core would no longer serve as a suitable foundation for a contending team, and as questions swirled around Wentz -- who was eventually traded to Indianapolis -- the Eagles encountered an unexpected crossroads: Try once again to compete with a team that wasn't getting any younger, or retool the roster with the understanding 2021 likely wouldn't be a banner year for Philadelphia.
Philadelphia chose the latter, and sent Pederson packing.
The coach isn't bitter about how his time with the Eagles ended, and knows the franchise's first Lombardi Trophy will always have his fingerprints on it. He wished new Eagles coach Nick Sirianni "the best of luck moving forward" and is keeping his own eyes trained on the road ahead, where he hopes another head coaching opportunity arises.
After all, once you gain an understanding of how to hold a Lombardi, it's tough to let go.
"I'll be defined in Philadelphia for my wins and losses," Pederson said. "Obviously, the championship is huge. But for me, I feel like if I get another opportunity, I want to do it again. I went to two Super Bowls as a player in Green Bay, and then obviously now being a coach in Philadelphia, and so three Super Bowls, and when it gets in your system like that, it's just hard to turn that off."
For now, Pederson will have to polish his ring to fill his time. But if his track record -- 42-37-1 overall, a 4-2 record in the playoffs, three postseason appearances and Super Bowl LII champion -- serves as the ultimate judgment on his coaching career, he just might get another shot in the future.
