PHILADELPHIA — The Giants’ next head coach bled Eagles green for a long time.
And before Pat Shurmur calls New Jersey his new home, his Minnesota Vikings will try to ruin Philadelphia’s NFC Championship Game party Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, not far from where Shurmur and his wife Jennifer raised four children — all athletes, of course — during their decade in south Jersey.
“Thirteen years — 10 on the Jersey side, three on the Philly side,” Shurmur, 52, said Thursday of where he lived for his 10 years as an Andy Reid assistant (1999-2008), followed by three more as Chip Kelly’s offensive coordinator (2013-15) after stops in St. Louis and Cleveland.
“When I was with Chip, we lived in Center City. I didn’t cut grass,” Shurmur added with a smirk. “That wasn’t bad.”
The Eagles were a perennial contender for most of Shurmur’s 10-year run under Reid, including three years as tight ends/offensive line coach and seven with Donovan McNabb and the quarterbacks.
“I was just thinking back: this is my sixth NFC Championship Game, five of them were with the Eagles,” Shurmur said Thursday.
But athletically the Shurmurs, living in Cinnaminson, N.J., also were successful away from the NFL — primarily in the swimming pool.
Pat, a former Michigan State offensive lineman from Dearborn, Mich., and Jennifer, a former standout Spartans swimmer from Poughkeepsie, have three daughters and a son.
Allyson swam at Boston College, Erica swam at Michigan State, and Claire currently swims in high school in Minnesota. (Eli and Abby Manning have three daughters, too, all under six years old. So there’s one thing the new coach and QB have in common).
The Shurmurs’ son, Kyle, meanwhile, is now Vanderbilt’s starting quarterback after finishing his high school career at LaSalle College High in Glenside, Pa., just outside Philadelphia.
Pat Shurmur and his wife, Jennifer, raised their family in New Jersey.
(Amy Sancetta/AP)Pat’s 19-year coaching career has taken the Shurmurs to six different states, but he said Thursday that even when he had to leave Philly a second time in 2016 — for Minnesota’s tight ends coach job, no less — his family has welcomed each new venue and opportunity openly.
“When we left, and my family’s great about it, we were on to our new adventure, and I knew that we would end up in a really good place,” Shurmur said. “And every move for us has been ‘this new place is gonna be better than the last.’ And so that’s been our mindset. And we came up here and we loved it. Minnesota, this is a breath of fresh air. Sometimes it’s cold air, but it’s fresh. And I’ve really enjoyed working here and I’ve learned a lot about everything football, from (GM) Rick (Spielman) and Coach (Mike) Zimmer and our operation.”
Shurmur’s wife Jennifer, profiled by the Vikings’ website in 2017, said of the relocations: “I’m close with my children because of football, because we’ve moved and we’ve been pioneers together.”
During this coaching search, much has been made of Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia’s degree in aeronautical engineering, a virtual rocket scientist who worked two years out of football before returning to the sport.
Shurmur, it turns out, while engaged to Jennifer earned his M.B.A. in financial administration and worked for IBM for nine months. But quickly he realized the football field was where he belonged.
“He loved coaching, loved working with players, loved teaching,” Jennifer told the Vikings’ website. “And kudos to him — he threw caution to the wind and just dove into what he was passionate about.”
Soon, the Shurmurs’ next adventure will take them about 96 miles up I-95 North from where they once lived, from where Shurmur’s Vikings now look to continue their Super Bowl quest, up to 1925 Giants Drive in East Rutherford.
It will be a new challenge, but change is normal for the Shurmurs — though they should know, wearing casual Eagles gear around town in north Jersey doesn’t fly the way it would down south.