McDermott has bounced back nicely from tenure with the Eagles

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - It was an early morning flight just about 3 years ago. Sean McDermott remembers driving to Philadelphia International Airport in darkness and cold, pondering where his career and his life might be headed, mulling his responsibilities as a husband and a father of two young children.

McDermott had been fired after 12 years with the Eagles, the last two of them as defensive coordinator, where he was the designated successor of the late Jim Johnson. McDermott, an overachiever since his days as a football safety and national champion wrestler at La Salle High, had never been fired before, never failed at anything.

Now he was flying to Charlotte to meet with new Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera, an old friend from Andy Reid's Eagles staff, who actually was willing to consider hiring the guy Reid had just fired - not as just a position coach, but as a coordinator.

"I grew up in Philadelphia, I worked there for 12 years, and I worked extremely hard for 12 years. But as we all know, in the reality of this world, and of coaching, things like that happen. It's how you react to those situations that determines whether you're going to be successful or not. To me, it comes down to what's inside of you. What are you made of? . . . As a leader of a family, as a leader of a football team, that's when you have to step up," McDermott said yesterday, taking a break from preparations for Sunday's NFL playoff matchup between the Panthers, whose aggressive, stifling defense he now runs, and the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers.

"That was the time as a family - I'll look back on that for the rest of my life - as the time we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and persevered. Like I've always said, a setback is a setup for a comeback, and that's what we've done."

Three years is a long time in the NFL. McDermott, scorned by veteran leaders of the Eagles defense he inherited from Johnson as a guy who made the game too complicated and as too callow to lay down the law, runs the same basic defense here that he ran there, he said yesterday. Carolina players, such as young Pro Bowl linebacker Luke Kuechly, call him a coach who "understands his guys."

"He knows how we work, he knows what we do well, he listens to us, he explains well, and he doesn't get real upset when guys mess up. He teaches us. That's one thing I appreciate him. It's more of a teaching thing than him badgering us about stuff," Kuechly said.

In Philly, McDermott's relationship with some of his players was more contentious. One time, questioned about why Asante Samuel wasn't playing press coverage when Samuel gave up a crucial catch, McDermott told reporters Samuel was supposed to be playing press. Samuel made no secret of the fact he was going to play how he wanted to play, not how some former William & Mary safety wanted him to play. Defensive end Trent Cole made no bones about not liking the way McDermott sometimes asked him to drop into coverage. (Of course, Cole is now a 3-4 linebacker under Billy Davis who is sometimes asked to drop, and takes pride in being able to do so. McDermott said he indeed noticed Cole's coverage during the Eagles' loss to the Saints last weekend.)

The thing that might've gotten McDermott fired from the Eagles was that despite making the playoffs, the Eagles ranked last in the NFL in red-zone defense in 2010. This season's Panthers, running the same scheme with different players, ranked third.

Of course, after the Juan Castillo interlude, the McDermott years might not have looked so bad to the Birds who scorned McDermott. He notes that the Eagles won 21 games during his 2 years as coordinator, made the playoffs both years, led the NFL in takeaways during that span.

McDermott, who turns 40 in March, no longer worries about where his life is headed. He recently interviewed for the Washington Redskins' head-coaching position, though Washington ultimately went with Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden. Should Carolina upset one-point favorite San Francisco on Sunday, McDermott ought to get more head-coaching interest.

The Panthers, 28th in total defense in McDermott's first season, ranked 10th in 2012 and second this year.

"I think Sean learned a lot in that [Eagles] experience," said safety Quintin Mikell, an Eagle then and a Panther now. "I'll never forget talking to him after he was let go. He asked me some of the things he could do to get better . . . He fixed those - I won't say fixed, but he learned from the situation - I think he got scapegoated for a lot of stuff that happened.

"I remember there were some guys that went and talked to management" about their unhappiness with McDermott, Mikell said. "They said some things. Some of those things came out. That kind of happens when you're losing. When you're winning, you don't really see that stuff."

McDermott said he "didn't really pay much attention" to the travails of the Eagles' defense after he left.

Rivera, asked yesterday to describe McDermott's influence, said: "Sean's a tough Philly guy. And I think our defense is tough. There's a toughness about him, and there's also a cerebralness to who we are. Sean's a very bright, young man, full of good ideas. He's got a lot of pride, and he works very hard . . . Those guys reflect who he is. They're tough, they're smart, they have a lot of pride in what they do.

"I was in Philadelphia for five seasons, and I won't say he's a typical Philly guy, but he's a typical Philly guy."

Rivera said he had no doubts about bringing McDermott to Carolina. He had talked to Reid, and besides, Rivera knew how these things sometimes go - he had to go from defensive coordinator in Chicago to inside linebackers coach in San Diego in 2007.

Rivera, having started his coaching career under Reid and Johnson in 1999, also understood what McDermott faced as Johnson's successor.

"I've seen it before. I've seen it happen to a lot of people, to the guy who follows the guy. Andy felt this would be a good situation for Sean, and I agreed with him . . . It really bothered Andy."

Rivera said McDermott "has built us up to where we are now."

Mikell said McDermott, 3 years down the road, out from under Johnson's shadow, is "a lot more assertive now." His defense blitzes the way Johnson's once did, leading the NFL with 60 sacks this season. McDermott said he has blended in some of the 3-4 concepts Rivera learned during his journey through Chicago and San Diego after leaving the Eagles.

"He's an aggressive guy," Carolina cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said. "He's always going to be the same guy, no matter what. He's very aggressive, and he's never going to hold back. That's the thing about him that I like; he makes his calls and he sticks by them . . . He always seems like he puts us in the right situation."

McDermott looks a little more weathered, less fresh-faced, than he did when he left Philadelphia. He said he slept 4 nights a week in the office back then, doesn't now.

"Work-life balance is important," he said.

"You learn the most when you go through adverse times. You learn the most about yourself, about other people, about the business you're in. I'm extremely proud of how we handled that situation as a family, and we're extremely happy to be living in Charlotte, North Carolina," McDermott said. "I sit here with a smile on my face, because we are so happy. Genuinely happy, around great people in this organization."

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