Eagles vs Packers: Two storied franchises, six unforgettable tales

5. A weird head-coaching carousel leads to a Green Bay assistant Andy Reid becoming the Eagles’ 20th head coach.

Eight players have played at least 32 games for both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers. They’ve also shared coaches.

Jon Gruden was a part of Ray Rhodes’ staff as Philly’s offensive coordinator from 1995 to 1997 before landing his gig in 1998 as the Raiders head coach. He was also Green Bay’s offensive quality control coach in 1992 and their wide receivers coach from 1993 to 1994. Rhodes was fired three days after Christmas in 1998, but he landed on his feet, taking over as, you guessed it, Green Bay’s leader in 1999.

Philly, now in need of a leader of their own, hoped to land now-Packers legend Mike Holmgren. He had led the Cheeseheads to two Super Bowl appearances and one Super Bowl win, but Holmgren elected instead to take his talents to Seattle. The Birds decided to hire his quarterbacks coach, a much younger version of the Andy Reid that we know today.

That decision worked out for them.

Andy led the Eagles to a 130-93-1 regular-season record during 14 seasons. He also led them to five NFC Championship Game appearances and a Super Bowl appearance. It was, in many ways, the most successful run by an Eagles coach ever and the most successful stint of Eagles football ever, minus never winning a Super Bowl of course.

Andy tutored one of the greatest Eagles quarterbacks of all time, Donovan McNabb. He had earned a lot of practice, guiding the career of a guy who will forever be remembered as a Packers legend, a man that Eagles fans know well.