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Sean McDermott, head coach at last, pays tribute to Andy Reid

PHOENIX - When Sean McDermott first joined the Eagles, before he had even become an assistant coach, Andy Reid taught him a lesson about the importance of details in coaching.

PHOENIX - When Sean McDermott first joined the Eagles, before he had even become an assistant coach, Andy Reid taught him a lesson about the importance of details in coaching.

Reid's teaching tools involved a white board and a marker.

McDermott, then an entry-level scout and aide to the former Eagles coach, was working late at Veterans Stadium. Reid, renowned for his all-night cram sessions, knew his young protégé wanted to be a coach, so he asked McDermott to draw him up a play on the white board.

"And so we go back in the Vet to the back room. I take the marker and I just grab it like a normal pencil and I start writing X's and O's," McDermott said. "And he said, 'No, give me the pen.' So he shows me when you write the English language, you hold it one way, and when you draw X's and 'Os on a scheme you hold it another way."

That may sound nit-picky or irrelevant to how a coach can diagram a play. But Reid's point was that to be a coach - a leader - you need to project yourself to your players in a way that is convincing.

"When you're up there, you want your students to buy in," McDermott said. "You need to present in a way that is credible. That detail really defines Andy Reid."

Almost 20 years later, McDermott has followed in his mentor's footsteps and become an NFL head coach. In January, the Panthers defensive coordinator signed a five-year contract with the Buffalo Bills.

In doing so, McDermott became the ninth assistant to have worked under Reid and eventually become a head coach. On Sunday at the league meetings, NFL Films gathered Reid and the five active coaches from his coaching tree for an interview that will be aired this season.

McDermott was joined by the Ravens' John Harbaugh, the Panthers' Ron Rivera, the New York Jets' Todd Bowles, and the Eagles' Doug Pederson. Brad Childress, Leslie Frazier, Steve Spagnulo, and Pat Shurmur are the four other Reid acolytes who had stints as head coach.

Harbaugh is the only one to have won a Super Bowl, but Rivera reached the title game two seasons ago. Nevertheless, there is a reason, McDermott contends, that so many of the now-Chiefs coach's assistants have been promoted into the top jobs.

"Working with Andy Reid you see that there's a plan and there's a progression, and if you go about things the right way there's a chance, " McDermott said Monday. "And I think Andy modeled [that]. When I got to know Andy, I got to know his story and how he became a head coach. That gave me hope and a vision."

McDermott's climb through the ranks differed from Reid's. He spent only one year in college as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, William and Mary. But he rose quickly up the Eagles ladder and in 2002 became a defensive assistant. In only seven years, he was named defensive coordinator after the great Jim Johnson died from cancer.

McDermott was only 35 at time. If Rivera, Frazier, or Spagnuolo hadn't had their own meteoric rises and were still with the Eagles, they would have stood in McDermott's way. But he was the next man up.

Was he ready? It's hard to say for certain. The Eagles defense regressed under his stewardship, but it wasn't a disaster, and McDermott had big shoes to fill. Reid, thus, decided to fire his longtime assistant after the 2010 season.

"It's one of those moments in life when you don't understand it at the time that it's happening," McDermott said. "But looking back upon it now, it's honestly the best thing that's ever happened to me as a man, as a husband, as a father, and as a football coach."

Rivera hired McDermott to be his coordinator in Carolina and for the next six seasons the Panthers mostly had stout defenses. McDermott was routinely listed among possible head coaching candidates and even interviewed at several spots - the Eagles gave him a courtesy call last year - but others kept getting the nod.

Was McDermott worried he would always get passed over and be typecast as only a coordinator?

"At the combine I got this, a lot of congratulations, 'Hey, finally it happened,' " McDermott said. "Well, I just turned 43 last week."

McDermott believes that Buffalo will be the perfect fit. The franchise, of course, has fallen on hard times over the last two decades. But its fans are passionate and have, at least early on, embraced the hard-nosed fellow Northeasterner.

"I'm fired up about it, and that was part of our decision making process with Buffalo as a family," McDermott said. "We're from the Northeast and there's a lot of overlap in terms of the passionate fans and the genuineness of the area - very similar to Philadelphia. . . . It's our type of town."

McDermott was raised in Lansdale and attended North Penn before transferring to La Salle for his last two years of high school. Friends and family have always described him as an intense young man. He approached coaching the same way and would rival Reid in terms of nights spent sleeping at the NovaCare Complex during the season.

"I was sleeping in the office two, three times a week," McDermott said.

But he said that he has gotten better at balancing his life and stopped sleeping in his office in Carolina. Like Reid, McDermott also has a playful side and said that he hopes to know when to let his guard down with his players.

He also learned how to grip a white board marker the Reid way.

"That's how I hold it now," McDermott said. "But I've found that not all coaches were trained in that school."

It's in the details.

jmclane@phillynews.com

@Jeff_McLane