How a Scottish coach helped Philadelphia Eagles to Super Bowl win

A Scottish coach who helped to develop one of the Philadelphia Eagles’ most successful tactics watched it help them to Super Bowl success.

Richie Gray, from Galashiels, spent time with the team to refine their technique on the controversial “brotherly shove”.

It came up trumps for the team as it produced the first touchdown in their convincing win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Richie said he had stayed up to watch the first half of the game – screened late into the night in the UK – and had seen the move in action.

The move is a variant of the long-standing quarterback sneak play and is used in short yardage situations.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts takes the ball and goes forward, pushed by team-mates.

It has been used regularly by the Eagles but the Scot helped them fine tune it during the summer of 2023.

He was able to watch it in action on Sunday night into Monday morning.

Richie said it had been a “long old weekend” having taken his son to the Scotland rugby international against Ireland and had not got back until late.

“I thought, like, I’m going to watch the first half,” he told BBC Scotland’s Lunchtime Live.

“It was enough to watch one brotherly shove.

“The first touchdown was a brotherly shove – and then after that, at half time, I went to bed.”

Richie said he had helped to develop the technique which has long been part of the NFL playbook.

“There was always what was called the quarterback sneak, it has been a play for a number of years,” he explained.

“I was brought in by the Eagles last year mainly to speak to their defensive group which was great.

“But while I was there [Eagles coach] Jeff Stoutland and the offensive group got me into the room and said – listen we run this play, is there anything you would do to defend against it differently?

“We ripped it to bits and we spent a good morning looking at all the whole plays and who stands where.”

He said there were a number of elements which made the Eagles so successful.

He said it was “coached brilliantly” and they also possessed a huge offensive line.

“They rep it a lot, it is a difficult thing to train so they rep it weekly in games – they are always scoring off it or they are making yardage off it,” said Richie.

“You can always add 1% to it and try and fine tune it slightly but that play has been around for a while and they are excellent at it.”

In addition to his coaching work, Richie estimates his tackling equipment is now used by 20 out of 32 teams in the NFL – including the Eagles.

“It is just great that a Super Bowl winning team is using your technical training equipment to make themselves slightly sharper,” he said.

However, he said he could take “very little” of the credit for their triumph.

“You can always add 1% – it is not just the Eagles there are a number of other teams that I am involved with as well,” he said.

“But at that level 1% can sometimes have a major impact.”