GLENDALE, Ariz. — If the Eagles win the Super Bowl, the cameras had better stay locked in on their head coach. Nick Sirianni is very likely to let his truest emotions surface for 100 million viewers, and that is not a bad thing.

Over the course of a magical season in which the Eagles have won 16 of 19 games, including 16 of the 17 that Jalen Hurts started at quarterback, Sirianni has collected more than his fair share of enemies. In different ways, he has mocked the Colts, the Cowboys and the Giants. He was even in regular-season form during the preseason, when he profanely screamed at Jets head coach Robert Saleh after Quincy Williams delivered a late and vicious sideline hit on Hurts.

Opposing fans have vented on social media about how much they’d love to punch that very punchable face belonging to Sirianni, and shut his mouth for good. But much like the city he represents, the Eagles coach isn’t one to back down. Whether it was cursing at Saleh in August, or cursing at the Cowboys with victory assured in October (“That’s f–kin’ game. F–k you”), Sirianni explained his response the same way:

“I’ll never apologize for sticking up for my players.”

But this isn’t about just another coach feeling obliged to defend just another team. By telling you exactly who he is and how he feels, Sirianni cuts against the grain of a profession overpopulated by say-nothing, process-obsessed automatons who would never, ever consider doing what the Eagles coach did when a camera got up close and personal during his team’s playoff rout of the Giants.

Sirianni repeatedly nodded as he peered directly into said camera, with an Eagles ski cap pulled down over his eyebrows, effectively telling the Giants and their fans the following: “Yes, I am about to end your season.” Giants safety Julian Love subsequently went on “Good Morning Football” and described Sirianni as the beneficiary of a great roster who is just along for the ride, telling the show’s hosts, “You guys can coach this team.”

Though Love stands among the most thoughtful voices in sports, his was an absurd take. In 2021, his first season as a head coach, Sirianni turned Doug Pederson’s 4-11-1 team into his own 9-8 playoff team. In Year 2, the 41-year-old coach put on something of a master class by fielding the league’s No. 2 overall defense (defined by 70 sacks) and the league’s No. 3 overall offense, and by outscoring Love’s Giants 108-45 in three games.

Asked to explain his head-bobbing during the divisional-round demolition of the Giants, Sirianni said: “I was juiced. We were up a couple of scores and [the camera] was right there. … It’s the first thing that came to my mind. I guess that’s who I am.”

Unlike the failed wannabes who tried borrowing, say, Bill Belichick’s approach, Sirianni’s style is all his own. The son of a western New York high school coach, and a three-time national champion receiver at Division III Mount Union, Sirianni now has a chance to win the ultimate Division I ring … at the Super Bowl, and at the expense of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. The same Andy Reid who, after he arrived in Kansas City in 2013, fired the team’s holdover receivers coach, Sirianni.

In the lead-up to the big game, Sirianni pointed out that Reid was very complimentary in their lone meeting, made brief by the fact that Reid already had a receivers coach in David Culley.

“He gave me strength when I was down,” Sirianni said of Reid, insisting that revenge wouldn’t be a source of motivation Sunday.

But at the same time, Sirianni admitted that he was hurt by the dismissal, and that he stood on a press box table and wildly pumped his fists after the Chargers staff he’d joined as a quality control assistant toppled Reid’s Chiefs in a shootout the following year.

“Do you always have this little chip on your shoulder?” Sirianni said. “Sure … You hold on to some of those things.”

Now that’s more like it. Given that Sirianni lashed out at the Colts for firing Frank Reich, and dedicated the Eagles’ November victory to his former mentor, can anyone truly believe that payback for Reid and the Chiefs won’t be in the back, front and middle of his mind Sunday?

It’s the Sirianni way, and it works. Even Reid, longtime Eagles coach, acknowledged that his brash and animated opponent has found his rightful home in the league.

“I think he’s perfect for Philadelphia,” Reid said. “That’s a tough place and he’s a tough kid.”

Tough enough to overcome his introductory virtual press conference in January 2021, when Sirianni came across as something of a nervous wreck. His players have embraced his emotional leadership, and his unapologetic stance on his sideline disposition.

When Sirianni says he doesn’t care what others think of his methods, he actually means it. So if the Eagles beat the Chiefs, don’t be surprised if he does a cartwheel or a backflip or whatever his heart tells him to do.

No matter what, Nick Sirianni will be true to himself with 100 million people watching. And that’s a refreshing Super Bowl fact.