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Matt Nagy

Sport: Football

Born: April 24, 1978

Town: Dunellen

Matthew Nagy was born April 24, 1978 in Dunellen. Matt’s father, Bill, was a football coach and was on the staff as an assistant at Elizabeth High School when Todd Bowles was playing for the Minutemen. He coached the defensive line in 1981 when Elizabeth won the state championship. Matt’s parent split up when he was a boy and his mom, Gail, moved back to her hometown of Manheim, PA, in Lancaster County.

A super-competitive kid, Matt excelled in every sport he tried. Manheim is a football town with a great youth program. By the time he entered Manheim Central, he was the heir apparent to the varsity quarterback job. He led the Barons deep into the state playoffs twice, completed 68 percent of his passes in high school and threw for more than 3,700 yards. Matt was not seriously recruited by any major college programs. He decided to attend Division-IAA Delaware, where he established several records for the Blue Hens, including career marks with 58 TDs and 8,214 passing yards. He started four years, from 1997 to 2000, and earned all-conference and All-America recognition as a senior.

Undrafted after college, Matt decided Arena Football was the next move and he played in the league for six seasons. Twice he led his teams to berths in the Arena Bowl: with the Georgia Force in 2005 and the Columbus Destroyers in 2007. Matt’s finest AFL season came in 2006, when he threw 85 scoring passes for the Force. He also sold real estate and coached high school ball to make ends meet.

Both of Matt’s parents were teachers, as was his wife, Stacey. It seemed inevitable that he would one day go into coaching as a career. Following an internship in 2008 with the Philadelphia Eagles, he was hired as an assistant on Andy Reid’s staff. Initially, the team considered him as a third-string QB but complications with his old AFL contract got in the way. Duirng his time with the Eagles, he served alongisde Todd Bowles.

Matt followed Reid to Kansas City, where he was reunited with Delaware teammate Brett Veach, the Chiefs’ GM. In 2016, Matt was promoted from quarterbacks coach to Offensive Coordinator. In 2018, the Chicago Bears fired head coach John Fox and hired Matt to replace him. He assembled a staff of former coaching colleagues and college and Arena teammates. The Bears were a team in flux but had a talented young quarterback, Mitchell Trubisky, whom Matt s molded into a solid NFL starter.

Matt installed the West Coast offense in Chicago and focused on improving the team culture and morale. Both efforts paid immediate dividends, as the Bears went 12–4 and made the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade. In the playoffs, the Bears faced the Eagles and led the game 15–10 late in the 4th quarter. Philly scored on a short pass but failed on the conversion. Trailing now 16–15, the Bears maneuvered into field goal range. Kicker Cody Parkey’s attempt clipped the left post and then hit the crossbar—the famed “Double-Doink”—before bouncing back into the end zone.

The Bears were 8–8 in 2019, missing the playoffs. However, Matt’s 20 victories set a new record for a Bears coach in his first two seasons.

 

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