Matt Nagy took an interesting path to becoming the new Bears’ head coach. Here are five things to know about the Plainfield, N.J. native.
Family man (no, really)
Nagy, who grew up in Lancaster, Pa., has four children with his wife, Stacey — all boys. “We tried for a girl and got twin boys,” Nagy said via the Chiefs’ website.
A former quarterback
MitchTrubisky will mentored by a former Arena Football League and Chiefs quarterbacks coach. Nagy played six seasons for the AFL’s New York Dragons (2002), Carolina Cobras (2004), Georgia Force (2005-06) and Columbus Destroyers (2007-08), passing for 18,866 yards and 374 touchdowns.
Nagy still holds several school passing records at the University of Delaware, such as throwing for 556 yards in a 1998 game against Connecticut. Nagy also quarterback the Manheim Central High School Barons to back-to-back state finals in 1994 and ‘95.
Chicago connections
Larry Wisdom, who about 10 years ago was a major player in Chicago suburban real estate, played a pivotal role in Nagy’s life. Wisdom, a former Midwest regional president at builder Neumann Homes Inc., who had moved to the Lancaster area in 2007, hired Nagy in 2008 at a time when the AFL was in danger of shuttering and Nagy had a family of four children to support. “I was in a tough spot and he took care of us, I'll always be indebted to him,” Nagy said in a story on the Chiefs’ website.
Wisdom came through again in when he gave Nagy time off to pursue a second summer internship with the Eagles despite Nagy being only a few months into his new job as a Realtor.
Wisdom was also high school classmates with Aurora native Brad Childress, who would eventually become co-offensive coordinators with Nagy on the Chiefs when Doug Pederson took the Eagles head coaching job in 2016.
The Nagy rule
When Andy Reid was coach of the Eagles, he tried to sign then-intern Nagy as a quarterback after an injury to Kevin Kolb in August 2009. The NFL nixed that plan. And now teams can’t sign interns as players to remove the temptation to stash potential replacements for injured players on their staffs.
9/11
According to a Chiefs feature on Nagy, he tried out for the Packers on Sept. 11, 2001, and later watched news of the terrorists attacks with Brett Favre and Doug Pederson.
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