The Chicago Bears employ one of the most unique coaching stories in the NFL. Sean Desai is one of the few coaches in the NFL of Indian descent. According to Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic, his family came to the U.S. in the 1960s. After playing high school football himself, Desai soon realized he had a future in coaching. His teammates, including former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky even told him so back then.
Desai soon began to climb the ladder, but not with any idea of sacrificing his education. Amidst his dream of being a coach, he eventually secured a doctorate as well. Teams became so impressed with his intelligence that he earned the lasting nickname, “Doc.” He couldn’t have had any idea how wild his journey to the NFL would become.
Perhaps the most insane came during his time in college. Being fired is nothing traumatic to coaches in football, or any other sport. It just happens. One must get used to it and learn how to move on. For Desai though, he had a rather unique experience in this regard as a former colleague revealed.
Sean Desai was fired twice by the same coach in college
“When Golden left Temple for Miami, he could only take a few coaches with him at first. Steve Addazio arrived at Temple and fired Desai, among other coaches, the next day — standard operating procedure in the coaching world.
Desai went to Miami with Golden and then the next season, the special teams coordinator job opened at Boston College, where Siravo was the defensive backs coach.
“They kept interviewing people and the head coach was lukewarm on everyone,” Siravo said. “I said, ‘You’ve gotta meet [Desai]. I worked with him at Temple. The guy’s brilliant. He’s going to kill the interview. Frank Spaziani brought him in, hired him immediately and called him the professor. That’s who he was to the players.”
Remember the story of Desai being fired twice by the same coach? Well, the Boston College head coach was fired following the season, and the new head coach was … Addazio, coming over from Temple. Once again, he had to fire Desai.”
It seems Desai may have learned some valuable lessons from that experience. Typical of a teacher. Eventually, he found his way to the NFL, latching on with the Chicago Bears as a quality control coach under Marc Trestman in 2013. Two years later when Trestman was fired, Desai made a strong impression with new head coach John Fox who chose to retain him in 2015. Three years after that, Fox himself was fired.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
Again it looked like Desai was done. Then he spoke with Matt Nagy who also chose to keep him on. The young coach now enters his sixth season with Chicago, the longest-tenured on the team. That is a great trivia question for 2018 people won’t believe.
