Jonathan Gannon: How Cardinals tampered with me during Eagles’ playoff run

Former Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon had his calendar filled out long before the end of the Super Bowl in February.

What started as a congratulatory call after the Eagles’ NFC Championship victory over the 49ers in January, turned into a tampering violation by Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort.

“After the NFC Championship game, Monti reached out and kind of said, ‘Hey, congratulations,” Gannon told reporters on Tuesday.

But Gannon claims the conversation quickly turned to an invitation to interview for the Cardinals’ head coaching gig.

“Look, we’re in the middle of a coaching search and don’t know how the timing of this is all going to shake out, but, basically, would you be interested in interviewing if the timing gets pushed back to after Super Bowl?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I would be,’” Gannon said.

Ossenfort self-reported the call to the league.

The conversation resulted in a penalty for the Cardinals, who sent draft pick compensation to the Eagles due to the impermissible contact made by the Arizona GM.

Arizona swapped the No. 66 overall pick in the draft for Philadelphia’s No. 94.

The Eagles selected Illinois safety Sydney Brown with the No. 66 pick, while the Cardinals grabbed Stanford receiver Michael Wilson at No. 94.

The Eagles would go on to lose the Super Bowl to the Chiefs, 38-35.

Gannon’s unit played a major part in the loss in one of the worst Super Bowl defensive performances in NFL history.

The Chiefs scored on every second-half possession to complete the second-largest Super Bowl comeback in league history.

The poor defensive performance mirrors that of the 2018 New England Patriots, who never punted on offense but still lost to Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Similarly, the defensive coordinator was rewarded with a head coaching job a few weeks later.

In that case, it was Matt Patricia heading to the Lions.

Gannon is hoping to have much more success than Patricia, who struggled to a 13-29-1 record in Detroit before being fired after two seasons.

Gannon brought in 15 new coaches, while retaining Jeff Rodgers as the special teams coordinator and assistant head coach.

The Cardinals are in the middle of a roster rebuild, having traded the third overall pick in last week’s NFL draft to the Texans in exchange for a massive haul of draft picks.