The New Orleans Saints were about the furthest thing you could be from a Super Bowl team this season, firing their head coach halfway through the season on the way to a 5-12 record and a last place finish in the NFC South. However, two former coaches of theirs will be the defensive coordinators in Super Bowl LIX. Vic Fangio is calling defensive plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, and Steve Spagnuolo is his counterpart on the Kansas City Chiefs.
It has been quite a while since either of these coaches worked for the Saints however. Spagnuolo was the defensive coordinator for the 2012 Saints before moving on to become a senior defensive assistant with the Baltimore Ravens in 2013. Fangio you have to go quite a ways further back, as he was with the Saints from 1986 to 1994 as a linebackers coach before he was promoted to defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers from 1995 to 1998.
Technically these two have been in a Super Bowl against each other before as well, as Fangio was a consultant for the Eagles in 2022 when they matched up with the Chiefs for Super Bowl LVII, and Spagnuolo has been the Chiefs defensive coordinator since 2019. However this will be our first chance to see them try to bring the best defense to the field in the biggest game of the year against one another.
