Eagles’ Sirianni on Gainwell: ‘He knows he made a mistake responding back to that person’

On Sunday, the Eagles moved to 7-1 as they defeated the Washington Commanders 38-31 at FedExField.

However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Birds.

In the first half, with Philadelphia trailing 14-3, Eagles running back Kenneth Gainwell had a costly fumble in the red zone. Unfortunately, he compounded that mistake by responding to a DM from a heckling fan on Instagram at halftime; the fan posted the conversation for all to see.

On Monday, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni responded to what happened with Gainwell and the heckler on Instagram.

“As far as the report, y’all saw it,” Sirianni said. “Of course, we talked to Kenny about that. These guys have some time away from us when we get into the locker room where they sit down at their locker. They do whatever is going to take their mind and just calm it.

“This is part of these guys’ lives, is some of that stuff. He’s sitting at the locker. Should he respond to somebody that’s DM’ing him? No, he shouldn’t respond to that guy or that girl at all.

“And so, yes, of course, we talked to him about that, to be locked in and focused and not worried about outside noise. He knows he made a mistake responding back to that person, who I’m assuming is an Eagles’ fan and then took a snapshot and posted it. That’s a whole different set of issues if he’s an Eagles fan. I won’t even get into that. Yeah. I’m done. I’m not even going to say anymore.”

It’s easy to say that Gainwell should not be on his phone at halftime, but it’s a different world; Gainwell is 24 years old, and people his age are on their phones constantly. However, he has to learn there’s no benefit to responding to fans, especially when there is a digital trail.

In the future, hopefully, he won’t fumble in the red zone and respond to fans on social media.