The Kansas City Chiefs are heading back to the Super Bowl and one player highlighted a crucial coach who is critical to the team's success.
Kansas City was able to eliminate the Buffalo Bills to secure a spot in its third straight title game, beating Josh Allen and Co. 32-29.
Part of that success came from the Chiefs' stout defense, which put pressure on Allen late in the game, leading to the victory.
On a crucial fourth down, the Chiefs defense ran a blitz that forced Allen to make a desperation throw that fell through the arms of tight end Dalton Kincaid and incomplete.
Speaking to SportsCenter after the game, Chiefs captain Chris Jones pointed to one person in particular as key to the team's success: defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.
Spagnuolo has been floated around NFL circles as a potential person to fill a head coaching vacancy, something Jones doesn't want to happen anytime soon.
Chiefs captain Chris Jones singled out a member of his team for their success
Jones jokingly hopes no one hires defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo as head coach
“Um, as long as they continue to let the spags be our DC and don't hire him as head coach, we'll continue to win man,” Jones told ESPN's Scott Van Pelt.
'For me, he is one of the best assistant coaches to ever coach the game. You look at his resume, he's got one of the best resumes and…he finds a way to shut the guy down, that's what Spags do.
'Whether he's dropping me and covering the tight end or whether he's sending cornerback pressure late in the game, that's what he's known to man.
'He can dial up different schemes and different blitzes to affect an opposing quarterback. And he does a very good job at that.
Spagnuolo, the 65-year-old Massachusetts native, has been coaching soccer since the 1980s.
He is trained at the collegiate level at UMass, Lafayette, UConn, Main, Rutgers, Bowling Green along with two stints in NFL Europe with the Barcelona Dragons and Frankfurt Galaxy. In between those spots, he had a brief stint as a player personnel intern for the Washington Redskins.
The Springfield College alum landed his first NFL coaching job with the Philadelphia Eagles under head coach Andy Reid. He rose from defensive assistant to defensive coach and linebackers coach before moving to NFC East rival giants New York to be their defensive coordinator.
It was with the Giants that Spagnuolo won his first Super Bowl in a colossal upset of the then-undefended New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
Spagnuolo has been a head coach just once in a terrible tenure with the St. Louis Rams
But Spagnuolo reunited with Andy Reid in 2017, which has led to a very successful partnership
After two seasons in New York, he took his first, and so far only, head coaching gig to lead the St. Louis Rams. He struggled with them, posting a 10-38 record in three seasons, including a 1-15 first season and a 2-14 final season.
After that bad patch, Spagnuolo became defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints for one season. He then moved on to the Baltimore Ravens, serving as a defensive assistant, then secondary coach.
He returned to the Giants to be defensive coordinator there for three seasons before being promoted to interim coach when New York cut Ben McAdoo. Spagnuolo went 1-3 in his interim period.
After a season away from the game, Spagnuolo reunited with Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs and the rest is history, with the assistant coach winning three Super Bowl titles.
With only two head coaching vacancies, Spagnuolo is likely to stay with the Chiefs for another year.
There will be a lot to prepare for as the Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles in two weeks in Super Bowl Lix in New Orleans.