Steve Spagnuolo's 'Super power': What is the secret to his success in the biggest moments?

Steve Spagnuolo kicked off the first practice of his month-long tenure as head coach of the New York Giants with the perfect song choice that still describes his NFL coaching career to this day.

This was six years and one month ago and Spagnuolo went out of his way to set the mood.

His father used to play Frank Sinatra every Sunday morning when the Spagnuolo family returned from church to their Massachusetts home. So when "That's Life" blared from the speakers as the team hit the practice fields behind 1925 Giants Drive, there was no mystery regarding the statement the coach was trying to send.

"Fitting choice of song, too, right?" Spagnuolo shared with me as he walked away from his first news conference as interim head coach later that day. "Get knocked down, get back up - that's the name of the game and a pretty good message."

Now 64 years old and set to lead the Kansas City Chiefs into their fourth Super Bowl in five years as defensive coordinator, Spagnuolo certainly remains a man who knows a thing or two about being up and down and over and out, flat on his coaching face.

It's safe to say no one questions Spagnuolo's ability to pick himself up and get back in the race anymore.

Chiefs players celebrated Sunday's AFC Championship Game triumph over the Baltimore Ravens by wearing "In Spags We Trust" t-shirts in the victorious locker room. Now Spagnuolo has the opportunity to become the first four-time Super Bowl-winning coordinator on either side of the ball when Kansas City meets the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas on Feb. 11.

Just consider this from Patrick Mahomes, who watches with admiration from the other side of the ball: “And Spags - it seems like when the games get bigger, when the challenges get higher, he performs even better."

Spagnuolo was famously the coordinator of the Giants' championship defense in the 2007 season en route to their stunning Super Bowl XLII triumph over the previously-undefeated New England Patriots. He left Tom Coughlin's staff after the 2008 season for the head coaching job with the Rams in St. Louis, but the experience did not go well - Spagnuolo was fired after three seasons with a 10-38 record.

He has been on the coaching roller coaster in the years since, from a failure as coordinator for Sean Payton in New Orleans to success in Baltimore in an advisory capacity, back to the Giants where his defense went from bad to great to underachieving, leading to another year away from the game in 2018 before old friend and mentor Andy Reid brought Spagnuolo to Kansas City as Bob Sutton's successor at DC.

The rest is history and Spagnuolo is now on the verge of making some of his own.

Spagnuolo changed the dynamics of the Kansas City defense from the moment he got there, and he also did so by shattering the myth that his units could only win one way.

"You notice how his defense in Kansas City, other than some subtle wrinkles, doesn't look anything like ours did," two-time Super Bowl champion and Giants Ring of Honoree Justin Tuck told NorthJersey.com in a 2021 interview. "That's a credit to Spags. Just look what he's done there. They don't beat you because of [Michael] Strahan, Osi [Umenyiora], Tuck - they beat you in different ways. Not that he's reinvented himself, but Spags opened his playbook and showed just how good of a defensive mind he really is. He’s one of those coaches, there are certain attributes about him you can’t replace."

There was a time not long ago that Spagnuolo believed he would never coach for anyone other than the Giants. Then the 2017 season happened, and when the dust from that Big Blue debacle settled, Spagnuolo was out of a job, having parted ways with the franchise despite interviewing for the head coaching position that went to Pat Shurmur on the heels of Ben McAdoo's stunning exit.

The Giants finished 3-13, the first time in team history they lost that many games in a single season, and Spagnuolo was tabbed by Giants ownership as interim head coach for the final four games following McAdoo's Dec. 4 firing.

The Giants are on their third head coach since with Brian Daboll seeking a rebound heading into Year 3, while Spagnuolo has again cemented his reputation as one of the game's brightest defensive minds with the Chiefs within a victory of capturing their third Vince Lombardi trophy since he rejoined Reid in KC.

The personable Spagnuolo has an endearing quality about him that goes beyond his undeniable football intellect: a way to connect to people beyond the game. He's got a New England charm – that accent has not left him, either - and an appreciation for where some of his defenses fall in the history of the game, especially what he was able to do with the Giants and now the Chiefs.

Spagnuolo still has a love for Philadelphia, where he got his first NFL break joining Reid's staff and learning at the hip of defensive genius Jim Johnson. It's in that city where he met his wife, Maria, whose banana pudding and Italian cooking has motivated and fattened up many an NFL defensive meeting room through the years.

But the Spagnuolos also refuse to leave behind their affinity for New Jersey. They still spend part of their summers in a home they own on the Jersey Shore in Avalon, and there remains a tremendous sense of community pride for the former Giants coach who helped engineer one of the greatest upsets in NFL history against arguably the best quarterback and coach to ever do it in the sport.

“That’s Spags’ super power: he gets players to believe in themselves and deliver in the biggest moments,” former Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn, now the Rams' special teams coordinator, told NorthJersey.com by phone this week. "Just look at what his defenses have done on the big stage."

Those 18-1 Patriots were the highest-scoring team in NFL history at the time. Brady threw 50 touchdowns and Randy Moss caught 23 touchdowns, with the former laughing when the Giants' Plaxico Burress predicted Big Blue would hold New England to 17 points.

Spagnuolo's defense held them to 14.

"You think about what Spags does, he plays to his players' strengths," former Giants defensive end Dave Tollefson told NorthJersey.com this week. "Everybody wants to talk about the system, the system, and yeah, Spags brought with him Jim Johnson's system. But the secret is how Spags tweaks his system to the personnel he has, time and again. How do you think the NASCAR package came about?"

A career-defining moment happened for Spagnuolo and the Giants in Week 3 of the 2007 season. He sent four defensive ends onto the field at the same time in obvious passing situations. The "NASCAR package" had Strahan and Umenyiora on the edges, while Mathias Kiwanuka and Tuck rushed the quarterback from the interior as defensive tackles or stand-up linebackers teasing A-gap blitzes.

Four months later, the Giants' "NASCAR" package gave the Patriots and their legendary QB nightmares.

The Chiefs did the same to Lamar Jackson and the Ravens last Sunday, even if the game plans have evolved over time.

"He’s not afraid to change," Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton said of Spagnuolo. "He has one of his sayings that he likes to say a lot, ‘It’s not about who’s right; it’s about getting it right.'"

Added Chiefs defensive lineman Mike Danna: "In Spags we trust, man.”

For the Chiefs, and the Giants before them, it's not just a mission statement.

With Steve Spagnuolo running the defense, that's life.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Steve Spagnuolo leading Chiefs to Super Bowl with 'super power;