Zordich retold that story a few days ago

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said, 'Hey, I'd like to get back in the league,' " Zordich said. He sent it to the old Eagles crew - Rhodes, Thomas, Mike Trgovac, Danny Smith - and, of course, to Jim Johnson, who, upon his arrival, used Zordich as a barometer to gauge the personnel and the climate of the Eagles. Zordich believed it would take at least a year to land even the lowest-level job; "I figured I'd start knocking on doors, putting out feelers, you know." He went to the Senior Bowl, he went to the combine, and he spoke with Reid. "He was really cool. He told me to come to the [offseason] minicamps," Zordich said. "I went to the first one. I didn't want to leave. I said to myself, 'This is cool. This is good stuff. I'm back where I belong.' " Johnson agreed. He allowed Zordich to coach the defensive backs, not just hold a clipboard. He persuaded Zordich to join the staff immediately as a defensive quality-control assistant. That meant missing the senior football season of Alex, his second child, now at the University of Buffalo. It meant missing the final 2 years of Aiden's high school cheerleading career; Aiden now is a senior. It meant leaving his wife back in Ohio. "Ah, she was all for it from the get-go," Zordich said, laughing. "She never wanted me to leave the league." He might never leave it again. Zordich loves the job so much that he invited rookie safety Kurt Coleman to his home after Coleman missed preseason camps because of Ohio State's late dismissal times. Like the other three alumni coaches, he wholly understands how to teach today's player. "A lot of times you have a guy who's trying to coach you who's never played the game. He doesn't understand what it's like. That guy is hard to listen to," said safety Quintin Mikell, who was undrafted - as Zordich would have been, since the ninth round, in which he was selected, no longer exists. "We talk about our similar experiences, I feel a connection there. I look at a guy like that who started at the bottom and worked his way up and kept being very, very productive." Zordich hopes to replicate that rise as a coach. He has a late start - he's 47 - but, he said, "I'd like to be where Andy is one day." Already, he has made the sacrifices he swore he never would make. Zordich recalled how horrified he was one Saturday night at the team hotel when, as a player, he asked downcast linebackers coach Joe Vitt why Vitt was so sad. "I'm missing my son's last high school football game," Vitt said. "What? Why don't you just go?" Zordich said. "We'll be all right here without you for one night." Zordich retold that story a few days ago, and snorted a little laugh. "I told Joe Vitt that, and here I missed Alex's whole senior season," Zordich said. "Ironic, huh