Doug Pederson is actually Don Draper’s youngest son from ‘Mad Men’

Once in a great while, a realization jolts you to your core. The truth behind Santa Claus. Subliminal advertising. Dr. Pepper is actually prune soda. Today we delve into the Super Bowl’s greatest hidden secret: Eagles head coach Doug Pederson is actually Don Draper’s youngest son, Gene.

Wikipedia will tell you that Pederson was born in 1968 in Bellingham, Wash. This is a partial truth. Bellingham was indeed the place Pederson was born, but it was more of a re-birth.

Eugene Scott Draper was born in 1963 is Ossining, N.Y. He was a child born from a moment of passion between estranged parents. Tragically his mother passed away when he was very young, and he went to live with his uncle and aunt. As a teenager he had questions about his parents. Ones about his mother, Betty, were easy enough to answer, but his father, Don, not so much. All his aunt and uncle could tell him is that Don was a successful businessman in advertising who moved out west, last they knew he was living on a commune.

Gene runs away from home at age 16. He wants to find his father. Amid Vietnam War protests the young boy goes where he thinks all communes are: The Pacific Northwest. Traveling from town to town with a hitched thumb and stowing away on train cars he finally manages to find his father near the Canadian border, near the town of Bellingham.

Their reunion is difficult. Gene, decimated by years of parental neglect, struggles with the realization of who his father is. Not a powerful man of influence, but a simple farmer, tending to some potatoes with a shaggy beard. The boy lives on the commune, he doesn’t have anywhere else to go. Over a course of months the two finally begin to develop a relationship at Don’s behest, and it’s cemented with a secret few people know about Don Draper. He tells his youngest son Gene who he really is, that his name is Richard Whitman.

Gene, finally coming to terms with background, decides to change his name. “Draper” is a lie, and taking his mother’s name seems inappropriate. Much to Don’s disapproval he follows in his father’s footsteps and says he will be called Douglas Pederson.

Don frequently asks his son, why Douglas Pederson? The boy simply says he likes the name and it sounds official. It wouldn’t be until years later that he learns the truth, it was an anagram all along. Douglas Pederson stood for “Dons Regaled Opus.” His name was a joke about his father’s final work in advertising: The “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” commercial.

Doug spends five years on the commune, tending to the potatoes and learning to make goat cheese before realizing this isn’t the life for him. There’s so much more for him to learn and conquer, and his father pushes him to finish his schooling. Now, age 21, Pederson is behind where he needs to be — but he has those famous Draper genes and still looks like a teenager. He enrolls in nearby Ferndale High School, and tells school officials he’s 16 years old. They believe him. He’s inherited his father’s quick wit and razor-sharp tongue. Pederson starts playing football and dominates on the field thanks to his advanced physique. He goes on to play at Northeast Louisiana University (like Pederson, it underwent a name change and is now called University of Louisiana at Monroe), then for the Miami Dolphins — and the rest, is history.

Don doesn’t live to see his son coach the Eagles, but he’s looking down, and he’s proud. Doug found his commune.