BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — As with most NFL coaches John DeFilippo’s road to Super Bowl LII began on a bus.

The coach’s life is a peripatetic one. If you don’t like to pack and unpack choose another profession. DeFilippo was well aware of this long before he first boarded a bus in Harrisonburg, Va., in the spring of 2000, riding for seven hours to the Bronx to study film of the Fordham quarterbacks he would soon be coaching for the princely sum of $5,000 and a dorm room.

Back and forth he rode every other weekend from the campus of James Madison University, where he was about to graduate into a life of constant change. This was the life he’d chosen.

Or did it choose him?

The 39-year-old son of former Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo is today the quarterbacks coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Like coaches, AD’s with big-time aspirations become masters of packing. So it was with Gene and his son, who lived in four states by the time he was 8. As his father was wending his way up the long road to big-time college athletics, his family followed. Often his son was in tow at practices, games and most of all in darkened film rooms. It was in the latter where he found love.

“I love football,’’ DeFilippo said yesterday, the joy of the coach’s life written on his smile. “I love matching wits with the best football coaches in the world. I love the highs, the lows. Going through a two-, three-game losing streak and finding a way out.

“Every day there’s a mental and physical challenge. During the season I don’t sleep much. I go to bed around 2 and I’m up at 4:30 to work out. I love the challenge of getting up every day, telling myself I’m too soft to get out of bed, then doing it. There’s a lot to be said for the challenge of that.”

As challenges go that was nothing compared to the one he faced on Dec. 10. That’s the day the Eagles lost their potential MVP quarterback when Carson Wentz blew out the ACL in his right knee diving for a touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams. Because the score was negated by a holding call, Wentz stayed in four more plays, his final one a 2-yard touchdown pass to Alshon Jeffries that helped produce a 43-35 win that clinched the NFC East title but seemed to end the Eagles season.

The next day DeFilippo’s dad called to see how he was doing. The response he got was what he would expect from a coach’s son turned coach.

“He said, ‘Dad, it’s next man up,’ ” his father recalled. “He said they weren’t feeling sorry for themselves. They had leaders. They were going to get Nick (Foles) ready to play. When I heard that I thought, ‘My son has arrived.’ I didn’t tell him this but I also thought it was a great attitude to have but you just lost a contender for MVP! It was the only attitude you can have as a coach but as a dad you worry.’’

Not to worry, a lifetime of bus rides, dorm rooms and packing crates had prepared his son to prepare Nick Foles. The result is a 4-1 record in which Foles has thrown eight touchdown passes and two interceptions. In the NFC title game two weeks ago, the Eagles blistered the league’s best defense, breaking the hearts of Vikings fans who hoped their team would become the first to host the Super Bowl.

Foles threw three touchdown passes in a 38-7 demolishment of Minnesota and DeFilippo could not have been prouder. But that game is in the rear-view mirror as are the nine places he’s worked since boarding that bus.

“I learned a ton about myself, about adversity, about being an offensive coordinator,” DeFilippo said. “I got three years of experience in one year. It forced me to decide what I believed in. When the next job came, adversity wasn’t new to me.”

After two years as quarterbacks coach of the Oakland Raiders, the staff was fired and DeFilippo was without work. He finally landed a job as “assistant” quarterbacks coach with the New York Jets. It seemed an odd title.

“I was really a glorified quality control guy,” DeFilippo said. “I didn’t know why I was in New York working ungodly hours.”

His father remembers that as the one time he thought his son might take the advice he’d given him as a kid about coaching. He’d hoped he wouldn’t go into it because coaching can be a lonely life.

His son understood but says, “I always hear my dad but I don’t always listen to him. I was very determined to coach. I loved being around football coaches and players. When I was a kid I didn’t just watch the game, I studied it.”

But when he first arrived with the Jets the shining optimism that has always characterized his world view dimmed. He was in his sixth job and unsure where it was leading. It was then that he saw a light burning late in another coach’s office. Soon the two of them began to chat, coach’s sons who had walked the same path.

Mike Pettine was the Jets’ defensive coordinator and the son of a high school coaching legend. They bonded over cigars, Italian food and an obsession with an oblong ball. The following year DeFilippo left for San Jose State to eventually become offensive coordinator, meet his future wife and follow his success there to a return to the Raiders in 2012 for a three-year run. Then the phone rang and it was Pettine, who was now head coach of the Cleveland Browns and looking for an offensive coordinator.

“You never know why you’re at a place,” DeFilippo said. “There was a reason I was with the Jets. I was there to meet Mike Pettine.”

Pettine was impressed with his mind for offense and his disposition and way with players. Those are traits he’s carried into the quarterback room in Philadelphia, where he imposes body language fines as a reminder that a leader’s shoulders cannot slump.

“Our quarterbacks are taught not to exude bad body language,” DeFilippo said. “I tell them everyone is watching. The players are watching you. The coaches are watching you. Ownership is watching you. We want to exude positive.’’

In the 17-plus years since first stepping on that bus in Harrisonburg to get a jump on his career, there has never been a need to fine John DeFilippo for his body language.

“I remember as a kid we’d be watching a game and him saying, ‘Dad I’m going to coach in the NFL one day,’ ” his father said. “There was no discouraging him. If you can find something you love to do that’s a blessing. It’s a good thing to dream.”