It’s Time For Eagles To Call It Quits With Andy Reid
Twelve years is a long time. When Jeffrey Lurie and Joe Banner tabbed the then Packers quarterbacks coach, Andy Reid to be their head coach in the offseason of 1999, the Eagles and the sporting landscape in Philadelphia had a far different look.
The Birds and Phillies were both still playing at the Vet. The Sixers, led by Allen Iverson and Larry Brown, were on the ascent and were the best hope in the city for a championship. The Flyers’ goaltending duties were split between Ron Hextall and John Vanbiesbrouck. Sixers point guard Jrue Holiday was 7 years old.
Taking it out of the sports realm, Ed “no country for wusses” Rendell was still the Mayor. And Arlen Spector was still a Republican.
It’s really an anomaly in this day and age that a head coach in any sport lasts that long, let alone one who has not won a championship. And on a lot of levels it’s refreshing considering the nomadic lifestyle that is the profession.
But it’s time for a dissolution of this marriage of major domo and organization. Call it irreconcilable differences, call it whatever you want – it’s time to call it quits.
Reid is a very good coach; his record stands by itself. They are perennially good and are almost always in the playoff hunt.
It beats being Cleveland. There’s no debating that.
But is that really the goal? Not sucking? Have we lowered or dumbed-down our standards to the point that not being a doormat is satisfactory? The goal used to be winning a Super Bowl – or at least it was back then, when Reid was brought in.
The Eagles have failed to win a championship in the decade-plus under Reid. We have a quite sufficient body of evidence that should tell us that they cannot/will not take home the Lombardi Trophy under him.
Yet people, specifically fans, have resigned themselves to the fact that Reid is not going anywhere. They are correct; he was given a three-year extension last October. If there is football in 2011 he will be running the show.
But it’s not acceptable. The goal is not to reach the playoffs, it’s to win it. Reid is now 10-9 in the postseason. But his team has been bounced in the first round the last two seasons. The Eagles are 3-4 their last six years in the tournament. Most importantly they are 1-4 in NFC Championship games and 0-1 in the Super Bowl.
This is not 2001 in St. Louis when you could accept a conference title game loss because the Eagles were on the come. They were building steam.
This team, despite the spin that they are young, is flat-lining. Reid in his post-2010 season press conference used the “R” word: “Retool.” It was the kind of word that he would have recoiled from if thrown at him during the regular season.
“Very few teams can retool the way that we retooled and still compete, put yourself in a position to compete for a championship, and we were able to do that,” he said.
That’s a nice, tidy out for a team that was bounced to the tune of 58-14 in their final two games last season – and that was staring at a No. 2 seed this year before losing an inexplicable home game to a dead Minnesota team and a home playoff game to a sixth seed. Can’t blame this one on Donovan McNabb.
He has shown that he is unwilling or unable to adapt. The stubbornness or tunnel vision that has made him successful is also his Achilles’ heel.
Take for example one of Reid’s contemporaries, Bill Belichick. His Patriots teams that won three titles in the early 2000s were run first. Then when he got Randy Moss and they went 18-0 before losing to the Giants in the Super Bowl, they were a down-the-field team. This season he cut ties with Moss and they have become an underneath offense.
That is adaptability. That is not Reid.
So he’ll be back, and the Eagles will be good. And if being a poor man’s Buffalo Bills or Minnesota Vikings of the 1970s is what you’re after, enjoy.
But another season has come and gone without a parade. Twelve years under this regime and 51 without a title has gotten stale.
Comments