According to multiple reports, Andy Reid will be fired as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. It will be the end of a 14-year marriage between Reid and the Eagles, culminating in a press conference on Monday. Reid finished his tenure as the most decorated coach in Eagles history, with a record of 130-93-1 in the regular season, 10-9 postseason record, 5 trips to the NFC Championship game and a loss in his lone Super Bowl appearance in 2004. Reid came in as a relative unknown, the former quarterbacks coach for Brett Favre in Green Bay, and quickly turned the Eagles into a contender in the NFC. The league's longest tenured head coach will be elsewhere in 2013, but let's take a second to look back at the Reid era and the many ups, downs and head-scratching moments that came along with it.
To dissect Reid's tenure is essentially to break it up into two segments. The first being the 1999-2004 seasons, followed by 2005-2012 (I like to call these the "Dark Years"). During Reid's first six seasons in Philadelphia, the Eagles enjoyed their greatest success in team history, while simultaneously producing some of the most heartbreaking sports moments this city has ever seen. Sure, there were 4 consecutive trips to the NFC title game and a trip to Jacksonville after the 2004 season where the Eagles suffered a loss to the Patriots that's still as agonizing today as it was 8 years ago (Yes, I still have the highlights of that game on my DVR and I watch the 2004 season DVD regularly). We saw Reid draft some of the icons of the franchise, starting with his first selection, Donovan McNabb in 1999 (No. 2 overall). McNabb's place in Eagles' history is a constant debate, with him having been a lightning rod for criticism throughout his career and even after he's retired. From the moment he was drafted, McNabb mixed breathtaking plays (I still remember him shaking Mark Carrier and playing with a broken ankle against Arizona) with bone-headed decisions in critical situations (back-breaking INTs, poor clock management, "I didn't know there were ties in the NFL"), but make no mistake, he was the best quarterback in the history of the franchise and never saw success after he left Reid. He is joined at the hip with Reid in Eagles history, for better or for worse. This Eagles team during that stretch played in an awful NFC East that the Eagles ran through with ease en route to losing two home NFC Championship games in which they were favored. It was both a glorious and painful era for any Eagles fan.
The second half of Reid's tenure was much more tumultuous and saw far less success than the first. It all started with the debacle that was the 2005 season and with the exception of a couple bright spots (2008 title run in particular), this stretch was marred by bad draft picks, poor free agent signings and the departures of some of the franchise's most beloved players. Reid's vanilla press conferences filled with cliche responses helped cause the city to lose their patience with him, his stubborn offensive philosophy and his woeful time management. The '07, '09, '11, '12 seasons all came and went with no playoff wins and no memorable moments.
While this part of Reid's tenure, on the whole, wasn't as successful as the first part, there were some bright spots. We saw him do some of his best coaching in 2006 when Jeff Garcia took over for an injured Donovan McNabb and lead the team on an exciting playoff run. 2008 saw the Eagles sneak into the playoffs on a Week 17 dismantling of the Cowboys (thanks to some help from multiple teams), followed by playoff wins in Minnesota and New York, before another NFC championship letdown in Arizona where the Eagles were favorites (when they blew out Arizona in Philadelphia during the regular season). The 2010 season, while not producing any playoff wins, will forever go down as the year Andy Reid painted his masterpiece and resurrected the career of Michael Vick and we saw him become the most electrifying player in football. Some of Reid's best coaching performances came during these years, but they were mere aberrations, not the norm.
As a life-long Eagles fan and someone who was at the Vet/Linc for most games during the Reid era, I am thankful for that period of Eagles football and it will always be a special time for me, but I can't help but look back and think that we were robbed as fans. I don't blame Reid for everything, and no one should, but he gets a nice chunk of the pie. His reluctance to run the ball when he had an all-pro running back (Westbrook for years and now LeSean McCoy), his clock management late in games is awful in an almost legendary way (the Super Bowl in particular), and ultimately the losses at home in big games will forever be a huge hole in his resume.
The blame game doesn't begin and end with Reid, however. Ownership deserves blame for not spending money in the beginning of Reid's tenure when they were lacking offensive weapons. It wasn't until Ricky Manning exposed the Eagles receivers in the 2003 title game that they went out and acquired a stud receiver in Owens. The three NFC title losses from '01-'03 and the Super Bowl loss in '04 all share the same lasting image, of McNabb throwing interceptions in crucial moments. Reid gets the blame with play-calling and clock-management (McNabb shares in that too, as he never seemed too eager to get plays off down two scores with 4 minutes left in the Super Bowl), but McNabb gets the blame for turning the ball over in big spots with games and legacies on the line. It was the defense that couldn't hold a lead in the '08 title game after the offense rallied in the second half, scoring three touchdowns. While Reid ultimately will get the lion's share of the blame, he is certainly not alone in this.
I have two huge issues with Reid. One being, not so much his play-calling, but his offensive philosophy. I personally don't over-react to the whole "run the ball!!" mantra that most Eagles fans have adopted over the years, as I acknowledge that it's a passing league. But, you have to recognize your personnel and play to your strengths. We witnessed the Packers win the Super Bowl in dominating fashion two years ago and they ran LESS than the Eagles. However, you can do those things when you have Aaron Rodgers, a great receiving core, a solid O-Line and an opportunistic defense. McNabb and Vick, while sometimes spectacular, were never accurate, yet Reid insisted on throwing the ball at an almost unfathomable rate, particularly in short-yardage situations. Reid always found a way to simplify the play-book once his starters (McNabb, Vick) inevitably got hurt and were replaced with less athletic back-ups (Feeley, Kolb, Garcia, Detmer). You saw them run the ball better, less turnovers were made, and the Eagles were in most games (save McMahon in '05 and the entire debacle that was the 2012 season).
The other issue is his ineptitude at evaluating talent, for both his staff and his players. He was blessed to have Jim Johnson run his defense for the majority of his term as head coach. It may single-handedly have been the best decision Reid ever made, hiring Johnson. Following Johnson's death, Andy has whiffed on every coaching hire since. Sean McDermott, Juan Castillo and now Todd Bowles all have proved they are not ready to be defensive coordinator for this team. He brought in big name assistants who brought in their schemes and failed miserably (Jim Washburn, Howard Mudd, Bobby April), and ultimately, that falls on Reid. We saw Reid draft the likes of Brian Westbrook, Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown and also whiff on guys like Freddie Mitchell, Quentin Caver and Jerome McDougle (that list can go on forever). He couldn't have handled the T.O./McNabb soap opera any worse, he couldn't save Shawn Andrews from himself (though I don't know if anyone could have), and he let Asante Samuel go for practically nothing. The last few years in particular have magnified this fatal flaw in Reid's repertoire and the franchise can ill-afford any more failed experiments.
Being an Eagles fan for the last decade and change, has been filled with more ups and downs than I've ever experienced in my short life as a sports fanatic. Reid apologists will quickly point out, "Where were the Eagles before Reid got here?!?", and that's a statement that I agree with, but that doesn't absolve Reid from blame in the years where the Eagles under-achieved. You get no argument from me that Reid was the best coach in Eagles' history and he oversaw the most successful run the franchise has ever seen by far, but I, like most players, are going to remember all the shortcomings rather than the big wins. 2003 will be the year we were embarrassed at home to the Panthers, not the miracle of 4th & 26. 2002 will be remembered as the year Ronde Barber took our hearts, not the year the Eagles won 3 of their last 4 games with AJ Feeley to lock up the number one seed in the NFC. It is impossible for fans to ignore that. THREE TIMES WE LOST THE NFC TITLE GAME AS FAVORITES (TWICE AT HOME)!
The reason the city loved the 2001 76ers so much was because no one saw it coming. When the Sixers played the Lakers in the Finals it was the biggest David vs. Goliath matchup maybe ever in the NBA Finals. They didn't come up short by losing in the Finals, they over-achieved by getting there (and gave us so many memorable games along the way). That team embodied everything the city wants in their athletes, toughness. And no one embodied that more than the team's superstar, Allen Iverson. The 2008 Phillies, who will forever be in Philadelphia sports lore because they actually brought the city a championship when we were so starved for it, saw their popularity soar in part because they were the anti-Eagles. They were an up and coming team that continued to get better and won the whole thing. They weren't the best team on paper, but they were clutch and they delivered when they needed to. The Flyers will forever be a microcosm of the city's personality, even though we're 30 years removed from a Stanley Cup title.
Make no mistake, this city needs a Lombardi Trophy. We are starving for it, and if Reid could have been the one to bring it to us, he would have been canonized on the spot and gone down in history alongside Billy Cunningham, Dallas Green, Charlie Manuel and Fred Shero as guys that brought this city a title and a parade.
As a Philly fan, I am thankful for coach Reid and his contributions to the city and the organization. I am appreciative for having grown up in such an exciting era of Eagles football and I will forever be grateful for it. Perhaps more spectacular is the way he always handled himself, like a gentleman and a pro, even in the face of incredible scrutiny, both on the field and off. The way he handled his children's problems over the years and his son's unfortunate death prior to the 2012 season are admirable and show you the type of man he is and why his players all respect him. But on this final day, coming off an embarrassing loss to the Giants and the conclusion of Reid's worst season as head coach, I can't help but feel upset that we didn't squeeze a little more out of this regime. Maybe, just maybe, one of those years we could have learned from our mistakes and broke through and won a championship. We will wait and see who the Eagles hire and if they are able to take that next step, but the city is ready, and waiting, for the next move. Time's yours, Andy.
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