By bringing back Reid, Lurie proves he doesn’t care about winning Super Bowl
Deep down inside, anyone who has been in an unhealthy relationship knows when it’s time to let go.
But you ignore the warning signs. You run away from the issues. When the pain becomes unbearable you remember the good times, lean on people who tell you what you want to hear, disregard reality and convince yourself it can work if you just give it a little more time.
You do what Eagles chairman Jeffrey Lurie did Tuesday with head coach Andy Reid. You give it another try. And 99.9 percent of the time you wake up a couple of weeks, months or years later with the same issues but a lot more wrinkles. You wonder why in the hell you didn’t move on when you knew it wasn’t good for either of you. You beat yourself up for wasting time.
Andy Reid is a good football coach. No Eagles head coach has won more games. He almost won a Super Bowl in 2004. Repeat, almost.
Lurie hasn’t forgotten that was eight years ago. He’s ignoring it.
Lurie is ignoring how it’s been a chore for Reid to make the playoffs. Think about it. Reid has missed the tournament in three of the last seven years after reaching it five straight years. Moreover after winning at least one game in his first seven trips to the playoffs, Reid hasn’t won at all in his last two trips.
Lurie disregarded those red flags. More recently he gave Reid a pass for the faulty judgment that this lockout year would be a time to convert offensive line coach Juan Castillo to defensive coordinator and in- stall new schemes on the offensive and defensive lines.
Worst of all, Lurie ignored the Eagles’ 4-8 start this year in which fourth-quarter leads were blown, quarterback Michael Vick was out of control, the defense totally disregarded its obligation to stop the run and the hometown crowd chanted, yes chanted for Andy Reid to be fired.
Ignored it all, along with his best judgment.
“Looking back on the Dallas game in particular and looking back on a few others in the middle of the season, you just thought that maybe the team had gotten it together early enough and now the team would play ball the way we originally expected,” Lurie said. “That didn’t happen. It happened in different football games but there was no sustainment of that excellence whatsoever.”
Lurie didn’t leave himself an exit strategy. And because of that he hung on to Andy Reid and blew a golden opportunity to move on, to dig out of the hole that’s been deepening. Lurie blew an excellent opportunity to take a shot at winning a Super Bowl in a wide-open era where even the Green Bay Packers are vulnerable.
The Eagles are going to the playoffs this year barring se- rious injuries. There is too much talent to falter a second straight year.
If the history used to justify another year for Reid is on point, don’t expect him to win a Super Bowl next season.
At the end of the day, the Eagles will be exactly where they’ve been with the sun setting on the Philly phase of Reid’s career — in and quickly out of the playoffs.
I’m not saying a new head coach would win a Super Bowl for the Eagles this season but that there would be a better chance of getting there with a fresh approach.
If a coach doesn’t win a Super Bowl in his first five years as head coach of a team, he usually doesn’t. Reid is all in for his 14th year.
The current Eagles realize they can win. What they need to understand is they’d be better off without Reid, and he without them.
Give Lurie a pass this year. He had no idea Reid could flop so colossally with such a talented group.
After 2012 there will be no questions about Lurie’s real interest in winning a Super Bowl. You’ll know the chairman doesn’t care if Reid fails to get the Eagles to New Orleans and is rewarded with a contract extension.