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Friday, November 2, 2007
By KEVIN ROBERTS
Courier-Post Staff
PHILADELPHIA
It was Thursday, Dallas week, and Andy Reid was not there.
All year, this has been the barrier. Reid's family problems have been obvious, and very public. But connecting them to his job as Eagles head coach was always dicey. It was always an inference and it was wildly unfair.
But Thursday was not an inference. Reid attended the sentencing of his sons -- both Garrett and Britt got up to 23 months for unrelated offenses -- and missed practice. That's actual, tangible evidence of family issues getting in the way of the job -- Thursday, Dallas week, and Andy Reid was not there.
The sentencing itself was positively bizarre. Britt, 22, was sentenced on gun and drug charges. Garrett, 24, was sentenced for driving into another motorist's car after doing heroin. Authorities said he'd tried to sneak drugs into jail by hiding 89 pills in his rectum.
You think Reid's mind was on Dallas?
In fairness, this was a scheduled absence -- the sentencing has been on the court docket for some time -- and Reid planned accordingly.
The game plan is in, the assistant coaches had their instructions, and everyone knows by now how to run practice.
The Eagles wanted to paint this as no big deal. Reid revels in having built a sturdy structure here in Eagles land. It is designed to endure and carry on, and losing one cog or missing one person is not supposed to derail it.
But the head coach? Seriously? With his "family in crisis," according to a judge?
This has to be a big deal; it just has to be. The idea that the head coach doesn't really need to be at practice if he plans it right flies in the face of everything we've ever known about coaching in the NFL. It's a job where people routinely sleep in the office and work 21 hours a day, but with a little advance planning you can miss a day?
Really?
Eagles owner Jeff Lurie declined comment.
Everybody else waved off this topic, too -- if slightly less artfully. This is not an insignificant thing; the Eagles are rallying around their coach. Donovan McNabb came out Thursday and defended Reid against accusations that he's distracted by off-field issues.
"It bothers me," McNabb said. "It's an excuse people really should avoid when they talk about this. As far is it being a distraction, we're all human beings. Anything to do with family, I'm sure it's hard to concentrate. But he's handled it great. We can't tell anything, from the outside."
McNabb said the Eagles wanted Reid to view the practice tape and see a business-as-usual practice. He said it felt different, to look back "and not see the big guy," but the flow of the day was largely the same.
"Everybody did their job," Lito Sheppard said. "I'm not saying we didn't miss him, but we didn't need the big boss man looking over you to do your job.
"Nobody really brought it to focus. We went about our meetings the same way we always do. We're focused on the Dallas Cowboys."
Indeed, it's Dallas. It's a huge game that presents the Eagles with a chance to save their season.
"We didn't want to treat the other coaches like a substitute teacher in class and just try to get away with as much as you can," William "Tra" Thomas said. "Everyone focused in on what we have to do. We're all professionals."
L.J. Smith added: "We take our job seriously. We're not out there to clown around for two hours. We can run practice."
That's fine. And indeed, Reid had everyone's support Thursday.
L.J. Smith said unequivocally Reid did the right thing to skip practice and go to the sentencing ("That's more important," Smith said), and he's right. No one is knocking Reid, the father, for being there. This is about Reid, the coach.
We're not talking about what's more important. Reid's parenting is not at issue here in the sports pages. Here, we're concerned with whether Reid can function as Eagles head coach with all this going on.
Reid has always insisted that he could, and he's always gotten the benefit of the doubt. But Thursday was a day you might start to wonder.
Reach Kevin Roberts at kroberts@courierpostonline.com
LINK
Link: Reid's sons view this photo gallery
http://www.courierpostonline.com/ap...o=1101001&Ref=PH&Profile=1006&Params=Itemnr=8
By KEVIN ROBERTS
Courier-Post Staff
PHILADELPHIA
It was Thursday, Dallas week, and Andy Reid was not there.
All year, this has been the barrier. Reid's family problems have been obvious, and very public. But connecting them to his job as Eagles head coach was always dicey. It was always an inference and it was wildly unfair.
But Thursday was not an inference. Reid attended the sentencing of his sons -- both Garrett and Britt got up to 23 months for unrelated offenses -- and missed practice. That's actual, tangible evidence of family issues getting in the way of the job -- Thursday, Dallas week, and Andy Reid was not there.
The sentencing itself was positively bizarre. Britt, 22, was sentenced on gun and drug charges. Garrett, 24, was sentenced for driving into another motorist's car after doing heroin. Authorities said he'd tried to sneak drugs into jail by hiding 89 pills in his rectum.
You think Reid's mind was on Dallas?
In fairness, this was a scheduled absence -- the sentencing has been on the court docket for some time -- and Reid planned accordingly.
The game plan is in, the assistant coaches had their instructions, and everyone knows by now how to run practice.
The Eagles wanted to paint this as no big deal. Reid revels in having built a sturdy structure here in Eagles land. It is designed to endure and carry on, and losing one cog or missing one person is not supposed to derail it.
But the head coach? Seriously? With his "family in crisis," according to a judge?
This has to be a big deal; it just has to be. The idea that the head coach doesn't really need to be at practice if he plans it right flies in the face of everything we've ever known about coaching in the NFL. It's a job where people routinely sleep in the office and work 21 hours a day, but with a little advance planning you can miss a day?
Really?
Eagles owner Jeff Lurie declined comment.
Everybody else waved off this topic, too -- if slightly less artfully. This is not an insignificant thing; the Eagles are rallying around their coach. Donovan McNabb came out Thursday and defended Reid against accusations that he's distracted by off-field issues.
"It bothers me," McNabb said. "It's an excuse people really should avoid when they talk about this. As far is it being a distraction, we're all human beings. Anything to do with family, I'm sure it's hard to concentrate. But he's handled it great. We can't tell anything, from the outside."
McNabb said the Eagles wanted Reid to view the practice tape and see a business-as-usual practice. He said it felt different, to look back "and not see the big guy," but the flow of the day was largely the same.
"Everybody did their job," Lito Sheppard said. "I'm not saying we didn't miss him, but we didn't need the big boss man looking over you to do your job.
"Nobody really brought it to focus. We went about our meetings the same way we always do. We're focused on the Dallas Cowboys."
Indeed, it's Dallas. It's a huge game that presents the Eagles with a chance to save their season.
"We didn't want to treat the other coaches like a substitute teacher in class and just try to get away with as much as you can," William "Tra" Thomas said. "Everyone focused in on what we have to do. We're all professionals."
L.J. Smith added: "We take our job seriously. We're not out there to clown around for two hours. We can run practice."
That's fine. And indeed, Reid had everyone's support Thursday.
L.J. Smith said unequivocally Reid did the right thing to skip practice and go to the sentencing ("That's more important," Smith said), and he's right. No one is knocking Reid, the father, for being there. This is about Reid, the coach.
We're not talking about what's more important. Reid's parenting is not at issue here in the sports pages. Here, we're concerned with whether Reid can function as Eagles head coach with all this going on.
Reid has always insisted that he could, and he's always gotten the benefit of the doubt. But Thursday was a day you might start to wonder.
Reach Kevin Roberts at kroberts@courierpostonline.com
LINK
Link: Reid's sons view this photo gallery
http://www.courierpostonline.com/ap...o=1101001&Ref=PH&Profile=1006&Params=Itemnr=8