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Reid getting a pass from the media
Jason Whitlock
It's time for Andy Reid to forget about the Eagles and focus on his family.
FOXSports.com, Updated 20 hours ago
An absentee father, a mother at home with five kids, two boys with guns and drugs scattered throughout the house and a cranky, mouthy judge at sentencing time.
You've heard this ghetto tale a thousand times. Only this time, we're not talking about boyz 'n the hood or menaces II society, and it didn't transpire in sugar hill or some new jack city.
We're talking about an American Wanksta: The life and times of Andy Reid's boyz.
What's interesting and enlightening is examining the fallout and reaction to the Reid's family crisis. As best as I can tell, there's a lot of compassion and understanding coming from the mainstream media and a lot of judicial/investigative restraint being exercised by the courts and the police.
For the most part, everyone is conducting themselves in the proper fashion.
Britt Reid, a drug addict who pulled a gun on a motorist, was sentenced to 8-23 months and can apply for a special drug-counseling program in five months. Garrett Reid, a drug addict and dealer, was sentenced to 2-23 months and will apply for a special drug-counseling program.
Before I go further, let me repeat that the authorities have treated the Reids appropriately, including the judge who put the Reids on blast, comparing their home to a "drug emporium."
But I do want to spell out how this would have been handled differently by the authorities and interpreted differently by the media and the public had this been your typical ghetto tale involving poor black, brown or white people or black and brown people of any income level.
No one — and I mean no one — would believe these boys could be using, dealing and housing drugs and guns without the knowledge of their parents. I don't care how big the house is, parents know what's going on. My mother could be dead asleep in her bedroom, worn out from working overtime, and tell me exactly what I was doing in the living room.
Only the uninformed, butt-kissing media members or delusional Eagles fans believe any of this transpired without Andy and Tammy Reid knowing. The judge didn't buy it. That's why he was critical. I credit the judge for talking to the Reids the same way he would D'Angelo Barksdale's mama, Brianna (the final season of The Wire starts in January).
If this was a ghetto tale, police would look at Tammy Reid the same as Brianna Barksdale, as a silent co-conspirator or possible user. Garrett Reid would have to squeal on his suppliers or participate in a sting. He certainly wouldn't be viewed as salvageable. He'd be seen as a tool to make a bigger case.
Garrett Reid's admittance that he's a drug dealer and the fact that large quantities of drugs and weapons were found at the Reid home would make their house subject to seizure by the state. The Reids would be targets, not victims.
But let me tell you what's most troubling about all of this: Andy Reid's cowardice and the fact that we're letting him get away with it.
We, the media, particularly black members of the media, are always crying when athletes won't speak out on important issues. We want 22-year-old LeBron James to have a position on Darfur, a place he's probably never been. We scolded Michael Jordan for not having a social conscience. We're mad Tiger Woods won't lend his name to the plight of six black cowards who stomped and kicked one white boy in Louisiana.
But white sports figures aren't required to have a social conscience. They can satisfy themselves chasing supermodels and filming cute commercials.
America's morally bankrupt war on drugs, a cause that has killed and destroyed more lives than Vietnam and Iraq combined, has finally put Andy Reid's kids on the front lines (incarceration), and Andy Reid doesn't have a damn meaningful thing to say about it.
That's unacceptable. It's cowardly.
Andy Reid knows my pain, and he's too worried about a freaking football game to verbalize it. He could make Middle America and the power structure understand the helplessness and the pain you feel when people you love get caught up in America's political ploy called a "war on drugs."
Yeah, Andy has the money and clout to make sure his kids get treated with a little bit of compassion. He needs to spend time talking with his boys and let them inform him how the poor get run over by the system and institutionalized. He needs to talk with Garrett Reid about how kids, especially kids with fathers who spend too much time away from their families, get swept up in pop culture's glorification of drug dealers and criminals. "I liked being the rich kid in that area and having my own high-status life," Garrett Reid told a probation officer, according to reporters covering his court proceedings. "I could go anywhere in the 'hood. They all knew who I was. I enjoyed it. I liked being a drug dealer ... These kids were scared of me. I was even selling to their parents."
It's shameful that Andy Reid is still coaching the Eagles. With his acquired wealth and impeccable coaching reputation, he could step away from football for two or three years, focus on his family and walk right back into a top coaching job. Hmm. Maybe tales from the neighborhood are just as dysfunctional as tales from the 'hood.
It's time for Andy Reid to forget about the Eagles and focus on his family.
FOXSports.com, Updated 20 hours ago
An absentee father, a mother at home with five kids, two boys with guns and drugs scattered throughout the house and a cranky, mouthy judge at sentencing time.
You've heard this ghetto tale a thousand times. Only this time, we're not talking about boyz 'n the hood or menaces II society, and it didn't transpire in sugar hill or some new jack city.
We're talking about an American Wanksta: The life and times of Andy Reid's boyz.
What's interesting and enlightening is examining the fallout and reaction to the Reid's family crisis. As best as I can tell, there's a lot of compassion and understanding coming from the mainstream media and a lot of judicial/investigative restraint being exercised by the courts and the police.
For the most part, everyone is conducting themselves in the proper fashion.
Britt Reid, a drug addict who pulled a gun on a motorist, was sentenced to 8-23 months and can apply for a special drug-counseling program in five months. Garrett Reid, a drug addict and dealer, was sentenced to 2-23 months and will apply for a special drug-counseling program.
Before I go further, let me repeat that the authorities have treated the Reids appropriately, including the judge who put the Reids on blast, comparing their home to a "drug emporium."
But I do want to spell out how this would have been handled differently by the authorities and interpreted differently by the media and the public had this been your typical ghetto tale involving poor black, brown or white people or black and brown people of any income level.
No one — and I mean no one — would believe these boys could be using, dealing and housing drugs and guns without the knowledge of their parents. I don't care how big the house is, parents know what's going on. My mother could be dead asleep in her bedroom, worn out from working overtime, and tell me exactly what I was doing in the living room.
Only the uninformed, butt-kissing media members or delusional Eagles fans believe any of this transpired without Andy and Tammy Reid knowing. The judge didn't buy it. That's why he was critical. I credit the judge for talking to the Reids the same way he would D'Angelo Barksdale's mama, Brianna (the final season of The Wire starts in January).
If this was a ghetto tale, police would look at Tammy Reid the same as Brianna Barksdale, as a silent co-conspirator or possible user. Garrett Reid would have to squeal on his suppliers or participate in a sting. He certainly wouldn't be viewed as salvageable. He'd be seen as a tool to make a bigger case.
Garrett Reid's admittance that he's a drug dealer and the fact that large quantities of drugs and weapons were found at the Reid home would make their house subject to seizure by the state. The Reids would be targets, not victims.
But let me tell you what's most troubling about all of this: Andy Reid's cowardice and the fact that we're letting him get away with it.
We, the media, particularly black members of the media, are always crying when athletes won't speak out on important issues. We want 22-year-old LeBron James to have a position on Darfur, a place he's probably never been. We scolded Michael Jordan for not having a social conscience. We're mad Tiger Woods won't lend his name to the plight of six black cowards who stomped and kicked one white boy in Louisiana.
But white sports figures aren't required to have a social conscience. They can satisfy themselves chasing supermodels and filming cute commercials.
America's morally bankrupt war on drugs, a cause that has killed and destroyed more lives than Vietnam and Iraq combined, has finally put Andy Reid's kids on the front lines (incarceration), and Andy Reid doesn't have a damn meaningful thing to say about it.
That's unacceptable. It's cowardly.
Andy Reid knows my pain, and he's too worried about a freaking football game to verbalize it. He could make Middle America and the power structure understand the helplessness and the pain you feel when people you love get caught up in America's political ploy called a "war on drugs."
Yeah, Andy has the money and clout to make sure his kids get treated with a little bit of compassion. He needs to spend time talking with his boys and let them inform him how the poor get run over by the system and institutionalized. He needs to talk with Garrett Reid about how kids, especially kids with fathers who spend too much time away from their families, get swept up in pop culture's glorification of drug dealers and criminals. "I liked being the rich kid in that area and having my own high-status life," Garrett Reid told a probation officer, according to reporters covering his court proceedings. "I could go anywhere in the 'hood. They all knew who I was. I enjoyed it. I liked being a drug dealer ... These kids were scared of me. I was even selling to their parents."
It's shameful that Andy Reid is still coaching the Eagles. With his acquired wealth and impeccable coaching reputation, he could step away from football for two or three years, focus on his family and walk right back into a top coaching job. Hmm. Maybe tales from the neighborhood are just as dysfunctional as tales from the 'hood.
