Spike Eskin: Ripping Up My Team Andy Reid Membership Card
By Spike Eskin
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – I'm an Andy Reid fan. Let's just get that out of the way right up front.
I've written about it, talked about it in the office and on the radio, tweeted about it, podcasted it and argued about it. Though I'm not the president of Team Andy (I think we both know that guy), I've certainly been a vocal member of the squad.
Though I will always defend his accomplishments and coaching ability, I'm hereby tearing up my Team Andy membership card is it pertains to the Philadelphia Eagles.
It's over. This shouldn't continue beyond this season, and I don't believe it will.
Whether the Eagles' poor play this year is due to scheme, personnel, or performance on the field is of no matter to me, because all of those are the responsibility of the coach. He's picking the players, hiring the coaches, and approving or designing the schemes. The loss to the Lions was a failure on every level.
Sometimes you hit that point in a romantic relationship where there is no fixing. You know it because things that you used to let slide, drive you nuts. Leaving clothes on the bathroom floor used to be something you just shook your head at, now it makes you scream. Apologies just make you more angry that it happened in the first place. Change of behavior just means you wait around for things to go bad again.
VOTE: Will Andy Reid finish the season as Eagles coach?
This right here, with Philadelphia, Andy Reid and the Eagles is the football version of that point. Run pass ratio is leaving the clothes on the bathroom floor.
The wins are no longer sweet, and the losses are more brutal. There may be excuses, but they fall on deaf ears.
Andy Reid may be entirely capable of winning a Super Bowl, but it's not going to happen here. He's a nice man, and a good coach, but it's time.
If I were to take a poll of Eagles fans, to ask them if they'd rather lose the game against the Falcons, or win the game against the Falcons, I imagine the majority would vote for a loss, just to get closer to the end of this. The romantic version is hoping she cheats, just so you have a reason to break up.
There is no way Jeff Lurie doesn't feel it too. He may not say it, or do anything about it until the end of the season, but unless there is a magical run to the Super Bowl this year, he will have no choice but to move on from Reid. It's gotten too ugly to ignore.
It's entirely possible, even likely, that we will one day look back on the Reid era and say, "we never knew how good we had it," the same way many are saying about the Donovan McNabb era.
Even though he knew how good McNabb could be, Andy Reid made the decision to move on. Now Lurie must do the same with Reid.
