Good Andy Reid Anecdote

Posted: June 10th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 28 Comments »

I’ve been going through some old Sporting News’s and trying to see if they’re worth keeping for any reason.  Back when I made sure to keep them, I had no idea that a lot of the key content would be archived on the Internet.  Heck, when I started my TSN collection, there was no Internet for you and me.  I fired up my Vic-20 computer and played Scott Adams Adventure games.

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While going through a TSN issue from 2000, I stumbled on an interesting note.  Reid cut C Steve Everitt after the 1999 season.  There were a lot of rumors apparently that Everitt had poor work habits and was a player teams should be careful about signing.  Mike Martz was considering signing Everitt in the middle of all these rumors.  Reid called Martz and told him that none of this was true and that Everitt had been a solid guy and coachable player.  Reid said the only reason they cut him was to go in another direction (coachspeak for we’re a rebuilding team and want young/cheap players…like Bubba Miller).

Reid had no allegiance to Everitt.  They only spent the 1999 season together.  Steve did start all 16 games.  He was okay, but nothing special and not worth the cost.  Everitt did end up signing with the Rams.  He only played a few games and that was the end of his NFL career.  I don’t know if it was due to injury or he’d just lost “it”.

I think it is impressive that Reid cared enough to call Martz and try to help Everitt out.  Do right by players when you can.  Players talk.  Agents talk.  Coaches quickly build up a reputation.  Andy isn’t universally loved by the fans or media, but players and coaches around the league sure do love the guy.  Think of all the players who return to the Eagles to finish out their careers or to start coaching.  That kind of loyalty isn’t common in today’s NFL.  Even if Big Red never wins a Super Bowl, he can be proud of the relationships he developed.

  • Cliff

    Good lesson for life, really.

  • FalKirk

    Great story.

  • pjxii

    This is why I come here, Tommy. You always seem to find nuggets like this. Good post.

  • http://igglesblitz.com Sam Lynch

    I loved Scott Adams. I still think of Pirate Cove every time I use the term flotsam and jetsam.

  • Flyin

    The only relationships he may regret, are the ones with his family.

  • http://twitter.com/taymgates Taylor

    Great read Andy will always get the dislike from media and fans until he wins a super bowl

    • iskar36

      After 13 seasons without a Super Bowl, is it really unfair to be skeptical of AR? The media may have turned on AR earlier than they should have, but the fact is a coach should be measured by his ability to bring the team a Super Bowl. I’m not completely down on AR, I think he is a good leader, particularly when things are not going well, but since our Super Bowl appearance, I think calling AR a great coach is based more on perception than reality.

      Personally, I think once you appreciate the things AR does to defend his players in front of the media and stories like this one, you certainly begin to like AR, but I have questioned the importance of likeability in a coach for awhile now. There are plenty of coaches who have had success in this league that are disliked (Belichek, Coughlin to name a couple). Certainly, likeability is not a negative quality either, and there are examples of likeable coaches who have had success as well. Still, from the perspective of being a successful coach, the quality of being a likeable coach seems to be sort of an overrated factor.

      • A_T_G

        I’m surprised by the examples. Where do you get the impression that the players on the team don’t like Belichek? Coughlin perhaps, but I don’t think you’d find many in Philly interested in swapping Reid for him.

        • iskar36

          I’ve heard for years Belichek is not a very likeable coach. Admittedly, this is all based on news reports, so behind the scenes, it could be very different, but it seems to be a consensus agreement among the media.

          Here is just the first article that popped up when I typed in most disliked NFL coaches into google.

          http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31751_162-57323170-10391697/poll-coughlin-sparano-most-disliked-nfl-coaches/

          To summarize based on a poll of players, the list is as follows:
          1. Coughlin
          2. Sparano
          3. Belichek
          4. Carroll
          5. Haley
          6. Jim Harbaugh
          7. Ryan
          8. Schwartz

          So obviously a very mixed bag of successful and unsuccessful coaches (which matches my comment of likeability not being a very useful measure of successful coach).

          As for Coughlin, you may be right that fans would not necessarily swap Coughlin out for AR, but in terms of who has had more success, since Coughlin started coaching the Giants, he has more wins (albeit by only a couple of games), and 2 Super Bowls. Right now, I would definitely put Coughlin ahead of AR in terms of who is the better coach.

          • pjxii

            I’m very surprised to see Sparano land the number two spot in that poll. From what I hear out of Mismi radio the Dolphins players were all for Sparano before he got axed.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jakwaggoner Jack Waggoner

    Steve Everitt. Now there’s a guy I haven’t thought of for years.Who was the guy before him.. was that Raleigh McKenzie?

    • TommyLawlor

      Yep. Raleigh was very good for us. Now a scout for his brother Reggie and the Raiders.

  • Westpaceagle

    If no one else is going to post it, here is the bit with Jim Rome. Still pretty funny

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uczUKTwgqeY

    what a smart ass Rome was/is

    • A_T_G

      I am pretty sure Steve was never called Jim or Chris.

  • D3Keith

    I can’t wait until every compliment to Andy — or the Eagles, really — no longer needs to start with “even if he/they never win a Super Bowl.”

    I’ve long thought just one win would make everything else worth it.

    • Eagles4life

      As long as we destroy cowgirls every single year, that’s my SB!

  • eagleizeit

    Thanks Tommy; I really believe AR cares for and respects his players and coaches more than people realize. Maybe that’s part of the reason there’s such good chemistry on the team; him accepting the blame for everything probably helps as well although that ruins his reputation with the media/fans because if someone keeps saying its his fault others at least subconsciously start thinking and believing that anything that goes wrong is 100% AR fault. It’s a very dangerous thing for his job takeing all the blame because when things aren’t perfect he sets himself up to be the one and only clear person for people to attack or blame. The reality is obviously that it’s not all his fault. He’s not the one dropping passes, missing tackles etc. He’s a great teacher, but the reality is he has a very young team with probably half the starters only haveing a year under their belts as an Eagle and everyone on defense learning a new system that seems to still be adding little tweaks with Juan adjusting to being the DC.

    • A_T_G

      It is only dangerous if the decision maker above you is either unable to unstand what you are doing or is unable to display similar leadership characteristics when confronted.

      So far, I have been very happy with the leadership shown by both Reid and Larie ( or Laurie,or Lorie,or whatever).

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GWMNZ32U6YPGGA7N4JNWH4OSJE Mac

        I believe the name you are looking for is Lawry’s.

  • http://www.facebook.com/matthew.verhoog Matthew Verhoog

    Think about how difficult Donovan has been on other teams, You would have thought him to be coach-able and easy to get along with through his time with the eagles.

    • A_T_G

      I think part of that is that Reid got to work with him when he was young, now he is an old dog being shown new tricks. But that is only part. As awkward and difficult as Donovan’s interaction with the media were, things could have been so much worse without Reid. I wonder if Reid found the one QB in that trio who wasn’t a disappointment, or if he made him.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GWMNZ32U6YPGGA7N4JNWH4OSJE Mac

      I have a somewhat unique perspective on this topic, and I find that many die-hard Eagles fans don’t agree with me. My Eagles fandom goes back to the Cunningham/Jackson/White/Brown era. (still believe that is one of the all time great non-SB champion teams). But then fell away from football as the team fell apart. By ’99 I was more interesting in playing in my band and chasing tail than I was watching the Eagles suck. So I wasn’t around for the early Donovan years… But when I came back into the fold and started paying close attention the Donovan that I saw was, shall I say, a top 16 QB. I thought highly of him because of how consistently the team won games, but it seemed obvious that he lacked real QB talent. He couldn’t “lead” receivers, and regularly struck fear into the hearts of worms at the Linc. Off the field, he seemed like some combination of a clown and some guy who is too full of himself. While he may have been an o.k. team leader, I certainly wouldn’t be inclined to say that his intangibles were part of his greatness. I saw him as a guy who tries to do the right thing on and off the field, and for that reason he was high character, but I also saw him as a bit of a diva.

      In my opinion, Donovan’s strong suits were; work ethic, trying to do the right thing, and his athletic abilities. Outside of that, I would say he was a product of coaches working the scheme to cover up his weaknesses both as a leader and as a player. My prediction would be that had he gone to almost any other team he wouldn’t have been as successful as he was under Reid.

      Having said all that. I think Donovan was a good quarterback (for reasons mentioned above), and I’m glad he led the Eagles during the last decade and had what I consider great success.

  • Håkan Sandström

    “Even if Big Red never wins a Super Bowl, he can be proud of the relationships he developed.”

    This is also why we shouldnt fire Andy if he does not win one…

    • iskar36

      I could not disagree with this comment more. Winning a Super Bowl is what matters for a coach. As a person, I have a ton of respect for AR. He should absolutely be proud of the relationships he developed, but unless that leads to Super Bowls (or some other quality of his), he absolutely should be fired if he can’t bring a Super Bowl eventually. And as I pointed out above, it’s certainly questionable if developing relationships as a coach makes a difference in terms of being a successful coach.

      • eagleizeit

        You should look at the Eagles accomplishments over the past 50 yrs for one thing and another is to realize that this team has only 2 starters on D that have been with the Eagles organization for more than 2 yrs(Patterson and Cole) and 2 starters(Celek & Herriman) that have been starters for more than 3 yrs on offense; besides D-Jax who’s only been a starter for 4 yrs. In the AR era and possibly ever since the Eagles have been established have there been so many starters(even the P and Kicker) who have not been on the team for that long at all. Even the most important pos. QB was the 2nd QB for a little while in ’10 b4 becoming a starter and then was the starter in ’11, but due to the lockout this offseason will be his first as the starting QB.
        In the past 50 yrs 37 being prior to AR the Eagles only had 10 yrs of double digit wins with the most being 12 one yr and no PB appearances and I don’t think many if any conf final appearances. In AR 13 yrs we’ve had 8 yrs of double digit wins(most likely 9 after this yr) with the most being 13 one yr but also 2 yrs of haveing 12 one yr going to the SB and I think around 4 times making a conference finals appearance.
        The reality is he’s completely rebuilt the team over the past 3-4 yrs. Even this yr were going to have 2 brand new LB additions as well as possibly someone else starting at the will and a brand new LT. We also have had changes at the DC position the past 3 yrs and AR hasn’t coached that side the ball.
        It’s easy to blame people if you ignore all the changes that have been takeing place in ’09, ’10, ’11 and a little in ’08 and ’12 as well. Even the newest teams don’t don’t have 18 projected starters as well as a kicker punter that have only started between 0 games and 3yrs on their team.

        • iskar36

          I’m not hear to argue if AR has been the best coach in Eagles history. To me, that’s very easily true and I would argue it isn’t even close. But just because he is the best coach in Eagles history, a history that does not include a single Super Bowl win, does not mean he should be given a blank slate and allowed to coach indefinitely without winning a Super Bowl. AR might not even be in the top 10 coaches in the NFL right now. I agree that it isn’t Super Bowl or bust this year, but he needs a fantastic season, one where we are very much in the mix for Super Bowl contention for me to be on board with him coming back next year. After that, he still has to continue to be an elite team and frankly, within probably a 3 year window win a Super Bowl. After some point, you have to acknowledge that he can’t win one, especially when he has been given two opportunities to rebuild a team and 14 years. To me, it is simple. At some point, winning a Super Bowl is all that counts and AR has 0 wins in the Super Bowl. Does that make him a bad coach, absolutely not. But it certainly does mean that at some point you need to get a coach who can accomplish that if AR can’t.