Fire Andy Reid? For Who? For What?

Contributor Patrick Kelly (he's Irish) does an excellent job of comparing Andy Reid to Bill Cowher, and calls out the folks calling for Reid's head.  

Listen to the radio in Philadelphia for a minute these days and you’ll hear it over and over again: Fire Reid! Skim an article online you’ll see it repeated ad nauseum in the comments section: Fire Reid! Ask any guy in line at Wawa what he’d like to see the Eagles do in the offseason and he’ll tell you loud and clear: Fire Reid! It’s the battle cry du jour in the City of Brotherly Love. This is often the case at this time of year, after the Eagles season has ended with an all too familiar thud.

After 12 years of coming up too short, Eagles fans seem to have had their fill of Andy Reid’s stewardship. In some ways that’s fair. Andy never seems to improve his weaknesses. But in other ways it’s almost childish entitlement, after all, this year was supposed to be a rebuilding year, a year where the Eagles jettisoned all the veterans and handed the ball over to all their young talent.  But then from out of nowhere Mike Vick, the supposed back-up QB, showed up with a Superman cape and dumpster full of fireworks, makinh us all believe again. And all of a sudden a 10-6 record, a division championship, and a playoff berth became a big disappointment in a year where none of that was even expected in the first place. And so the fans cry out once again, Fire Reid.  But for who? For what?

If you ask Andy Reid’s detractors who they would rather see piloting the Eagles, many would summon the name of Bill Cowher, the former head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and by popular opinion one of the greatest football coaches still alive today. Cowher has been one of the most coveted coaches on the market since he retired from the Steelers in 2007, and many Eagles fans see him as a guy who can finally deliver a championship to this “close but no cigar” franchise.

Cowher earned this reputation by winning exactly one Super Bowl, in his 14th year as the head coach of the Steelers. Before that he, like Andy, was the overrated coach that could never win the big one. He, like Andy, was on the losing side of four Conference Championships and one Super Bowl. But eventually he did win a Super Bowl and transformed himself from the guy the Steelers just wouldn’t give up on, to one of the greatest living NFL coaches. One Super Bowl, it’s all that separates the idiots from the geniuses in the NFL.

Thanks to that Lombardi Trophy, Bill Cowher is widely considered a great football coach, a winner. A man who understands how to win the big one. A brilliant defensive mind who knows the importance of a power running game. A real genius. By contrast, Andy Reid, who has never held that trophy as a head coach, is to his detractors, an idiot who will never win the big game. After 12 years as head coach, they say he is too stubborn, that he doesn’t run the ball enough. That he can’t make in-game adjustments. He can’t manage the clock or challenge calls appropriately. He’s too nice. Too fat. Too Mormon.  But Bill Cowher also went 12+ years without winning a Super Bowl, surely they must’ve said the same type of things about him in Pittsburgh. A quick search reveals that yes, they did.

Here’s a little excerpt from the comments on a blog post from January of 2005, just after the Steelers lost another conference Championship game, 12 months before Cowher would win his only Super Bowl.