Time to Root For Andy Reid to Win Big One

Eagles fans have celebrated a Super Bowl title, now it's their old coach's turn to get one, even though it's with the Kansas City Chiefs

Will Andy Reid finally win the big one?

It is a question the Kansas City Chiefs coach hears quite a bit.

The question in Philadelphia is, though, do Eagles fans want Andy Reid to win the big one?

It’s a question that has been bandied about this week leading up to the Chiefs’ AFC title game against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. It’s been a question that gets dragged out by sports talk radio hosts in Philly most seasons since Reid left the Eagles following the 2012 season and went to Kansas City.

To take the temperature of a city on that second question, I listened to more sports talk radio programming than I usually do, which is usually minimal.

Eagles fans did not disappoint, saying plenty about the man who worked as their football team’s coach for 14 seasons, from 1999 through 2012.

There are some who still do not like the man, and never will. They have their reasons, but I fail to see any good ones.

There seem to be more these past two years in Reid’s corner, some more willing to root for the 61-year-old coach to drag his body and team to the mountaintop.

Why?

Because the Eagles got theirs. They got their Super Bowl title.

Two years ago, they enjoyed a wild and wonderful parade down Broad Street

They don’t seem as bitter about Reid failing to deliver that Super Bowl moment to them.

Fact is, it isn’t easy to make it to a Super Bowl, let alone win one.

Bill Belichick made winning Super Bowls look easy, but it is just not.

The New England Patriots coach with six championships rings has set the bar so high that some of the NFL’s other coaches, the ones who are supposed to be among the upper echelon of the coaching ranks, have had difficulty clearing it.

Sean Payton, of the New Orleans Saints, has won one Super Bowl and that was in 2009. He hasn’t even been back since. Payton has 131 regular season wins and is 8-7 in the postseason. He is 0-1 in NFC title games since winning that Super Bowl.

Mike Tomlin, of the Pittsburgh Steelers, hasn’t won one since 2010. He has won 133 regular season games but is just 8-7 in the playoffs and 0-1 in AFC title games since winning that Super Bowl.

Pete Carroll got the Seahawks to back-to-back Super Bowls, winning in 2014 but losing the following year. He has 133 regular-season victories and is 11-9 in the playoffs.

Mike McCarthy took the Green Bay Packers to four NFC title games in his 13-year run with them and went 1-3, but that one win ended in a Super Bowl back in 2010. He has 125 career wins in the regular season and is 10-8 in the playoffs. McCarthy will try again with the Cowboys after Dallas hired him earlier this month.

Belichick, by the way, has 273 career regular season wins and is 31-11 in the postseason. That is simply unheard of, no matter how one feels about the cheating scandals he has been embroiled in.

Reid has failed miserably at winning championship games, going 1-4 in NFC title games with the Eagles and 0-1 so far with the Chiefs.

He mismanages the game clock and burns through timeouts way too soon, and the Eagles fan base became weary of his colloquialisms such as starting every news conference with, ‘OK, injuries,’ and ‘Time’s yours.’

Reid has suffered enough, and he now has his best opportunity ahead of him to end the misery.

There are no Patriots or Steelers in his way. That is not to belittle what the Titans have achieved, but they are a six seed and the Chiefs are playing at home.

Of course, Reid came up short at home in the final game ever played at Veterans Stadium in 2002 and again in 2003 when the odds were heavily in his favor to beat the Buccaneers, who were supposed to freeze in a cold weather game, and Panthers, who were led by Jake Delhomme who had begun the years as a backup to Rodney Peete, respectively.

Reid has won 207 games in his career, but never the big one.

He won 130 of those games with the Eagles, which is far and away more than any other coach in franchise history, but never the big one.

Reid never won the big one in Philly, but he did, in a roundabout way, help with that Super Bowl triumph since he was part of the decision-making process that brought the Eagles players such as Jason Peters, Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, and Fletcher Cox.

This should be his time, his moment, and Eagles fans should find a way to be happy for him.

After all, they have their Super Bowl now, so why not cheer for the coach who gave them the longest sustained amount of success this franchise has ever known?