The Andy Reid Era 7
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Excerpt • Temple University Press The Andy Reid Era 7 t was only a generation, but for many Ea gles fans the span they hired back in 1995. Rhodes was fi red after the Ea gles between the Golden Years and the twenty- fi rst century— went into a tailspin and dropped 19 of their last 24 games. Ithe agonizing wait for another Super Bowl— seemed like a Reid was the quarterbacks coach at Green Bay under Mike lifetime. Holmgren. He never had been an NFL coordinator or a head In many ways, it was. coach at any level. Lurie’s football operations chief, Tom When the Ea gles played in Super Bowl XV in 1981, people Modrak, favored the other fi nalist, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive hadn’t begun to watch DVDs, drive SUVs, or listen to iPods. coordinator Jim Haslett, for the job. The laptop had just been invented, and cell phones cost $3,500. Most teams at the time would only consider hiring a head Postage stamps were 15 cents, and the minimum wage was coach from a major college or someone with experience as an $3.35. Average house hold income for Americans was a little NFL offensive or defensive coordinator. over $19,000, and the prime rate was 21.5 percent, the highest since the Civil War. By the time the Ea gles returned to Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, coaches were carry ing computers instead of clipboards. They were scouting with videotape, challenging the offi cials with instant replay, communicating via satellite, and devising their game plans with the help of digital photography. It cost 37 cents to mail a letter, and the minimum wage was up to $5.15. The average house hold income was a little over $43,000, and the prime rate had dropped to 5.5 percent. For the Ea gles and other National Football League teams, it was an entirely new world revolving around Free Agency, focusing on the Salary Cap, and depending on such medical breakthroughs as orthoscopic surgery and MRIs. Professional football continued to enjoy unpre ce dented popularity. Capacity crowds were commonplace. Each team received $80 million a year from the league’s network TV package. Super Bowl tickets sold for $500 apiece, if you could fi nd one. By the turn of the twenty- fi rst century, the NFL had become the dominant entertainment package, especially in Philadel- phia, where the Ea gles attracted an enormous following and generated an estimated $16.4 million in revenue for the city just from the 2005 NFC Championship game. As team offi cials unveiled their new battle cry during the 2004 season, “ONE Team ONE City ONE Dream,” the value of the Ea gles franchise had skyrocketed from $518 million to $833 million in only two years, according to Forbes magazine. When you consider that Leonard Tose, the own er of the Ea gles’ 1980 Super Bowl team, bought the club for a little over $16 million in 1969, the growth has been astounding. he Andy Reid era began in January of 1999. That’s when TEa gles own er Jeff Lurie and club president Joe Banner Andy Reid is the only coach to lead the Ea gles to the made a bold decision. They selected Reid, a little- known playoffs fi ve years in a row. assistant coach, to succeed Ray Rhodes, the fi rst head coach 196 The New Eagles EncyclopediaExcerpt • Temple University Press “Not only had no one ever hired a position coach; no one, to our knowledge, had even interviewed one,” said Banner to Paul Domowitch of the Philadelphia Daily News. Banner explained that Green Bay general manager Ron Wolf—“maybe the smartest guy in football at the time”— had elected not to hire Reid as the Packers’ head coach after Hol- mgren left for Seattle because that was the conventional wisdom. It turned out to be a great decision for Lurie and Banner—and for Lurie’s first wife, Christina, who helped with the decision. “Jeffrey really, really studies,” Christina told Philadelphia Daily News columnist Rich Hofmann. “He wanted, absolutely, an offensive head coach and the West Coast offense. Having spent time with different people, I think he really had a sense of what Andy was going to bring, and the unbelievable work ethic that Andy brings with him. I’ve never seen anybody as prepared as Andy.” Before hiring Reid, Lurie and Banner carefully analyzed the qualities of every coach that had won two or more Super Bowls in the previous 25 years. They discovered there was nothing consistent about their coaching philosophies, how they ran their offense and defense, or which facet of the game they pre- ferred. But they did discover that every one of the successful coaches had similar qualities. “Every one of them had tremendous leadership skills,” Banner told Nolan Nawrocki of Pro Football Weekly. “Every one of them was extraordinarily detail-or iented. And we iden- tified eight or nine characteristics that we felt were consis- tent with all of these multiple Super Bowl– winning head coaches.” After studying all of these key qualities and reviewing a short list of candidates, “Andy fit phenomenally well,” said Banner. “We really didn’t care about experience at that point, because after we did our study, we didn’t feel like that was a key criterion.” Still the media and the fans were skeptical. The Andy Reid celebrates his first regular- season victory as day he was introduced in January 1999, Reid stood at the head coach, a 13– 10 win over the Dallas Cowboys. podium in front of a jam- packed news conference and repeated what he said in his interview with Ea gles officials. “The thing I told Jeff Lurie was, this is not a quick- fix situa- tion,” Reid explained. “I’m not here to quick- fix the Philadelphia “It was a shock, but that’s how you’ve got to run a team,” Ea gles. I’m here to supply them with a tremendous, solid orga - added defensive tackle Hollis Thomas. “Steve and Bill were ni za tion that is going to win football games. Now, that doesn’t good guys and stuff, but Bill was outspoken and Steve was happen overnight. We didn’t do that in Green Bay. We built. carefree. You’ve got to know there’s one boss, and if you don’t And then, we eventually ended up in the Super Bowl.” like it, there’s no place for you here. There’s no place for rebels Reid was correct. It didn’t happen overnight. without a cause.” The Ea gles won only five of 16 games in Reid’s first year, “Practices got crisper, sharper,” recalled John Harbaugh, 1999, but the rookie head coach made it clear he was in com- who had been retained by Reid after serving as special- teams plete charge. coach under Rhodes. “Meetings went smoother. More people Early in training camp, veteran offensive lineman George started showing up on time.” Hegamin stalked off the field after rookie Doug Brzezinski The other part of the equation was the drafting of Donovan replaced him in the starting unit. Hegamin returned later in McNabb. Again, the Eagles went against popu lar opinion. Most the day, only to be ordered by Reid to push a blocking sled fans, including then- Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell, wanted up and down the football field in the blazing sun in front of the Eagles to use the second overall pick in the 1999 draft on his wide-eyed teammates and media members. Hegamin running back Ricky Williams, the Heisman Trophy winner from was later released, as were other veterans like defensive Texas. But Andy Reid wanted a quarterback to run his offense, tackle Bill Johnson, linebacker William Thomas, and center and he was sold on McNabb, the mobile, strong- armed All Steve Everitt. America from Syracuse. “He [Reid] got rid of lazy players, players he knew would give Reid took his time with McNabb, allowing him to watch the up,” said veteran defensive end Hugh Douglas to Philadelphia first half of the regular season from the sidelines while veteran Daily News sportswriter Marcus Hayes. “It was like he was a Doug Pederson played and lost seven of the first nine games. gang leader. In order to get respect, you’ve got to do things McNabb did not start until Week 10, but once he stepped on from the jump to gain respect.” the field, the team’s future came into focus. The Eagles won Excerpt • Temple University Press The Andy Reid Era 197 their last two games over New En gland and eventual Super etween 2000 and 2004, Johnson’s defense was the stingi- Bowl winner St. Louis, which provided the momentum for the Best in the NFL, allowing fewer than 16 points per game. team to reverse its record the following season, from 5– 11 and During that period, Johnson’s defensive unit led the league last place in 1990 to 11– 5 and a playoff berth in 2000. in sacks, red- zone touchdown percentage, and third- down “The last two games of 1999 were big, sending us into the efficiency. off- season with a couple of wins,” explained Reid. “It was easier In 2001, Johnson’s unit became only the fourth defense in for guys to listen to you with those positives. That’s probably NFL history to go all 16 games without allowing more than 21 where we had our biggest impact as a staff. And it was nice to points. That streak eventually reached 34 straight games, the have a couple of veterans in there saying, ‘Hey, this isn’t a bad second longest (behind Minnesota from 1968 to 1971) ever.