The Reid Tree

by E. James Beale

During the 2008 NFL season, seven head coaches were fired and an eighth, former Seahawks head man Mike Holmgren, stepped down of his own accord. That means a full one-fourth of NFL teams decided that the public face of their franchise — the man whose quotes their fans read on Monday and whose schemes they see enacted the day before — wasn't right for the job.

Not that these decisions were indefensible: The eight teams that are replacing their coaches finished the season a combined 50 games under .500, averaging just over four wins apiece, and in the hyper-scrutinized world of professional sports, fans demand blood for losses. Still, considering that pro football is a zero-sum game — uninformed quarterbacks aside, two teams can't both win a contest — it's hard for a head coach to keep his job. Failure means change, and as the adage goes, "you can't fire the team."  

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This, of course, is great news for assistant coaches trying to land a top job. Firings double as job openings, and when the other shoe drops on Herm Edwards in Kansas City and Tony Dungy hangs it up in Indianapolis, there will have been 10 such openings over the past calendar year. General managers from New York to San Francisco are kicking the tires of up-and-coming assistants in their search for prospective head men. Near the top of most of these wish lists are two defensive coordinators you're probably familiar with: Steve Spagnuolo, whose Giants defense the Eagles will face on Sunday, and Leslie Frazier, whose Vikings defense they managed to out-maneuver last week.

Spagnuolo and Frazier have more in common than a recent enemy. Both are coordinators of top-five defenses, reportedly beloved by their players and still under 50. Talented, charismatic and young — if they want it, they both will be NFL head coaches next year.

There's another similarity, too: Both cut their teeth with the Eagles, under Andy Reid. And, not to take anything away from the successful coordinators, this may be the most significant similarity of all. The Andy Reid Coaching Tree (ARCT) has grown head coaches before, you see, and none of them were among those aforementioned dismissals. In fact, former Reid assistants/current head coaches John Harbaugh of the Ravens and Brad Childress of the Vikes — as well as Chargers defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, Frazier, Spagnuolo and Reid himself — are in charge of a different kind of NFL subset: 2009 playoff teams. Not only are Reid's charges keeping their jobs, they're thriving in them.

What's more, there are no counter-examples to this trend. Not a single Reid product has moved on and flamed out, something that can't be said for the disciples of nearly any other honcho. Bill Walsh spawned Mike Holmgren and George Seifert, but also Dennis Green and Sam Wyche. Bill Parcells can claim Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin, but must also acknowledge Ray Handley and the now-forgotten Chris Palmer. Belichick himself, the coach of the Patriots and man generally regarded as the best strategist in the league, has produced one failed protégé after the next. Two of the aforementioned eight — former Browns coach Romeo Crennel and now ex-Jets head man Eric Mangini — were both from the Belichick line, as is arguably the worst coach in college football, Charlie Weis. 

Meanwhile, Andy Reid gets killed in the media, both locally — every columnist in Philly has called for his head (I'm not exactly excused here) — and nationally, where Fox Sports' Jason Whitlock labeled him the worst coach in the NFL and ESPN's Bill Simmons described him as a coach who "doesn't seem to understand the strengths and weaknesses of his players even remotely." Of course, a lot of these criticisms are valid: Reid is awful with the red flag (he went 0-for-the-season challenging referee calls) and his throw-first, -second and -third strategy is stubborn at best.

Still, the fact that more often than not, the people around Andy Reid turn up on the right side of their battles suggests that there's another side to this. There's more to being an NFL coach than the things we as fans can cavalierly critique (like, say, bad challenges and questionable play calling). There's near-endless behind-the-scenes work. Bringing in smart, competent people and schooling them well are key to creating a winning environment. And in a week when the Eagles are advancing to the divisional round of the playoffs for the seventh time in nine years — a feat no other NFL team can boast — it's worth focusing on the fact that this is where Andy Reid excels. Just because that's harder to see than a 70/30 pass/run ratio doesn't mean it's less important.

Coverage of the Eagles, Birds and Iggles at citypaper.net/sports.