The Andy Reid tree: Many with ties to Eagles coach in the playoffs

by Marcus Hayes

EAGLES OWNER Jeffrey Lurie took a chance a decade ago when he hired Andy Reid, who had barely been a coordinator and had never been a head coach at any level.

But Reid at least had been part of Mike Holmgren's run in Green Bay, cast, it was said, in the Jon Gruden/Steve Mariucci mold.

As Reid and defensive coordinator Jim Johnson compiled their staff in 1999, the eyebrows around the NFL really rose.

Reid hired a quarterbacks coach from run-heavy Wisconsin to eventually nurture a franchise quarterback in the West Coast offense. He hired a safeties coach with no NFL coaching experience, who last coached the Frankfurt Galaxy. He hired a defensive-backs coach with only 2 years of major-college experience and a linebackers coach who had more time as a TV analyst than as a coach.

Reid also retained a special-teams coordinator who was part of the 3-13 club whose futility led to Ray Rhodes' firing.

All of those former assistants now are either head coaches or coordinators for playoff teams this season.

Reid will face that Wisconsin guy, Brad Childress, Sunday afternoon in a wild-card playoff game in Minnesota. He was beaten in November by that special-teams coach, John Harbaugh, a first-year head coach whose Ravens will play in Miami in the first game Sunday.

The one-time Frankfurter, Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, is using his bye week to enjoy head-coach courtship for the second straight postseason. He reportedly is the front-runner for the Jets' vacancy.

And, for the second straight postseason, Reid's original defensive-backs coach, Leslie Frazier, will join Spagnuolo as a hot head-coach candidate, even as Frazier readies his defense in Minnesota for Reid. Passed over last season by Miami and Atlanta, he will interview with the Lions for their opening.

No team is hotter than the one Mr. TV, Ron Rivera, works for. He was promoted from linebackers coach to coordinator at the end of October, and his defense helped the Chargers win four straight and steal the AFC West title from Denver. The Bolts host the Colts tomorrow evening.

"I'm proud. I'm proud of the guys," said Reid, his voice catching in a rare emotional moment. He tried to lighten it: "If you're around long enough . . . "

Hardly.

Reid took plenty of heat when he compiled a staff with such unremarkable pedigrees. He insisted he wasn't limited by a restrictive budget. He shrugged off the whispers that his own, unimposing leadership record led him to hire lesser-known coaches.

Reid simply didn't believe past displays of football genius guaranteed future success. He'd rather have a strong man than a famous one.

"We won a lot of football games with good people," Childress said Wednesday.

"It wasn't that he brought in the best resumés," Harbaugh agreed. "He tried to put together the staff with the best chemistry. The best people."

That's why, in part, Reid retained not only Harbaugh but also three other of Rhodes' assistants, all of whom remain on Reid's staff. Reid, with a Super Bowl ring and, after two seasons, the football operations director title, never bullied.

"That's the heart of the whole thing," Harbaugh said. "With Andy, and Jim, you always felt you had the respect of those men. And they liked you. They never made you feel small. Over time, they built you up."

All of Reid's former assistants cite the duo's preparedness as a template from which they now work. Much is made of Reid's interview with Lurie, how Lurie was bowled over by Reid's blueprint for success as a head coach, compiled over decades as an assistant in a three-ring binder.

Little is made of the nurturing atmosphere Reid and Johnson created.

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