THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
Football families are complicated, even the best of them.
When Brad Childress left Andy Reid's nest to become the Minnesota Vikings' head coach four years ago, he wanted to take Steve Spagnuolo, then the Eagles' linebackers coach, with him. Reid told Childress bluntly, "Get your own [obscenity] guys," because that's what Mike Holmgren had told Reid when Reid left Green Bay to become the Eagles' head coach.
While there is no Belichickian animosity between Reid and any of his coaching offspring - Childress, Baltimore's John Harbaugh, and St. Louis' Spagnuolo are all former aides who have landed head coaching jobs - there is healthy competition. Reid and Childress might talk on the phone once a week, but they still want to beat each other. Last season, Harbaugh told me I should be more supportive of Reid after his Ravens crushed the Eagles, but the victory nonetheless was super sweet to the first-year coach.
That's why these interfamily personnel moves, like the one Tuesday between the Eagles and Rams right before the NFL's trade deadline, always fascinate me. While you don't think Papa Bear would intentionally hoodwink one of his kids - or vice versa - you never know for sure. Family is family, but the game is played to win.
With Stewart Bradley out, Joe Mays buried on the depth chart, Omar Gaither indefinitely sidelined, and Jeremiah Trotter either slow or not yet back to speed (depending on your take), the Eagles desperately needed help at middle linebacker. The Rams are 0-6 and, with Donnie Avery nursing a sore hip, thin at wide receiver. When the Eagles offered rookie Brandon Gibson, a talented wideout who made the team but wasn't going to move past DeSean Jackson, Kevin Curtis, Jeremy Maclin, or Jason Avant, the Rams jumped.
The Eagles sent Gibson and a fifth-round pick to St. Louis in exchange for 29-year-old linebacker Will Witherspoon, who has started 105 games over eight seasons split between Carolina and St. Louis.
This simply could be a win-win for both teams. Although Spagnuolo is a defensive coach who cut his teeth under Jim Johnson, his offensive coordinator is Pat Shurmur, who was the Eagles' quarterbacks coach for the last seven seasons. Shurmur needs weapons, and Reid made a point of saying Tuesday that he thinks Gibson is "going to have a great career in the NFL."
The Eagles needed a middle linebacker, and although Witherspoon has spent this season at outside linebacker and injured his tailbone last week against Jacksonville, a Rams insider said that Witherspoon should help the Eagles. Moving Witherspoon, who has two years left on his contract, also helped St. Louis avoid a potentially sizable salary cap hit next season.
So it could be win-win, or it could be that either coach oversold his player to entice the other to take him. You really don't know.
"This deal makes strange bedfellows," Childress told me in January, right before the Vikings hosted Reid's Eagles in the first round of the playoffs. "All of a sudden, here we are, head-to-head. So while we talk, there's still that competitive thing, whether it's for free agents in the off-season or if I talked bad about my right tackle sometime during the season. We're both mindful.
"Competitively, you know he's always listening, always tracking. So am I. That's just the nature of the beast until we get on the same side sometime."
Which makes you wonder about the trade.
It's not the first one, though. On the first day of the 2006 draft, the Eagles sent Artis Hicks to Minnesota for draft picks. Later that year, the Vikings sent Hank Baskett to the Eagles for Billy McMullen.
However, the Gibson-for-Witherspoon deal was worth more. Time will tell who got the better deal, papa or pupil.
Contact staff writer Ashley Fox
at 215-854-5064 or afox@phillynews.com.
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