Reid a standup coach, not a standup comic

LET ME begin by reminding you that I am an unabashed Andy Reid fan. I know the things he doesn't do well - clock management, challenges, in-game adjustments, etc. But I also know what he does well - win. Since 2000, no team in the NFL except the Patriots has made more trips to the playoffs than the Andy Reid-led Birds, or more trips to its conference championship game.

Why does Andy win? For many reasons, but I believe most of all because players play for him with all their hearts. Players from around the league want to come here and play for him for many reasons. He is a patient teacher (e.g., Michael Vick), a fair disciplinarian and an all-around great guy. But I believe the main reason they love him is that never burns them publicly, he always protects them and puts the weight of failure on his shoulders and his alone.

But that very reason is why the fans and the media hate his press conferences. Andy almost never openly places the blame on his players for a loss (exception: David Akers), and he continuously puts all of the blame on himself, stating that all-too-familiar line: "I take responsibility for that. I've got to do a better job putting our players in a position to win." A line we have heard so much over the last 13 years that it infuriates us and frustrates us like nothing else.

In fact, most of us fans think we could recite a post-loss Andy Reid press conference word for word. They're short, snarky, snippy and usually totally uninformative. The highlight of them is usually the famous Reid utterance, "Time's yours." By contrast, his post-win conferences are much longer, much happier and Andy - for Andy - is almost expansive.

But it's the post-loss conferences that drive us crazy. He never answers questions, except to say, "I've got to do a better job there." Much worse, he intimidates the media so much that they accept his answers and they almost never ask tough follow-ups to try to pin him down. A perfect example of this was when Andy was asked why he didn't challenge a key interception by Kelvin Hayden that led to a Falcons TD. A challenge probably would have changed the outcome of the game. A reporter did ask Reid why he didn't challenge and Andy said that he and his coaches just didn't see it. The obvious follow-up would have been, "but weren't your players telling you they saw the ball hit the ground? Why didn't you listen to them?" (They were.) It was never even asked.

Interestingly, at his Monday press conference (which is usually better and a little more expansive because the frustration of losing isn't so fresh) Andy uncharacteristically admitted to making a mistake in giving Mike Kafka a set of very passive, safe plays to call. "I was too conservative. I think it sent a message to our football team . . . not a positive message . . . it's my responsibility to make sure we play reckless, aggressive football and when the head coach doesn't do that, that's not a good sign." Sadly, Andy was expansive and right about that. Who knows what would have happened had he let Kafka run our normal offense?

During my 33-year career as district attorney, mayor, Democratic National Party chairman and governor, I must have held thousands of press conferences. In most ways I was the direct opposite of Andy. I tried to give honest, informative and expansive answers. I felt, as an elected official, I had an obligation to answer questions to let the public know why we did or didn't do something. I believe this obligation existed whether the reporters were asking about something we did well or whether it was about something we had screwed up (happened a few times; not many, though).

But it's not fair to compare me to Andy. I was an elected official who was voted in by the public, and it was my duty to let them know what their government was doing and why. And as much as the fans don't want to admit it, we are not Eagles shareholders and Andy does not have a duty to report to us and answer all of our questions. His duty is to win ballgames and if he believes terse, noninformational answers that don't burn his players publicly will help him win, so be it because it seems to have worked well for him so far.

Would Birds fans rather have a glib, funny coach who gives entertaining press conferences and isn't afraid to call his players mutts (i.e., Mike McCormack) but loses more than half his games, or Andy, who seemingly gets us to the playoffs every year? Case closed! Grin and bear these "Time's yours" extravaganzas. Or, if you're tired of watching them, remember there is always "Godzilla vs. Mothra" showing postgame on the American (Japanese) Movie Channel.