Les Bowen: While angry, Lurie to bring back Reid next season

JEFFREY LURIE is mad as heck, and he isn't going to . . . fire his coach.

See what I did there? Fooled you! Just channeling my inner Jeffrey.

The Eagles' chairman spoke to reporters yesterday and said a lot of harsh things he'd never said before in connection with Andy Reid. Called the 8-8 2011 season the most disappointing of Reid's tenure and of Lurie's, which presumably makes it worse than going 3-13 under Ray Rhodes in 1998. Called the first half of the season "ludicrous," "unfathomable" and "unacceptable," sprinkling "disappointing" and "disappointment" into virtually every sentence. "Frustrating" got quite a workout, as well.

Just as the audience started to wonder whether the Reid era really was over, Lurie started talking up the other side of the ledger, reasons why Reid should stay on. Finally, at the 13-minute mark, Lurie said: "You have to have the anger, motivation, dedication, the focus and the talent. My answer to all those questions is yes. That's why I want to see our team coached by Andy Reid and I can't wait to see that team play. I wish that was next week, not next season. There is no doubt in my mind that if our focus is on winning a championship next year, the best coach is Andy."

It seems the franchise's all-time winningest coach is in a spot he has never been in, during his 13 years here - up against the wall, which doesn't have any photos hanging on it of Lurie being presented the Lombardi Trophy. Turns out, if the chairman is to be believed, Reid really does have to do a better job, just as Reid is constantly telling us after losses.

But really, early last offseason Eagles president Joe Banner pretty much said Reid needed to win a Super Bowl this year or next year to get a new contract to replace the one that expires in 2013. So what has really changed?

The tone, maybe. The level of frustration, even exasperation. That's assuming Lurie's angst was genuine, and not crafted and calculated to undercut criticism of announcing he was staying the course, to a fan base suffering from severe Andy Fatigue. It's one thing if Lurie really did, as he said, make it clear to Reid in a face-to-face meeting that missing the playoffs, with all the talent the front office added to last year's 10-6 team, was unacceptable. If he did indeed ask the coach to leaven his protectiveness of his players in news conferences with a little more concern for the paying customers and the questions asked on their behalf. It's another thing if Lurie ended yesterday's session, shook the proffered hands of reporters, then headed off behind closed doors to share a hearty laugh with his coach about the whole business.

We just don't know how much of yesterday to take at face value. Even after 18 seasons, we just don't know Lurie that well. Remember August 2009, and the way Lurie emoted over his organization signing Michael Vick, fresh out of prison for dogfighting? That concern kind of dried up pretty quickly, didn't it? It's almost like when the organization is in a ticklish spot that requires someone to show an empathetic, human face, Lurie takes the stage.

Yesterday, Lurie told us he'd spent the past several weeks talking to people and evaluating what he wanted to do. He emphatically said Banner and general manager Howie Roseman will remain, but Lurie made it sound like it almost came down to a coin flip whether Reid stayed or went. He said whether to bring back defensive coordinator Juan Castillo would be up to Reid, and he implied that Reid might have put Castillo, the former offensive line coach, in an impossible situation early in the season. Lurie seemed to feel Reid, not Castillo, should have known better than to think that transition could go smoothly after a lockout-marred offseason.

"I thought the first half of the season for us - the only word I could use is maybe dismal," Lurie said. "Just unfathomable that we would have the record we [had] . . . Not only was it ludicrous to think that we were gaining ground on Green Bay and New Orleans" - the teams Lurie identified in the preseason as the NFC's best - "but we were losing ground to many other teams in the league. It was terrible."

Lurie, who clearly wanted to convey that he feels the fan base's pain, concluded that "the team clearly gelled and came together in the last month, but that's too late. There are no legitimate excuses in my mind for this team to take that long to gel and to come together."

Lurie opined that "there's a lot to be said for the players coming together and the coaching staff holding this group together in a way that was impressive," but "to hold onto that as the reason to be completely optimistic is, I think, fool's gold."

So, all that said, if there are "no legitimate excuses," and the four-game winning streak that avoided Reid's third losing season was "fool's gold," why stick with Reid?

Lurie cited Reid's habit of bouncing back the next year after his rare playoff misses, but he declared "intangibles" his determining factor.

"I look at the players, No. 1, how do they gel and how do they feel about this coach?" Lurie said. "What I don't look for is the players' coach . . . I want a coach who coaches and coaches hard, and how do the players respond to hard coaching? This group - as some of you know, I'm at practice every day during the season - this was contrary to the 8-8 record, one of the best groups in terms of energy and motivation at practice that I've ever seen . . . In the games, we might have the lead for two or three quarters, but the consistent losing of games in the fourth quarter was bitter for me and bitter for all of us.

"With the coaches, you have to look at the head coach. Does he have the fire in his belly, and does he have what it takes to take a team far into the playoffs and have a shot at the Super Bowl? It's a grueling profession as we all know, and Andy Reid not only has the love of the players and their respect, but he also has the fire in his belly to be the best.

"The third intangible is the view of Andy Reid as far as players around the league and coaches around the league. Do players want to come here and play for Andy? That very intense free-agency period [last summer] was somewhat of an eye-opener in that we would have the choice of players that you wouldn't have dreamed one franchise would have the chance to acquire, and the main reason was that the coach had a reputation around the league as almost always taking a team to the tournament, having a shot at the Super Bowl . . . a coach that doesn't respect the players in a soft way, but in a hard way. Tremendous respect around the league."

Ultimately, Lurie said he was not issuing any ultimatums to Reid about winning the Super Bowl, but that there are no plans to talk about another contract.

So, Andy, time's yours. A year of it, at least.

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