Last night was not a dream, Fire The Walrus Nation…
Andy Reid is no longer Head Coach of our Philadelphia Eagles! The Walrus is dead! Our dreams have come true!
Before we move forward, let’s take a moment to look back. We’ve said it before and we’ll repeat it here once again… We weren’t always anti-Andy. He is, in fact, the best Eagles coach of our lifetime. No matter how much we love Buddy Ryan, Andy was by far the most successful coach we’ve ever had.
In 14 years, Andy won 10 playoff games, went to 5 NFC Championship Games and 1 Super Bowl. In the 13 years before Reid – Buddy’s 5, Kotite’s 4 and Ray Rhodes’ 4 years – the Eagles won all of 2 playoff games. Under Andy, the Eagles dominated the NFC for years – albeit, a very weak NFC – won the NFC East 7 times and made the playoffs in 9 of his 14 seasons.
Andy was hugely successful, but also hugely disappointing. The lack of a Lombardi trophy will forever define his tenure with the Eagles, and though it doesn’t change what he did for the franchise, it is a glaring hole on his resume. However, he DID change the culture of this franchise for the better, and for that, we are grateful.
But Andy’s Eagles career should have ended in 2009. The team has simply been running in place for the past three years, as Reid’s effectiveness as a leader ran out (coincidentally) around the same time Jim Johnson left the team with an unfortunately fatal disease(*). Andy kept buying himself time with new QBs – Kolb, then Vick – but his propensity to sign big name free agents (Nnamdi Toastmugha) with even bigger egos (Jason Babin) and pair them with big name assistant coaches (Washburn, Mudd, April) blew up in his face.
(*)And we’ll forever think of those Eagles teams as Johnson’s… Not Andy/McNabb’s.
The successful years of Andy’s reign saw him build the team through the Offensive and Defensive Lines and through the draft. When he moved away from that strategy and completely lost his way with the Defense, it was all over. Reid totally lost his shit, signed Jim Washburn and infamously moved Juan Castillo to Defensive Coordinator. That was his “I’m Keith Hernandez” moment… The moment when his ego superseded all else. That was his ultimate demise.
Hell, even The Devil (Joe Banner) knew it, and tried to push him out last year. But Jeffrey Lurie is a schmuck and his personal relationship with The Walrus blinded him from the truth.
Which brings us to today… The press conference we’ve been waiting YEARS for! It’s absolutely insane that it has taken this long, but it’s finally here and finally real. The Walrus is fired!
Now what? We’ll see…
Does anyone really trust Lurie and Roseman to make the right decision? We sure don’t. Though we do fully expect Lurie to make a brash move and get his franchise back into national headlines… you know, for things other than losing. So expect a big name to come in, rather than a no-name like Reid was in 1999. And that’s unfortunate, because this team needs to be totally rebuilt from the top down. There is no quick fix, and we certainly don’t think a Jon Gruden, Chip Kelly or other “big” name is the way to go.
All we know is this… No more “Time’s yours” or monotone,throat-clearing press conferences. No more lack of accountability and self-blaming “I need to do a better job.” No more wasted timeouts or blown challenges. No more 60 pass attempt games or the same gameplan week after week after week. No more lack of a run game and belief that Linebackers are unnecessary. No more abject stubbornness or “I’m smarter than everyone else” attitude(**). Unfortunately, no more fat jokes… But, most importantly of all, NO MORE WALRUS!
(**)Unless of course Chip Kelly is the guy…
Sure, the Eagles may not be good for a while, but it’s not like they were good in the last few years. What matters is that we will finally see something different. For better or worse, that’s all we want. Something new. Something not Andy.
For all the good he did for our favorite team – and there WAS a lot good – he wore out his welcome LONG ago. This has been a long time coming… And right now, we couldn’t be happier. This was the ONLY way this abysmal, embarrassing season could have ended. At least Lurie was smart enough to recognize that.
Welcome to a new era.
The Walrus. Fired.
Fire The Walrus 