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News came down this morning that the Philadelphia Eagles have extended the contract of head coach Andy Reid for three seasons, and already the City of Brotherly Love is split ... again. It happens every year with Reid or Donovan McNabb (in most years, both) with half the town wanting the franchise to build around the coach and star player and the other half wanting the two ridden out of the city on a rail. With Reid specifically, some love him – perhaps not his bristly personality as much as his penchant for fielding competitive teams. Others hate him, because of his terrible clock management or his gruff personality or his inability to run the football. Let's put it this way, there aren't too many in the 'meh' category when it comes to Big Red.↵
Eagles Extend Andy Reid’s Deal, Announce Satisfaction With Being Bridesmaids
↵↵It’s pretty fascinating to watch, really. In 11 seasons for the Eagles, Reid is 105-66-1 and 10-7 in the playoffs including five trips to the NFC title game and one trip to the Super Bowl. Ask the fans in Cincinnati – Littmann, we’re looking at you – if they’d take that record in the last decade or so. What about Oakland, who has gone to a Super Bowl in the same timeframe? Ask fans in Chicago or Carolina or Arizona or, heck, even Tampa Bay who won the Super Bowl in 2003? None of those franchises can come close to the level of continued success Reid has produced in Philadelphia. ↵
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↵Reid has the unenviable task of coaching in Philadelphia, so even though he averages nearly 10 wins a season and has won his division five times and the conference title once, he hasn't really won anything in the eyes of those that bleed green – until, of course, the Lombardi Trophy gets paraded down Broad Street. Always being a bridesmaid is just not good enough for most people in this town, so news of Reid's extension has surely gotten the haters out in force. ↵
↵↵It didn’t help Reid that the Phillies showed the city what a championship feels like – then got back to the World Series again the next year. The pressure is always on the football coach in Philadelphia, but that pressure is even greater when the team across the street keeps shooting banner after banner up the flagpole. ↵
↵↵If the Eagles, or any NFL team for that matter, can be constructed in the hypothetical, the first question would be this: is a team that is consistently competitive over the course of a decade more rewarding to root for than a moribund franchise that has a one or two-year spike and wins a championship? Hasn’t it been better to root for the Eagles in the last, say seven years, than to be a Buccaneers fan? Do St. Louis Rams fans in 2009 care that ten seasons ago they won the Super Bowl? Sure it’s great to have the memories of a championship team, but at what cost? Is six-straight non-winning seasons worth a few glory years to pull out of the back of the closet? Six years? I’d say yes. But is 10 years of failure worth a title? Is 15 years? ↵
↵↵Under Reid, the Eagles will always be competitive and the Eagles will always be in the conversation as NFC elite. ↵
↵↵So maybe it doesn’t matter if they never get to be the bride. At least they’re always in the wedding party, not stuck at a table near the kitchen with work people and that weird uncle of the groom nobody wants to talk with.↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
