As a parent, you can't help but feel for Queen Griffin-Bowen, Eddie's mother.
Or for Andy Reid.
On Aug. 13, Britt Reid stood before a judge and admitted he had pulled a gun on a man and had drugs in his car.
Ten days later, he was arrested again, allegedly under the influence at 4 in the afternoon.
The victim this time was a shopping cart.
The next time he might not be so lucky.
It could be he.
It could be someone else.
This is everyone's worst nightmare, your children falling apart in front of your eyes and, in his case, in front of the news media. I don't purport to know how he must feel, what he must be thinking, and, God willing, I'll never have to know.
What I don't understand is why, when his son was entering a plea agreement, he was going to an exhibition game in Baltimore - why, when that same son was in jail for another arrest, he was at an exhibition game in Pittsburgh.
At last check, those games don't count.
Donovan McNabb was barely there, spending more time guffawing on the sideline than playing. Surely, the Eagles could have survived had their coach chosen to stay home to be with his son.
Heck, they lost both games with him there.
No, Reid wouldn't have fixed anything had he stayed home. What is going on with Garrett and Britt Reid isn't their father's fault. Garrett Reid, 24, has pleaded guilty to DUI charges arising from a crash on the same January day as his brother got into trouble and awaits sentening.
Garrett is 24, Britt 22, adults fully schooled in what is right and wrong, legal and illegal.
They are, however, his responsibility, and they need his help more than Omar Gaither does. If that help consists of driving them to rehab and making sure they stay, of locking the doors to the house and throwing away the car keys, or of just being in the house all day, every day - if that's what it takes, they need it.
