Rich Hofmann | Players manage without Reid

IT WAS LIKE any other Thursday, in so many ways. The Eagles were on their practice field, doing whatever it is they do to get ready to play the Dallas Cowboys. It was a warm day, a little breezy, pleasant. Airplanes took off in the distance. A truck driver on Broad Street shouted some encouragement as he peered out of his elevated cab over the screen of arbor vitae. He blew his horn, once, twice, as he waited for the traffic light at Pattison Avenue.

Team owner Jeffrey Lurie and president Joe Banner watched much of practice, as they often do. The team worked in small groups and then in bigger groups, as ever. The kickers stayed for a while, then left for some practice at Lincoln Financial Field. The injured watched and kibitzed. Reporters retold the same, old stories.

That is what Andy Reid missed - not nothing, but not much. Mostly, as cornerback Lito Sheppard said: "Everybody did their job. We don't need Big Boss Man watching over us to do our job."

If Reid were suffering from the flu, it would have merited a paragraph. But it was not the flu, as we all know. Reid was in a Montgomery County courtroom, watching along with his wife, Tammy, as his two sons were sentenced to jail terms for drug and other offenses. It could not have been anything but horrible.

One more time, a troubled family endured a public test. That we all have opinions on the matter is human nature. That none of us has all of the relevant facts is the simple truth. Mostly, we watch in wonder as Andy Reid continues to live a public life.

Yesterday, for the first time in a while, his players talked about it.

Pointedly, in the case of Sheppard: "Even though they're his sons, they're grown up. He can't be holding himself responsible for . . . their actions."

Poignantly, in the case of tight end L.J. Smith: "My momma used to tell me, 'You don't know love until you've had kids.' "

Expansively, in the case of quarterback Donovan McNabb: "It's a lot different when you look back and see the big guy with the faded black shorts, the shirt that you see every day, and the little gray shorts he has on underneath. But we know the situation, and we [team leaders] wanted to be sure everyone understood that being out at practice [without the coach] isn't an opportunity to just be kind of loose and fly around. We have a job to do, and [we need to] make sure we do it with excitement out there.