Job may be taking toll on Eagles' Reid

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. - Brad Childress hears it, and he worries. The labored breathing. The constant throat-clearing. The small coughs, as if he just can't get enough air into his lungs.

Those sounds worry Childress much more than the buzz this season from frustrated fans about his longtime friend, Andy Reid, and the Eagles' inconsistent play.

That external noise born of the manic highs and lows of this season, Childress knows, Reid can handle, because he pays little attention to it and, after all, you don't get into the coaching profession without having skin as thick as an elephant's.

But the stress of an erratic season and the nights spent in his office combined with the weight Reid has gained over the dog years that he has spent in Philadelphia? Now that scares the hell out of Childress, because he hears the toll it is taking just about every time he talks to Reid, and he knows.

The Eagles might have sneaked into the playoffs, might even mute the critics with a win at the Metrodome tomorrow over Childress's third-seeded Vikings, but some noises won't go away easily.

"There are two stand-alone factors in heart disease: smoking and obesity," Childress said the other day, sitting in his office at the Minnesota Vikings' practice facility in suburban Minneapolis. "Forget everything else. Your ticker can be good, blood pressure good, but those are separate drags on the spectrum.

"It's amazing the discipline [Reid has] in every other area, but you've got to bend somehow, I guess, and that's it. I hear him breathing through it. I hear the same thing, and it's scary."

Do-or-die game

In 1986, Childress was the offensive coordinator at Northern Arizona in need of an intelligent, savvy, dedicated offensive line coach, and Reid, then at San Francisco State, fit the bill.

Reid, his wife, Tammy, and their two little boys lived behind Childress, his wife and their two young children. The families would barbecue together, and Reid and Childress carpooled to work.