Andy Reid

You don't spend millions on a top-of-the-line running back only to keep him parked in the garage. But do you lighten his load, as Eagles coach Andy Reid said he would do with franchise tailback LeSean McCoy, because of the hefty investment? McCoy played more snaps that any other running back in the NFL last season - and he sat out the finale. Even before McCoy signed a five-year, $45 million extension last week, Reid suggested that he was going to try and limit McCoy's touches.

The door is shut. Behind it, in the office of Derek Boyko, the Eagles' director of media services, sits Andy Reid talking into a speakerphone. On the other end, in some other city, is a collection of reporters, firing questions about the next game. Sometimes there are two or three people on the other end. Often there are a lot more. And Reid, as is his nature, usually provides dry, unrevealing answers. The coach could be a bit more relaxed, given the nature of the weekly Wednesday conference calls.

The office door would close softly behind him. The man who always worked, who never took a break, who essentially lived at the office, was leaving early. Andy Reid had to go see his sons. Every Thursday night for nearly two years, Reid would quickly eat dinner in his office and then put aside his job as the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and drive, sometimes longer than an hour, to a prison. For one son, Reid had to go to three prisons. He was a very successful coach of a very successful franchise in the National Football League.

By William C. Kashatus Andy Reid, who's been with the Philadelphia Eagles for 13 seasons, enjoys the longest tenure of any head coach among the city's professional sports teams. But his inability to win a Super Bowl, an antagonistic relationship with the local media, and the growing disenchantment of Eagles fans suggest that his days are numbered. Whether he can extend his career beyond 2013, when his contract expires, remains to be seen. Still, Reid could learn a few lessons from two legendary coaches, Connie Mack and Joe Paterno.

With this, his Eagles' latest new low, the issue stops being whether Andy Reid should return for a 14th season as head coach. He should not. After blowing a fourth-quarter lead for the fifth time, after falling to 3-6 with a roster full of expensive stars, after letting John Flipping Skelton outplay Michael Vick - after all that, the issue has become whether Reid can give owner Jeff Lurie even the flimsiest pretense for defying reason and bringing...

IN AN ANONYMOUS first-person plural, the Daily News editorial writers recently chose to criticize Andy Reid, albeit "gently. " His silence, the writers argued, was not "golden," they say. I would like to comment on those parents whose children have troubles. And I would like to call them "the Parents in God's First Orchestra. " They are the blessed ones. So often I have seen 24-hour parents toiling and anguishing away about what one waitress once explained to me was "that phone call.

ANDY REID hasn't said much to the press since his overhyped, underproducing Eagles ended the season at .500. But Reid broke his silence (somewhat) to Sixers.com's Matt Cord at the Sixers game Wednesday, answering some pretty unique questions - just not on anything that Eagles fans really wanted to hear. However, if you're an Andy fan, there were some interesting tidbits from Big Red. On the Sixers: "It's great to be here. This is an enjoyable product they are putting out here.

THEY BOOED Andy Reid the first time the Eagles took a lead yesterday. The 69,144 at Lincoln Financial Field booed, I suppose, because they had seen this movie one too many times, knew what was coming next, the way fans of horror flicks do. A sure touchdown had devolved into the worst kind of compromise: A 14-play, 88-yard drive that used almost 9 minutes of the clock provided just a field goal, just a two-point advantage over the New...

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Andy Reid was ticked off yesterday. He dealt with his anger the way any self-respecting despot in command of a totalitarian regime would - he lashed out at the no-good media. There we were at Lehigh, waiting for the Eagles coach to voice what had already been reported by journos across the Delaware Valley a few hours earlier - that an MRI exam had revealed that middle linebacker Stewart Bradley has a torn ACL and he's likely out for the season. Reid refused to discuss Bradley's injury or reveal how long the Eagles expect him to be out of uniform.

Even in war-torn Afghanistan, 7,000 miles from Eagles-obsessed Philadelphia, Andy Reid can't avoid a familiar cheer. The Eagles coach has been traveling with three other NFL coaches, including former assistant Brad Childress, on a USO tour that has spread goodwill to soldiers stationed and fighting overseas. After a one-day delay, induced by a bird of another flock, Reid and his colleagues finally reached the Bagram Air Base in the Parwan province of Afghanistan early Friday morning.

THE LATE Jim Johnson was a sports writer's dream. If you asked him a question, he almost always gave you an honest, unvarnished answer. "I've got to do a better job," and "I need to put my players in better position to make plays" wasn't his style. Johnson wasn't above occasionally using the media to send messages to his players, whether it was tooting the horn of a rookie backup to light a fire under a veteran or suggesting, as he did once about cornerback Lito Sheppard, that the guy couldn't play unless he was completely healthy.

You don't spend millions on a top-of-the-line running back only to keep him parked in the garage. But do you lighten his load, as Eagles coach Andy Reid said he would do with franchise tailback LeSean McCoy, because of the hefty investment? McCoy played more snaps that any other running back in the NFL last season - and he sat out the finale. Even before McCoy signed a five-year, $45 million extension last week, Reid suggested that he was going to try and limit McCoy's touches.

THE FASTEST, niftiest receiver at the Eagles' rookie camp was Demaris Johnson. Johnson, an explosive 5-7, 170, looks like he might be able to run away from anything, and maybe he once thought he could. But there is no running away from security cameras, or from a felony embezzlement charge, the NCAA's all-time all-purpose yards leader (7,796) and kickoff yards leader (3,417) discovered last August, just before his senior season at Tulsa was set to commence. Johnson ended up going undrafted last month.

It's a long way until Sept. 9, but the Eagles' blurry prospects at several positions on defense became more clear after their three-day rookie minicamp. Of all the rookies, Mychal Kendricks is the most likely to be starting when the full squad gathers next Tuesday for the start of organized team activities, otherwise known as "OTAs. " Eagles coach Andy Reid wouldn't hand Kendricks the strong-side linebacker job at the conclusion of camp on Monday. But with Jamar Chaney - Kendricks' main competition - sidelined through the spring following neck surgery in January, the rookie should have an unimpeded path.

ON MONDAY night, Andy Reid switched from football coach to cheerleader. We are, of course, talking figuratively. Don't try to envision Andy in a short skirt with his midriff exposed or you'll burn your corneas and have nightmares for months. Responding to ESPN reports that Donovan McNabb has lost weight and is in shape, Reid said he would recommend the former Eagles quarterback to NFL teams. "I'd tell them to take him," Reid told NFL Total Access. "I still think he can play.

After two decades in the NFL, Andy Reid has seen many changes - it's what he says keeps his job fresh even as he enters his 14th season as Eagles head coach. So as debate swirls around the NFL's increasing restrictions on some hits and the stiff penalties handed out for the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, Reid endorsed the changes meant to make the game safer. He added that league commissioner Roger Goodell got it right when it came to imposing penalties for the Saints' bounties, lending the backing of the NFL's longest-tenured head coach to suspensions and rule changes that still rile some in the game.

THIS EAGLES offseason has largely been about giving Juan Castillo the tools to succeed. If the Birds' 2012 defense blows fourth-quarter leads, can't tackle and frequently looks confused, it won't be because of personnel that doesn't match the scheme, or offseason work lost to a lockout, or a lack of size and talent up the gut. There will be only one person to blame. Well, two, actually - if the defense falters, Castillo probably will lose his job the same day Andy Reid bids farewell, since it was Reid who made the former offensive line coach the defensive coordinator, and Reid who kept him in place after last season's wobbles and stumbles.

The past, present and future came together Saturday for one happy Eagles picture. Brian Dawkins returned to the NovaCare Complex to retire as an Eagle and all the bitterness, at least for this moment, was forgotten. The draft, meanwhile, was coming to its conclusion and for the first time in a long time, Andy Reid's selections were near-unanimously applauded by a fickle fan base. And with that the future is as bright as the Eagles coach's Tommy Bahama Hawaiian shirts.

As patterns go, the one that emerged as the Eagles selected their first three picks of the 2012 NFL draft was pretty obvious. When the front office and coaching staff evaluated what went wrong last season, the conclusion was that the offense gave the ball away too much and the defense stunk. The former can be fixed with better decisions and better luck. The latter can be fixed only with better players. With those three picks in the opening two rounds, the Eagles took a defensive tackle, a linebacker, and a defensive end. "From a coaching standpoint, I'm trying to eliminate any . . . weaknesses the best I can from a defensive standpoint," Andy Reid said.

The Eagles got their man. They got their fans', too. Trading up to the 12th spot, the Eagles drafted Mississippi State defensive tackle Fletcher Cox. To get Cox the Eagles dealt to the Seahawks Seattle a fourth round pick (114 overall) and a sixth round pick (172). The 6-foot-4, 294-pound Cox will join the Eagles' rotation of defensive tackles in the middle of Jim Washburn's line. He's a fierce pass rusher and could be the impact player coach Andy Reid is looking for on defense.