Through It All

Things are far from easy for Andy Reid right now, we all know that, he is facing serious problems within his family which have become the focal point of local media. I have not talked about the issues with his sons much up until this point, I see no correlation between how that affects this football team because I know that Reid is a true professional and does everything in his power to not let outside distractions affect his work with this franchise.

But regardless of if it affects his work, Coach Reid is still human and has to be feeling the pressure of all that he is going through at the moment. Not only has he been facing the troubles with his family but things have been far from easy with his team as well.

From the team aspect of things, the coach has been through a lot over these last 9 seasons in Philadelphia. Ranging from on the field issues like losing in the NFC Championship games to the final 2 minutes of the Super Bowl, even going back to the should he or shouldn't he have gone for it on 4th down against the Saints in the divisional playoffs last season. Then as far as personnel goes there was the criticism of letting Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor go, saying goodbye to Jeremiah Trotter, and not re-signing Jeff Garcia. Plus you can't think Philadelphia Eagles controversy without remember two initials, T.O., and that whole ordeal that really had to have tested Andy Reid's durability as a head coach.

Now throughout the majority of those issues, there has been one common factor, only one person who has been with Andy through it all and that is Donovan McNabb. When it all comes down to it, the blame has been shared amongst these two men for the reasons as to why we have not won a Championship yet under this regime. There is a balance of who do you blame, did they call bad plays or was it poor execution? Pretty much any loss will always go back to one of these two guys, the head coach or the Quarterback.

Things don't get any easier when you also take into account the fact that both McNabb and Reid were intertwined with the Terrell Owens mess, McNabb rallied for him to come here while Reid went through with the decision. Then both of them ended up being thrown under the bus by the loud mouthed wide receiver and for a period of time were seen as the bad guys who had "lost the locker room" and "weren't leaders". But when everyone seemed to be turning their backs on such pivotal men of this organization, they supported each other.

More recently we faced the issues with Jeff Garcia and if there was going to be a Quarterback controversy between Garcia and the returning McNabb, that died quickly once the franchise decided not to re-sign Garcia. Then when it seemed like we finally got over the Garcia deal along came Kevin Kolb with the Eagles first pick of the draft and again we faced a few more months of questions and speculation regarding the Quarterback situation.

That issue seems to never disappear, it dies down for a short while but it just takes a little spark for it to be ignited once again. Hopefully McNabb's performance against the Redskins was the beginning of some consistency this season and he won't have to face another week like he did after his horrible game against the Cowboys.

Now what we saw at the end of the Redskins game between McNabb and Reid was not complete elation over a win or celebration that the season is still alive, but a sense of relief. As the seconds were winding down Reid grabbed McNabb for a moment and said something to him, the smile on his face was there, they both were able to take a deep breath, if only for a second.

With the way the season is right now, the competition within the division, those few seconds were really the only chance the team could really be happy about this win. There isn't enough time to dwell on a win or a loss, as serious as things are now, almost as soon as the game clock hits 0:00, the team needs to start focusing on the next opponent.

That common factor that has been there through it all, the combination of Reid and McNabb, is still around. They have supported each other and will continue to do so, as so much is on the line, more than just a season, but their future with this franchise.