This Sunday, The Kansas City Chiefs will take on the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV in Miami, FL. This is Andy Reid’s second Super Bowl appearance in his twenty-one-year career. While Kansas City fans are ready for the Super Bowl, there is another city that is also ready for the Super Bowl, Philadelphia.
Before Andy Reid became the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999, the Eagles were a miserable franchise, let me explain. The Eagles were a successful franchise under head coach Earle “Greasy” Neale in the late 1940s, winning two NFL titles in 1948, and 1949. The Eagles also won the NFL Championship in 1960 under Buck Shaw over the Green Bay Packers.
Since that time, the Eagles haven’t reached the promised land until Dick Vermeil became the Eagles head coach in 1976. Under Vermeil, the Eagles made an appearance in Super Bowl XV against the Oakland Raiders. Coach Vermeil would retire the first time in 1983, leaving the Eagles without an identity.
While other Philadelphia sports teams like the Flyers, Phillies, and Sixers were successful in their own right during the ’70s and ’80s, the Eagles were on the outside looking in. Marion Campbell took over after Vermeil with no success, and he was fired with one game left of the 1985 season. Also, in 1985, Eagles owner Leonard Tose was forced to sell the team to Norman Braman to pay off more than $25 million in gambling debts.
With Braman at the helm, the Eagles culture began to turn in 1986 when the Eagles hired Buddy Ryan as the head coach. Ryan was known for his 46 defense and helped lead the Bears to win Super Bowl XX. Ryan built a defense that no one could contain. Having guys like Seth Joyner, Clyde Simmons, Jerome Brown, Bryon Evans, Eric Allen, Andre Waters, and others.
His offense consisted of guys like Randall Cunningham, Fred Barnett, Keith Jackson. Ryan led the Eagles to three playoff appearances. Ryan wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and there were plenty of memorable games in Eagles history under Ryan like the “Body Bag Game” against the Redskins on Monday night and the “Bounty Bowl” against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. Ryan was fired after the 1991 season, but his legacy lived on in Philadelphia.
After Ryan was fired, Braman hired Rich Kotite in 1991. Kotite was coaching Buddy Ryan players and brought in Bud Carson, who was the defensive coordinator for the Steelers know as the “Steel Curtain” team in the 1970s. The Eagles made two more playoff appearances in 1991 and 1992, and after that, the Eagles didn’t reach the playoffs again. Braman became an enemy of the Eagles when he refused to resign Buddy Ryan’s players like Reggie White, and Seth Joyner.
He let them go in free agency. It was heartbreaking to watch those guys leave, but at least some of those guys got to win Super Bowl titles on their new teams. The future of the Eagles was bleak with no idea of when the Eagles were going to reach the promised land.
When Jeffrey Lurie bought the Eagles from Braman in 1994, Lurie promised the Eagles fans that the Eagles would win the Super Bowl. Lurie brought in Ray Rhodes as the head coach. The Eagles signed players like Ricky Watters, who had just won the Super Bowl with the 49ers, Rodney Peete, Kevin Turner, and Art Monk. The Eagles drafted Bobby Taylor, Mike Mamula, Barrett Brooks, Greg Jefferson, Chris T. Jones, Dave Barr, Howard Smothers, and Kevin Bouie.
Ray Rhodes led the Eagles to the playoffs with a memorable wild-card win over the Detroit Lions but would lose to the Cowboys. After the 1995 season, the Eagles went to the playoffs one more time under Rhodes the following year but lost 14-0 to the 49ers. There was no hope and Rhodes was fired after the 1998 season.
In 1999, the Eagles hired Andy Reid from the Green Bay Packers. Reid was part of Holmgren’s staff in 1992, and before his hiring was the Quarterbacks coach & assistant head coach for two years under Mike Holmgren, who the Eagles originally wanted to be the head coach, but Holmgren took the Seahawks job.
In Reid’s first year of signing and drafting players, he brought in Charles Johnson, Torrance Small, Doug Peterson while drafting Donavan McNabb, Barry Gardner, Doug Brzezinski, John Welbourn, Na Brown, Cecil Martin. Reid also brought in the best coaches from Brad Childress, Jim Johnson, John Harbaugh, Ron Rivera, Leslie Frazier, among other coaches. In Reid’s first year, the Eagles didn’t make the playoffs.
At the turn of a new century, the Eagles began a run that would be described as magical starting with week one against the Dallas Cowboys in the famous Duce Staley “pickle juice” as the Eagles won 41-14. The Eagles would make the playoffs for the first time since 1996, losing to the New York Giants in the NFC Divisional Round. The following year, the Eagles made it to the NFC Championship game but lost to the St. Louis Rams. It was a run that hasn’t been seen in a long time, the Eagles were going to the playoffs every year.
The Eagles would lose two more NFC title games before finally winning the NFC Championship in 2005 and go to the Super Bowl in Jacksonville. The Eagles would make the NFC title game in 2008. Andy Reid had only missed four playoff appearances in his fourteen-year coaching career with the Eagles.
In Andy’s final years as the Eagles coach, the Eagles were eliminated in the wild-card games in back-to-back seasons in 2009 and 2010. He lost his son Garrett in 2012 while still coaching. It was sad to see him going through this, and a lot of fans were supporting him.
Jeffrey Lurie listened to some of the Eagles fans and the media and fired Reid after the 2012 season when the Eagles went 4-12. A lot of us didn’t want Reid to go, and it was sad to see him go, but it was best for Reid to get a fresh start somewhere else. What he did for the city of Philadelphia was spectacular. Despite not winning a Super Bowl in Philadelphia, he transitioned the Eagles for the better. Something we as fans had never seen before, and we appreciate him to this day.
The Eagles hired Chip Kelly to replace Reid in 2013 and you know how that went. Who did the Eagles turn to for help to find a new head coach after Chip Kelly? Andy Reid. Reid led Lurie and Roseman to hire Doug Peterson. Believe it or not, when the Eagles won the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, Andy played a big part in helping the Eagles win the Super Bowl. He’s played a significant role in mentoring his coaching staff, who have gone on to become head coaches for other teams.
Seeing him happy in Kansas City puts a smile not only on my face but the Eagles fans who still cheer for him. That’s why this Sunday in the Super Bowl, we will be cheering for Andy Reid to get his ring. If he does, not only will Kansas City fans celebrate, but Philadelphia will also celebrate with them.
