Wow. Looks like somebody had a longer day than I did!

We were all pretending that the Andy Reid family drama wasn’t going to impact the football team, and that despite the distractions, the Birds would have a normal season. (Or at least I was pretending.)

Um, nope.

The Reid boys got sentenced, and the Reid family was skewered by MontCo judge Steven O’Neill. Coach Reid’s house is a “drug emporium”? “There isn’t any structure there that this court can depend on”? 89 pills in Garrett Reid’s rectum?

This is all a big mess for the Reids and the Birds, and it isn’t going away. My questions:

1. Did this judge character need to offer editorial commentary in his decision? It’s not like he doesn’t know who Andy Reid is or that his words would inevitably make headlines. Might he be grandstanding a bit? I’m just sayin’.

2. Will Andy Reid show up for his Friday press conference? I really hope he doesn’t (for his sake). Because there’s no way he can pretend that it’s cool not to answer questions about his kids. Sad but true. Joe Banner needs to run interference.

3. Will Andy Reid finish the season? I used to think that this sort of talk was ridiculous. Now I’m not so sure. He still has three other kids at home. Dude. This is kind of a big deal for your family. You can leave. Let us all cross our fingers and hope the Mornhinweg era is brief but prosperous!

4. How much should the line for the game move? There’s absolutely no way that the Eagles will be adequately prepared for Dallas. Forget it. I tried to talk myself into a “the players will rally around their embattled coach in us-against-the-world fashion and pull one out,” but I think that’s a stretch. I’m pretty worried that they’re going to get destroyed on national television.

5. How much weirder is the sentencing in the context of the fact that the Eagles’ players are among the best behaved in the league? I’ve brought this up before, but this just makes it even more bizarre.

6.  Today wasn’t a surprise for Andy Reid.  That is, he knew this day was coming, and that his kids would get jail time.  He has expensive lawyers, they explained this all to him.  Think that wasn’t messing with Andy Reid’s head?  He’s been dreading this day for the past ten months. 

7.  Jeff Lurie and Joe Banner also should have known this day was coming.  So they definitely had time to concoct a plan for how they would manage this from a PR perspective.  I’m looking forward to watching them work!       

8. Finally, has this scandal now trumped T.O. doing sit-ups in his driveway as the biggest distraction/ media circus of the modern Eagles era? The T.O. thing made for better sound bites, but this is pretty intense. And during the week that T.O. is coming to town no less!

Let’s also add that we feel pretty badly for the Reid family and for these kids. This doesn’t look fun at all. Ugh.

Links:
Reid sons ordered to jail as judge assails family [ESPN]
Rallying around Reid [Philly Inquirer]