Fathers and Sons: Reid Family Drama

For once, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid's biggest problem isn't clock management or his inability to call a running play on third and short. No, his biggest problem is the recklessness of his two oldest sons, Garrett and Britt, who got arrested on the same day over the offseason.

Naturally, Big Red's parenting skills were immediately brought into question, despite his reputation as a man of faith and discipline; it's hard to believe that he would have held Garrett and Britt to more lenient standards than the 53 men he parents on any given Sunday. Naturally, the same tenacity and work ethic that led to his success and subsequent acclaim as the winningest head coach in Iggles franchise history suddenly became viewed as liabilities relative to his role as the head of an American family. Naturally, Andy Reid spent the spring and summer under a cloud.

But whatever happened to free will? At last check, not only were these young men old enough to drive, they were flat out grown. That they were arrested on the same day seems like an awfully eerie coincidence. And then there are the goings-on of the last week, when Britt was arrested for driving under the influence and drug possession, resulting from an incident in the parking lot at a sporting goods store. A couple of days later, Garrett was placed under house arrest for failing a drug test.

'Tis pity that a child's failings unfairly get a parent labeled as a fuck-up, even when it's clear that the parent in question did their best to put the child in a position to succeed. Timing is everything, so certainly the relatively recent suicide of Tony Dungy's son doesn't help. America loves a good tipping point, even if two NFL coaching families do not make for a truly representative data set.

If Coach Reid were an average American parent, he probably wouldn't have gotten any ink for this, because the average American family has at least one problem child for at least a brief period of time, and sometimes forever. This happens even when the child finds him/herself within a loving, disciplined family structure-- especially when the child finds him/herself within a loving, disciplined family structure.

Many of us have seen it up close. It sometimes makes me fearful of starting a family of my own. If this is what's going to happen, why try? I can't imagine what's in the big guy's head and heart right now, but I know I'd probably consider going the route of Marvin Gaye Sr. or Ossie Davis' character from Jungle Fever. Garrett and Britt are behaving like snot-nosed, ungrateful sons of b-- Andy Reid's wife. It's a strange twist that in a world where sons often pay for the sins of the father, right now a famous father is paying for the sins of his sons.